I watched a movie at my brother’s house last week. He has a room that is dedicated to his television, a “home theater” set up. We went to help celebrate his daughter’s birthday, and all of the guests eventually ended up in the home theater. I could hear the film’s introduction and all of the children squealing and shouting in excitement. I wandered in and sat down in the back of the room, displaying my lack of enthusiasm. But then, I began watching the film that was playing. It was one I had seen before, but not like this. The film was in Blu-Ray and the quality was incredible!
Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), formed by a group of companies including Sony, Dell, and Apple to mention a few from the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media. This format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. Blu-ray offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs offers consumers an unprecedented HD experience.
DVD disc technology relies on a red laser to read and write data. Blu-ray uses a blue-violet laser. The blue-violet laser (405nm) has a shorter wavelength than the red laser (650nm), which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with greater precision. This allows data to be packed and stored in less space, so more data can fit on a standard disc. It also allows more detailed information to be recorded in a smaller space, hence the clearer HD image.
Blu-ray has been chosen as the leading technology over the HD DVD format and is now the HD standard. The format has broad support from the major movie studios as a successor to the HD DVD format. All Hollywood studios now offer releases of their movies in only Blu-ray format.
Blu-ray requires a blu-ray disc player and with the recent dedication to Blu-ray discs, many are being released by major manufacturers. Most are backward compatible, being able to play standard DVD’s and CD’s. They are currently a bit pricy, with most costing just short of $300, but many manufacturers are promising more affordable players in the near future. Sony, with their view of future trends, made their Playstation 3 game console able to also operate as a Blu-ray player.
Blu-ray is a technology that is changing the television viewing standard by leaps and bounds. It allows for clearer, more realistic images with more depth and detail. Its life-like images made me feel like I was part of the on screen action. I will definitely be watching the market for a point where I can purchase my own Sony Blu-ray equipment.
