The Specifics of Blu-ray Discs
Posted on 05. Jul, 2009 by Brian Engle in Arts and Entertainment
With the advent of high definition televisions, people like to make the most of their expensive pieces of technology. The Blu-ray disc makes that possible, since it plays graphics and sounds in stunning, crystal clear HD.
The Blu-ray disc, abbreviated BD, was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association. This conglomerate has members from many different electronics sectors; 180 to be specific. It was formed in the early 2000s and exists today to manage Blu-ray operations.
Unlike DVDs, Blu-ray discs can hold a whopping twenty five gigabytes of data, which is why it can play movies in high definition. The amount of data also determines other things, such as sound quality and special features.
Twenty five gigabytes is certainly a lot, but this number can be expanded upon greatly. This can be done by adding layers to the disc, so a dual-layer disc could hold 50MB. Currently it only goes up to two layers, but the Blu-ray Disc Association plans on adding more layers in the future.
The reason Blu-ray discs are so much more capable than DVDs is because of the laser they utilize. DVDs are read by a red laser, but Blu-rays are decoded through a shorter blue laser.
As for the speed of a Blu-ray disc, it plays at 36Mbps at 1x. Since future formats will require more speed, the rate will be increased to as high as 8x. Higher speeds can be reached, but the limiting factor is the hardware currently available.
Since the DVD format will be out for a good while longer, it is being proposed that a Blu-ray/DVD disc be created, which could be used in either a Blu-ray player or DVD player. It probably would not be worth it, though, since Blu-ray is going to eventually replace the DVD, although it may take as long as a decade.
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