Blu-ray Disc – Superior Sights & Sounds
Home entertainment sights and sounds took a major leap forward in 1997 when the DVD stepped into the entertainment market. Virtually overnight, VHS tapes were boxed and stored away and replaced with digital sound and video. Consumers started replacing movies they already owned with DVDs because of digital video quality and home theater sound capability. DVDs brought never before seen colors that lit up the room and sounds so real, you felt like you were right there in the midst of the action. How could it possibly get any better? Enter Blu-ray Discs.
WHAT ARE Blu-ray Discs?
Simply put, Blu-ray is the next generation format for optical disc storage. Blu-ray Discs (BD) provide the best home video source – period. The large storage capacity of a BD coupled with the use of advanced video and audio codecs bring a visual and sound experience which has no peers.
The need for a high-definition (HD) video storage medium brought the development of the Blu-ray Disc in 2006. Although recording, rewriting, and playback of video in HD are highlights of the Blu-ray Disc, it is the overall storage capacity that really separates it from a DVD. Blu-ray Discs hold 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. That’s more than five times the storage capacity of a traditional DVD (4.7GB).
For DVD, HDTV, and Blu-ray, bit rates calculated in megabits per second (Mbps) equal picture quality.
By the numbers, Blu-ray provides six times the resolution of a DVD. Another defeat DVDs have suffered is image resolution. Blu-ray Discs can reproduce high-definition images in 1080p while the best a DVD can do is only 480p. It simply doesn’t get any better than a HDTV capable of 1080p resolution and watching a Blu-ray Disc movie.
Blu-ray Disc ASSOCIATION (BDA)
The development of the Blu-ray Disc was a joint collaboration from the world’s leading personal computer, consumer electronics, video game, music, and recording media manufacturers. The following is a list of just the few of the BD supporters and members of the BDA:
Approximately 200 major corporations currently support the BD and 18 of these corporations are on the board of directors.
WHAT’S A Blu-ray?
The “e” for the color blue was intentionally removed to spell “Blu.” This allowed for a unique spelling to register the name as a trademark.
Blu – This refers to the color (blue) of the laser used to record and read a BD./
ray – Represents the optical ray used in recording and reading a BD.
LASER COLORS
What does the color of the BD laser have to do with the storage capacity of the disc? BDs uses blue (blue-violet actually) spectrum lasers and operate on a wavelength of 405nm (nanometers). DVDs use red spectrum lasers and operate on a wavelength of 650nm. CDs also use the red spectrum lasers and operate on a wavelength of 708nm. The lower the nanometer value, the shorter the wavelength and the increased ability for a laser focus on a smaller spot size. Thus, more information can be stored in a smaller area.
WHAT DO I NEED TO ENJOY Blu-ray?
You’ll need four things to enjoy the full capability of BD.
- Digital television (capable of displaying HD – preferably 1080p or 1080i).
- Blu-ray Disc player.
- Cables that can support HD images.
- Blu-ray movie of your choice!
AUDIO UNLIMITED
BD provides as many as 7.1 channels of native, uncompressed surround sound for crystal-clear audio entertainment.
* Mandatory means that Blu-ray Disc players and recorders will be required to support the playback of these
specific audio codecs. It will still be up to the film makers to decide which audio codec(s) they use for their releases.
STORAGE CAPACITY
You might only enjoy Blu-ray Discs to view the latest blockbuster released to home video but the discs can be used to store other information.
One Blu-ray Disc can store 50GB’s worth of working files from your PC. This makes for a very inexpensive method to back up files and archive large amounts of your digital data.
* No longer available as of Feburary 2008
To prevent BD from falling victim to planned obsolescence, it incorporates future-proof technology by including support for multi-layer discs. These extra layers will increase storage capacity to 100GB to 200GB (25GB per layer) by simply adding more layers to the disc.
Blu-ray FORMATS
Just as CDs and DVDs did the past, DB plans to incorporate a range of formats such as read-only (ROM), recordable (R), and rewritable (RE) discs.
BD-ROM = read-only format for distribution of HD movies, games, software, etc.
BD-R = record-only format for HD video recording and PC data storage.
BD-RE = read/write format for HD video recording and PC data storage.
There are plans in the works for a BD/DVD hybrid format, which would combine the technologies of BD and DVD on the same disc. This would allow the consumer to purchase a movie in the BD/DVD hybrid format and be able to play it on a DVD player, a DB player, and a BD/DVD player. A consumer could feasibly keep their current DVD player until it expires, then purchase a BD player and not have to worry about the media not being compatible. Yes, DVDs can play on a BD player but you’re not going to get the audio/visual quality of BD. This is definitely the best of both worlds during the transition of DVD to BD. There is no planned cutoff date for DVD and there probably won’t be. Over time, the DVD will become obsolete on its own.
IS MY FAVORITE MOVIE ON Blu-ray?
Since BD has so many supporters, including many smaller studios, it will only be a matter of time before your library of DVDs can be replaced with BDs. Although BD is the successor of DVDs, don’t look for DVDs to become obsolete or even disappear from store shelves anytime soon. New feature films will be released on both BD and DVD on the same day and date so you won’t have to buy the release on DVD because you’re dying to see it and then purchase it again when it is released on BD. Not to mention the ever-growing catalog of movies being added to the list of DVDs now available on DB. Here’s a list of the major studios which currently supports BD:
WILL I NEED TO REPLACE MY HD-DVR?
HD-DVRs are already on the market and allow consumers to record HDTV but the amount of programming which can be recorded and archived is strictly limited by the size of the hard drive in the unit. BD recorders provide an unlimited solution to this problem since consumers can record their archived video onto BD and free up the hard drive. For example, a standard Comcast DVR ais only capable of storing 60 hours of standard definition programming and 15 hours of HD. Even if you burned all your standard definition programming onto DVDs and saved the hard drive for HDTV, you’re going to run out of space sooner or later.
WHAT ABOUT HD-DVDs?
As of Tuesday, February 19, 2008, the format war between Blue-ray Disc and HD-DVD officially ended. This leaves BD the dominant high-definition format. The long-running battle between BD and Toshiba (developers and manufacturers of HD-DVD) ended quietly and was to the benefit of consumer and the industry. No one wanted a costly format war like what VHS and Betamax experienced in the 1980s. That fight was all for naught as both formats went by the wayside. In short, HD-DVD is no longer and BD is the way of the immediate and long-term future.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you haven’t been convinced that BD is the way to go, then you’ve never seen its incredibly sharp images and vivid colors or listened to the high-definition and lossless audio. DB hasn’t quite sent DVD packing yet and even plans to co-exist for an indefinite period of time especially with the development of the BD/DVD hybrid disc.
BD isn’t just going to be a fancier DVD, it will have other capabilities that DVDs can only dream of. The extra storage capacity of a BD will mean extra room for special features and additional content. For example, you’ll be able to display a menu system as an overlay on the screen without having to pause or exit the movie. Plus, you could have the director of your favorite movie narrating details of a scene while the film is continuing to play out in the background. With an internet connection, you’ll be able to enjoy several value-added features such as downloading new extras and watching movie trailers.
If you’re hesitant to accept BD technology because you’ve gone from 8-tracks to cassettes and Betamax to VHS and every time you accept new technology, it changes. Don’t worry! That’s because BD has already prepared for its replacement – itself, in the form of multi-layered BD discs.
Still have questions? – feel free to speak with an hhgregg associate. We offer the best-educated associates in the business who are smart enough to make it simple. Price and Advice Guaranteed!
