Blu-Ray: The Story So Far

By Matt Jackson

What Is Blu-Ray?
Technophiles are living in interesting times at present. In addition to the release of the XBox 360, we will soon see the release of the PS3, as well as the potential all-out war between Panasonic and Sony in the battle of the next generation DVD.

Blu-ray, like HD DVD, is a new standard in DVD format enabling greater amounts of storage on the discs, faster reading of the data on the disc and even improved quality with some extra hardware. In exchange, there will be a fairly hefty price tag bordering on an absolute minimum of $500 for a standard player. However, you do get a good amount of bang for your buck and presumably after a comparatively short space of time, this price tag will drop in age-old technological tradition.

How Does Blu-Ray Differ from Standard DVD?
Standard DVD players use a 605mm red laser to read the discs; in comparison, the blu-ray players use a 405mm blue laser. The color difference may not sound immediately important, but in actual fact this decreased bandwidth means that much more data can be stored on a single disc. The spots that contain the data can be smaller and there will be less room needed between them. This adds up to an impressive 40GB of storage on a standard blu-ray disc. This stacks up incredibly well when compared to the 4.7GB of storage on a DVD and even the 30GB of storage offered on the dual layer HD DVD disc.

Who's Responsible for Blu-Ray?
Blu-ray is being designed and sold by Sony. A number of large companies have also given their vocal, financial and technological support in this bid to outdo the Panasonic HD DVD format, but only time will tell which will prove to be more popular. Indeed, HD DVD will have a head start, but Sony has its own advantages in this upcoming format war.

What Are the Alternatives to Blu-Ray?
The blu-ray was released at least a month after HD DVD, and this means you will be given the choice of which you want to buy. The eventual decision will likely be based on your personal preference, because both will perform at such high standards when compared to the DVDs we are used to now. Obviously, the blu-ray discs offer greater storage, but at present there is no need for this level of storage. It's difficult to say just how long it will be before the extra capacity will be needed, though. One sort of alternative that is likely to prove popular will be the PS3.

Sony's release of the PS3 will undoubtedly lead to people abstaining from the purchase of either an HD-DVD player or a blu-ray player, because the PS3 will be available at the same sort of price but will offer much more.

Overall Blu-Ray View
It's really very difficult to predict whether the blu-ray or HD DVD will win this technology war. In fact, it is difficult to know whether either will even become popular, but there is a very real chance that both companies and both systems will fight out the next generation DVD format war for some time to come. It is also conceivable that they will do equally well. HD DVD has a head start, but blu-ray will be incorporated into the PS3. In all honesty, a lot of blu-ray success may be riding on the back of the success of the PS3.

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