Blu-ray Disc Format
It’s Maxman coming at ya for another installment of home theater info. Today lets checkout Blu-Ray. “Maxman and Blu-ray you say” Sounds a little bit like an episode from Star Trek doesn’t it? Sorry to disappoint you Trekki fans but no “Mr. Spock” here today.
Ok let’s get on with it then shall we?
Blu-ray which is also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a new type of optical disc format that has been jointly developed by a bunch of consumer electronics companies like Sony, Pioneer and Panasonic just to name a few. The Blu-ray format was developed to enable us the consumer to perform recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data on a single disc. The actual name Blu-ray Disc came about because of the blue-violet coloured laser that is used to read and write the information for this type of disc.
It is because of this lasers shorter wavelength (405 nm), that alot more data can be stored on a Blu-ray Disc than on a standard DVD disc, which in turn uses a red laser with a longer wavelength (650 nm). A single layer Blu-ray disc(information on one side of the disc) can hold about 25 gigabytes (GB), which is five times the size of a single layer DVD which can hold about 4.7 GB. A dual layer Blu-ray Disc (information on both sides of the disc) can store 50 GB, almost 6 times the size of a dual layer DVD at 8.5 GB. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented High Definition (HD) experience.
Codecs? What the heck are codecs I hear you say?
Codecs are compression schemes that reduce data storage requirements. Depending on the application, they can be used to realy increase the amount of audio or video storable on fixed bit-capacity type of disc. “Now that was a mouthfull wasn’t it”
Also a point to remember here is you can only fully experience the viewing of HD if you have some sort of HD projector or TV.
At this point in time Blu-ray has the support of approximately 180 of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer, recording media, video game and music companies. It even has vast support from the major movie studios to become the successor to what we know today as the DVD format. In fact, a handful of the main movie studio’s (Fox, Paramount, Sony, Disney, Lionsgate, Warner and MGM) have released movies in the Blu-ray format and five of them have confirmed that they will release their movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format.
Now at this point in time there are always tons of questions that you may have as with all new products so let’s see if “Maxman” can help clear your mind on a few things shall we?
Why should I change from DVD to Blu-ray If you want to watch your home movies in true high definition (HD) then Blu-ray or HD-DVD (more on this later) is the only way to do this. Also the standard DVD’s that we have become accustomed to today only support standard definition (SD) and they don’t have the storage capacity needed for HD.
Will DVD’s be replaced by Blu-ray? I think it’s safe to say yes on this one. As mentioned earlier Blu-ray has the support of several major movie studios. But do take comfort cause VHS is still around so if you don’t feel like upgrading to Blu-ray just yet, standard DVD will be around for some time and the Blu-ray players currently on the market will play all your favorites you have on standard DVD.
Can I play Blu-ray on my PC? Companies such as Dell and HP are coming on board with the Blu-ray format so it will only be a matter of time until we see BD-ROM (read), BD-R (record), and BD-RE (rewritable).
Is Blu-ray expensive? Like all new toys that come out on the market they will be pricey for the first little while but as time goes by and the market takes off there will naturally be more and more Blu-ray related products available so prices are expected to fall. So eventually it probably won’t be uncommon to see prices fall to what we pay for a DVD today.
When can I buy Blu-ray products? There are already Blu-ray players and products from the following companies like Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, Philips and Pioneer available in stores, as well as an ever growing selection of Blu-ray movies.
“Well folks I hope I have given you some valuable info as I could give you a heck of a lot more but that would be going against Maxmans motto which is”
“Maximum value minimal confusion”
Maxman Out.
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