Blue ray discs are the newest intervention in technological sphere. This latest optical disc system is a remarkable creation of the BDA (Blu Ray Disc Association) which consists of TDK, Thomson, Sharp, Pioneer, Philips, Mitsubishi, Sony, JVC, Panasonic, Samsung, Apple, Hitachi, LG, Dell and HP. The BDA boasts 180 of the world’s leading consumer electronics, media and personal computer manufacturers.
As the name suggests, the blue ray discs make use of a blue-violet laser to read and write data as opposed to the current technology which uses red laser. A blue-violet laser (405nm) has a far shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm) making it feasible to focus the laser spot with superior precision. The plus point of this is that it allows data to be held in smaller space as the data could be squeezed in compactly which in turn allows the user to store extra data on the disc even though the disc is more or less the same size as a compact disc or a DVD. Additionally, blue ray discs offer a large storage capacity. A single-layer blue ray disc can store up to 27GB of data which is more than 2 hours of high-definition video and 13hours hours of standard video. The dual-layer blue ray disc can store 50GB of data which is 4.5hours of high-definition video and more than 20hours of a standard video.
Blue ray discs are the ideal expression of the last in consumer experience. It additionally permits the rewriting, recording, playing and distribution of HD videos. The blue ray discs have been founded on the bare disc physical form factor which makes it compatible with CDs and DVDs.
Blue ray discs are also light on the manufacturers since these are built by injection-molding process on a single 1.1-mm disc compared to the traditional which thereby reduces costs. This savings balances out the expenses of adding the protective layer required on blue ray discs which means that the end price cannot be very different from the price of a regular DVD. Blue ray discs also have a higher data transfer rate of 36Mbps than the DVD’s of today that transfer data at the speed of 10Mbps. This means that it would take only an hour and a half to record 25GB of data onto a blue ray disc.
The conventional DVDs and CDs initially came into the market with merely read-only formats. The blue ray discs however, plan to provide a wide range of formats that include BD-ROM (read only), BD-R (recordable) and BD-RE (rewritable).