By

James Dunn

The Beginning of Blu-Ray

• 1st Blu-ray Disc recorder by Sony 3-3-03

• 1-4-06 Philips has 1st consumer product of U.S.

Philips

Panasonic Sony Dell Samsung

The Basics

Jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), founded in 2002– Which includes:

• 18 Board of Directors:– Apple Panasonic– Dell Pioneer– Hitachi Philips– HP Samsung– 20th Century Fox Sharp– LG Sony– Mitsubishi TDK– Thomson Walt Disney– Warner Bros. Sun Microsystems

There are now more than 250 members and supporters of the Association

What is it and what does it do?

• It’s the next generation optical disc format

• Holds and plays large quantities of high-definition video and audio, as well as photos, data and other digital content.

• Uses a violet blue laser to read the disc

• The wavelength of the laser is 405nm compared to a DVD’s wavelength which is 650nm (which is red)

Blu-ray vs. DVD capacity

• Single-layer DVD:– 4.7 GB of data

• Single-layer HD DVD:– 15 GB of data

• Single-layer Blu-ray:– 27GB of data

Blu-ray vs. DVD capacity

• Double-layer DVD:– 8.5 GB of data

• Double-layer HD DVD– 30 GB of data

• Double-layer Blu-ray:– 50GB of data

Construction

• Same size• DVD data is sandwiched

between two polycarbonate layers sometimes causing the laser to split into two separate beams, when split to widely disc is than unable to read.

• Another problem with DVDs is disc tilt which is when the disc is not completely flat and not perpendicular to the beam.

Construction

• To avoid these beam splits and problems with readability Blu-ray puts the data on the top of the polycarbonate layer.

• To avoid problems with tilt the data layer sits closer to the lens with a protected coating to reduces scratches and fingerprints.

Construction

• DVD track pitch is .74 microns

• Blu-ray track pitch is .32 microns

The smaller beam focus more precisely enabling it to read information from pits that are only 0.15 microns vs. 0.4 microns for a DVD

Construction

To sum it all up the more data on a disc, the smaller beam, the smaller pits, and the shorter track pitch

that’s what makes it possible for the

Blu-ray to store 5x the information.

• You can really see the difference:– More GB– Smaller pits– Smaller beam– Thinner cover layer

– MORE DATA!!

Formats

• BD-ROM: – Read only

• For pre-recorded

• BD-R:– Recordable

• For PC storage

• BD-RW:– Rewriteable

• For PC storage

• BD-RE:– Rewriteable

• For HDTV recording

DVD Region Codes

Region code0 Informal term meaning "playable in all regions“1 Bermuda, Canada, United States and U.S. territories2 The Middle East, Western Europe, Central Europe, Egypt, French overseas territories,

Greenland, Japan, Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland3 Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan4 Australasia, Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Oceania, South America5 The rest of Africa, Former Soviet Union, the Indian subcontinent, Mongolia, North Korea6Mainland China7 Reserved for future use (found in use on protected screener copies of MPAA-related DVDs,

and "media-copies" of pre-releases in Asia)8 International venues such as aircraft, cruise ships, etc.

Blu-ray Region codes

• Blu-ray movies have a different region code than that of a DVD:Region code A/1 North America, Central America, South America, Korea, Japan,

Taiwan, Hong Kong and South East AsiaB/2 Europe, Greenland, French territories, Middle East, Africa,

Australia and New Zealand.C/3 India, Nepal, Mainland China, Russia, Central and South Asia.

DVD’s vs. Blu-ray’s Codes

WITH BLU THE WORLD IS

LESS DIVIDED

Advantages • A new level of interactivity:

– Connect to internet – Instantly download subtitles or other extra features– Record HDTV w/out quality loss– Instantly skip to any spot on the disc– Record one program well watching another– Create playlists– Automatically search for empty space on the disc

• Avoiding recording over something already there

– Edit programs recorded on the disc

THERE IS ONLY ONE MAIN PROBLEM WITH THE BLU-RAY

AND RIGHT NOW THAT IS

Money, money, money!!!

• They are not cheap!– BD consumer players

• $499-$1500– BD computer recorders

• $699-$1595– BD Consumer recorders

• $2100-$2500– BD duplication/publishing systems

• Starting at $2995– Movies

• $20-40– Individual disc

• BD-R $18-$48• BD-RE $24-$60

IN THE ENDITS BLU