What is Blue-ray disk?

Question

Idk what one is, they seem to have just come out of nowhere.

Answer 1

It's the next gen HD storage media, currently competing with HD-DVD. A Blu-ray disk can store up to 25 gb, but test have shown that it can store more than that. A dual layer can store up to 50 gb. There's even talk of a quad layer, which can store up to 100 gb. Instead of using a red laser to read the disk, a Blu-ray uses a blue laser to read the disk. Since blue laser has a shorter wavelength than red laser, the blue laser can read more info than a red laser.

It's still too early to say who will win the next gen format for HD storage.

There are several things going for the Blu-ray: 1. It's included in the PS3, so every home that has a PS3 has a Blu-ray player. 2. It has more companies and movie studios supporting it than HD-DVD. 3. It has the adult entertainment industry supporting it. Many people believe that Beta lost out to VHS because the adult entertainment industry support VHS over Beta.

Some things that might make Blu-ray a loser: 1. Name recognition. Almost everyone knows of the name HD-DVD, but fewer people know about Blu-ray. 2. It's more expensive for companies to make Blu-ray disks because they have to buy all new equipment to make the Blu-ray disks, but the price of the Blu-ray disk is the same as the price of HD-DVD. 3. It's a format lead by Sony, and Sony has had pretty bad luck with new formats (Beta and UMD comes to mind).

Answer 2

The official name is "blu-ray disc" or "BD" for short.

The format has actually existing for several YEARS now, but until recently it was confined to being a recordable format used mainly in Japan, and was very expensive.

Basically, its just a new optical format that stores more data per disc, much like DVDs stored more data than CDs on the same disc. Blu ray discs store up to 50GB of data, compared with 9GB maximum for DVDs, so approximately 5X the storage space. The main use for this extra data space currently is storing high definition movies at 1920x1080 resolution (compared to DVD resolution of around 960x540).

Starting in June 2006, a newer iteration of the format was launched in the US, alongside HD-DVD, a competing but very similar format backed by Toshiba.

So while it didnt come out of nowhere, it certainly gained a huge foothold in the market with the announcement and release of the PS3 this November. Virtually overnight we went from 0 to over 1 million Blu-ray disc players in the US market.

Contrary to what other posters have stated here, its becoming quite clear that Blu-ray will be the dominant high-definition optical disc format for the next never years. Not only due to the PS3 including it in the box, but also becuase of stronger studio support (all but one of the major studios are BD supporters, and several are exclusive to BD), and electronics company support (not just Sony but also Pioneer, Samsung, Panasonic, Philips, etc.). HD-DVD, on the other hand, is backed mostly by Toshiba, Microsoft, and Universal studios.

The link below allows you to track the relative performance of the two formats, based on published data from Amazon.com. Things tend to go back and forth, but clearly BD has gained and recently surpassed HD-DVDs earlier start.

Answer 3

An expensive, soon to be obsolete DVD....kind of like Beta Max and VHS back in the day....my dad bought a beta max. It lasted about 8 months before it was obsolete. Blue Ray=Bad