# What is Blue ray?



## Freebooter (Apr 26, 2010)

Hello all,
Please forgive my ignorance, but just what is blueray? Is it just a further improvement of HD or what? Do you have to have special stuff to watch a BR movie or can you watch a BR movie on any DVD player or what? Just curious.
Thanks,
Freebooter


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

Freebooter said:


> Hello all,
> Please forgive my ignorance, but just what is blueray? Is it just a further improvement of HD or what? Do you have to have special stuff to watch a BR movie or can you watch a BR movie on any DVD player or what? Just curious.
> Thanks,
> Freebooter


Hi Freebooter, Bluray is a completely different animal than DVD and is main focus is delivering high definition content. Though you can play regular DVD's on a Bluray player, you will have to have a Bluray player in order to watch Bluray's. I will send you some links to some technical information explaining the difference between the two. :bigsmile:


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

Freebooter, here is a good explanation of differences between the two and should give you a better understanding.


From: Bluray.com

Blu-ray (not Blue-ray) also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience. 

While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. Despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray products can easily be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit. The benefit of using a blue-violet laser (405nm) is that it has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm), which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly and stored in less space, so it's possible to fit more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 is what enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25GB/50GB. Recent development by Pioneer has pushed the storage capacity to 500GB on a single disc by using 20 layers. 

Blu-ray is currently supported by about 200 of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer, recording media, video game and music companies. The format also has support from all Hollywood studios and countless smaller studios as a successor to today's DVD format. Many studios have also announced that they will begin releasing new feature films on Blu-ray Disc day-and-date with DVD, as well as a continuous slate of catalog titles every month. For more information about Blu-ray movies, check out our Blu-ray movies and Blu-ray reviews section which offers information about new and upcoming Blu-ray releases, as well as what movies are currently available in the Blu-ray format.

Hope this helps...... :wave:


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

Home Theater Shack has a great glossary of terms you may want to check out as well here.


Blu-ray 
A high capacity development of the DVD which uses higher frequency (blue) rather than red light frequencies for reading the disc. The combination of shorter wavelengths and other enhancements bumps up the maximum capacity from 8.5GB for a dual layer DVD to around 27GB, allowing the storage of high definition video.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

To add to what has already been said the BluRay players themselves are also mini PCs and actually "Boot" up when powered on Its not just a DVD player anymore and this is partially why its taken so long for prices to come down on them. BluRay players also download extra content directly off the internet when movies that have this feature enabled are played.


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## Freebooter (Apr 26, 2010)

Thanks y'al! You have answered my question perfectly.
FB


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## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

Freebooter said:


> Thanks y'al! You have answered my question perfectly.
> FB


Welcome to the Forum. Blu-ray is the logical next step in optical drive technology. It makes data storage even smaller. Because the laser is smaller it can fit between the track of data easier allowing for even more layers than DVD(which was a smaller red laser). I think blu-ray will be surpassed by flash memory in the future, but that's only my thought.


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## Freebooter (Apr 26, 2010)

I can remember seeing a lot of neat gadgets on star trek and what have you as a kid. Now many of it is real. What does the future hold? The sky is the limit!!
FB


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## Spuddy (Jan 2, 2010)

lsiberian said:


> Welcome to the Forum. Blu-ray is the logical next step in optical drive technology. It makes data storage even smaller. Because the laser is smaller it can fit between the track of data easier allowing for even more layers than DVD(which was a smaller red laser). I think blu-ray will be surpassed by flash memory in the future, but that's only my thought.


IMO, I don't think we'll be seeing flash drives replacing BDP so long as they are mainstream products. The concept is beautifully simple, and that is the exact reason why it can't happen except via the consumer's own doing; Manufacturers won't make anywhere near as much money on something that already exists en-mass. When VHS came out, everyone had to buy players and cassettes. When DVD came out, everyone had to buy DVD players and DVDs, and potentially even a new display. With Blu Ray getting big, we now need to buy BRDs and their players, along with much of the market needing to upgrade to a more hi-def display system (myself included.. lotta money lol). With Flash Memory however, there is simply nothing to market- Most Blu Ray players and computers already have flash drives built-in, and putting info on those drives is old technology that really doesn't have much room left for profit. My bet is that the people who are big into downloading torrents and whatnot will be putting all sorts of stuff in Flash Memory, but we won't be seeing a manufacturer promoting it until there's actually a way to profit from that platform.

For the moment, I'm totally happy with BRD, it oughta keep me going for at least a couple years


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

The problem with flash drives is that they are far to unreliable and very easy to erase or corrupt. I know of people who have bought the new HD flash drive camcorders and have allot of issues with corruption and or unreadable data after recording. A BluRay or DVD last for many years and is not easily damaged.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

I have not heard of the problems with corruption and reliability. I know Panasonic has been using the P2 cards with their pro HD cameras for a while, with speeds over 1Gb and as far as I know they have been quite reliable and stable. I have abused lots of memory cards of various flavors and they seem rather reliable and steady to me.

It will be a while before the cost is low enough for similar storage, but eventually it is sure to happen. That said, it will likely be a while relative to the life of storage formats and blu ray is likely going to be around as long as most or longer. With fantastic players in the $100 range, I don't see why most people will not have one eventually.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I've personally had two HD SD cards go bad on me. And Im one to be very careful with how I handle them. I wonder if it has something to do with our climate as its very dry and cold in the winter here. Its not unreasonable to have a relative humidity of less than 12% outside over the winter months.


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