The Plasma TV Blog

- Blu-ray is a type of optical disc. It is high density and is intended to store high-definition video and data. Blu-ray gets its name from the laser it uses to read and write datea to and from the disc. The laser is a blue-violet color. This color laser has a shorter wavelength than the red laser that is used in DVDs. Because of this, the Blu-ray is able to hold significantly more data than a DVD.

The Blu-ray disc has only been available to the public since June of 2006. It was created to compete with HD DVDs, which also use a blue colored laser. A blu-ray disc is able to hold more information per layer than a an HD DVD. HD DVDs have an advantage over the Blu-ray in terms of where the data is stored. HD DVDs store the data further away from the surface of the disc, which makes it less likely to be damaged by scratches. Blu-ray manufacturers have developed a special coating the prevents damage to the surface of the disc.

The most common size for a Blu-ray disc is 50 GB. At this size, one disc can hold over twenty hours of standard-definition video. When used for high-definition video, it can hold approximately nine hours worth of footage.

Blu-ray has several features that the manufacturers hope will help Blu-ray become more prevalent than DVDs. First, it has worked to incorporate Java technology for things such as menus, replacing the rather simple techniques used on DVD menus. They have also worked to develop digital rights management tools that would help protect the discs from being copied.