The purpose of this article is to educate you about the history and technology of the Blu-ray disc. Let's turn the calendar back to 1969 when Philip's developed the laser disc. Sony which has always been in the forefront of technology partnered with Phillip's and as a result of their collaborations was the birth of the compact disc, also known as the CD.
Both Sony and Phillips continued to work together over the years and in the early 90's developed a high-density disc which was known at the time as a Multi Media Compact Disc (MMCD). Due to the fact that Toshiba, one of their rivals, had developed what was coined the Super Density disc (SD) and had corporate backers which included Mitsubishi, Pioneer, Matsushita (which became Panasonic) and Time Warner their format was essentially abandoned.
As often happens when two competing factions are at each others throats the two factions brokered a deal in conjunction with IBM president Louis Gerstner and as a result the DVD was born. Ultimately Toshiba wound up on top after thing settled down in the mid nineties and Sony and Phillips who were unhappy with their percentage of the pie and ultimately royalties set forth on a path developing the next generation system. They coined this new format the "Professional Disc for Data (AKA PDD or ProData).
The ProData system was based on an optical disc system that Sony had begun developing on the side and this format is what we know today as the Blu-ray disc. The electronic world revolves around competition and as a result Toshiba was not to be outdone. They immediately started work on their version of the next generation system, the advanced optical disc, which eventually was transformed into the HD DVD format.
Due to the electronic firms competitive nature here we are today after approximately 35 years of the optical audio/video disc wars back to the battle of the biggies, threatening each other with technological advances, and again wreaking havoc on the consumer electronics industry. Guess who is paying the price not only in dollars but in confusion? We the consumers are affected by these electronic wars.
I know you just cannot wait for someone to give you the technical babble, spitting out the specs on both Blu-ray and HD DVD. let's start with a comparison of both formats. To start with both the HD DVD and the Blu-ray laser fall in the spectrum at the same wavelength, namely the blue-violet wavelength (405nm). The Blu-ray disc has a much tighter track pitch, therefore it can hold more bits of information on the same size disc which translates into more data storage even though they both share the same wavelength.
A good way to understand this concept is to imagine a circle made of plastic being roughly the size of a dinner plate. Now visualize from the inside out engraving grooves into the disc with the engraved circular grooves becoming larger and larger in circumference. In Disc A let's make the grooves 1/4 inch apart and in disc B let's make the grooves 1/2 inch apart. Disc A will have many more groves engraved and is therefore analogous to the Blu-ray disc. Disc B which has much fewer grooves is analogous to the HD DVD. Are you starting to see the difference?
The difference in the pitch (number of circles engraved in our example) makes the Blu-ray pickup aperture (think of this as the needle on the turntable which picks up the sound) different than the HD DVD (0.65 for the HD DVD versus 0.85 for the Blu-ray). Although both the Blu-ray and HD DVD discs use the same wavelength they are incompatible, like oil and water, therefore they do not mix. This in not the only difference between the two formats.
Another difference between the two is that they have different plastic surface layers that cover and protect the data (the part that scratches and picks up your fingerprints). The Blu-ray disc uses thinner layer (0.1mm) than the HD DVD (0.6 mm). This enables the laser of the Blu-ray disc to focus at its 0.85 aperture. I know this is a bit technical so I want you to think of lenses of glasses helping us focus on an object so it can be visualized properly. Just like the lenses glasses the plastic surface on the discs enable the beam of the Blu-ray and HD DVD players to read the information embedded on the disc.
Because the Blu-ray formatted disc has a thinner surface a special chemical named Durabis which must be applied to the surface of the disc in an effort to protect the data which lies beneath the surface. The added chemical and the cost of the equipment that produces the disc ultimately results in an increase in the cost of the Blu-ray discs and equipment to the consumer. Of course there is an upside to this which is by keeping the data layer closer to the surface (0.1mm away) there is more room for extra layers, thus the ability to store more information to the Blu-ray disc than is available in the HD DVD format. The moral of this story is that the Blu-ray disc might be more expensive but it holds much more data (50GB which is about 6 times more than the DVD).
Due to this technical mumbo jumbo elucidated on above the resulting product gives us the ultimate high definition picture available today. More and more consumers are purchasing high definition LCD or Plasma monitors that have the capability to transform data into a picture with unbelievable resolution. In conjunction with the video storage capabilities of the Blu-ray disc this really is a technology whose time has come.
In conclusion, it appears that that Sony and its Blu-ray format have won the digital technological war. Now we should see many other manufactures who were standing behind the scene waiting for a decision in this digital "War of the Roses", moving forward in the manufacturing of players and recorders in the Blu-ray format. As we have seen in the past decade this will definitely drive down the price of Blu-ray units and we should also see a larger inventory of movies in this format stocking the shelves of our favorite video store.
The Blu-Ray guy (Max Leon) has studied video technology for many years. He is on a mission to research and bring to the public usable and easy to understand information about Blu-Ray Technology. For answers to all your Blu-Ray questions visit his site at http://www.blu-raydiscdvd.com where you can find information, videos, reviews and other information to enhance your digital experience.
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