In the early 1980’s, the world changed with the introduction of the CD. It offered excellent audio quality and its 650MB storage capacity was a great leap in data storage and retrieval. This was the first time people had access to pre-recorded, recordable and rewritable media at low costs. It enabled widespread recording and distribution of audio. However, in the 1990’s, the demand for higher storage capacities arose and led to the development of the DVD which was a 5 – 10 x increase in storage capacity. Although it was a new technology, the new DVD format used the same form factor as the CD which facilitated the migration into the next generation format. This added to the DVDs success with consumers.

Today, the blu ray discs are yet another revolution in technology. This new optical disc format is a proud development of the Blu Ray Disc Association (BDA) that include HP, Dell, LG, Hitachi, Apple, Samsung, Panasonic, JVC, Sony, Mitsubishi, Philips, Pioneer, Sharp, Thomson, and TDK. The BDA boasts 180 of the world’s leading consumer electronics, media and personal computer manufacturers.

Blu ray discs offer an increase in storage capacity with its 25GB on a single-layer disc to its 50GB on a dual-layer disc. It is the perfect definition of the ultimate user experience and allows the recording, rewriting, playback and distribution of high-definition videos. The blu ray discs have been founded on the bare disc physical form factor which makes it compatible with CDs and DVDs.

Just as its name denotes, blu ray discs utilizes a blue-violet laser beam to read and write data instead of the red laser beam which is being used as per the available technology at present. The wavelength of a blue-violet laser (405nm) is way shorter than that of a red laser (650nm) and this has made it easier to concentrate the laser spot with superb accuracy. The advantage of this is that, it permits data to be stored in less space since the data can be packed more tightly, which further, allows consumers to fit additional data on the disc even though it may be the same size as a CD or a DVD.

Presently supported by some of the world’s leading consumer electronics, personal computer, video game, recording media, and music companies, these new generation blu ray discs have also won the support of Hollywood studios and other smaller studios, some of whom have already announced the release of new movies on blu ray discs.