Blu-ray Disc (also known as Blu-ray or BD) is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the standard DVD format. Its main uses are for storing high-definition video, PlayStation 3 games, and other data, with up to 25 GB per single layered, and 50 GB per dual layered disc. The disc has the same physical dimensions as standard DVDs and CDs.
The name Blu-ray Disc derives from the blue-violet laser used to read the disc. While a standard DVD uses a 650 nanometre red laser, Blu-ray uses a shorter wavelength, a 405 nm blue-violet laser, and allows for almost six times more data storage than a DVD.
During the format war over high-definition optical discs, Blu-ray competed with the HD DVD format. Toshiba, the main company supporting HD DVD, ceded in February 2008, and the format war ended;[2] in July 2009, Toshiba announced plans to put out its own Blu-ray Disc device by the end of 2009.
Blu-ray Disc was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, a group representing makers of consumer electronics, computer hardware, and motion pictures. As of June 2009, more than 1000 Blu-ray disc titles are available in Australia, 2500 in Japan, 1500 in the United Kingdom, and 2500 in the United States and Canada
Sony started two projects applying the new diodes: UDO (Ultra Density Optical), and DVR Blue (together with Pioneer), a format of rewritable discs that would eventually become Blu-ray Disc (more specifically, BD-RE.The core technologies of the formats are essentially similar.
The first DVR Blue prototypes were unveiled at the CEATEC exhibition in October 2000.On February 19, 2002, the project was officially announced as Blu-ray.and Blu-ray Disc Founders was founded by the nine initial members.
The first consumer device was in stores on April 10, 2003. This device was the Sony BDZ-S77, a BD-RE recorder that was made available only in Japan. The recommended price was US$3800however, there was no standard for prerecorded video, and no movies were released for this player. The Blu-ray Disc standard was still years away, as a newer, more secure DRM system was needed before Hollywood studios would accept it—not wanting to repeat the failure of the Content Scramble System used on standard DVDs. On October 4, 2004, the Blu-ray Disc Founders was officially changed to the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), and 20th Century Fox joined the BDA's Board of Directors.
Blu-ray Disc format finalized
The Blu-ray Disc physical specifications were completed in 2004.In January 2005, TDK announced that they had developed a hard coating polymer for Blu-ray Discs. The cartridges, no longer necessary, were scrapped. The BD-ROM specifications were finalized in early 2006.AACS LA, a consortium founded in 2004, had been developing the DRM platform that could be used to securely distribute movies to consumers. However, the final AACS standard was delayed,and then delayed again when an important member of the Blu-ray Disc group voiced concerns.At the request of the initial hardware manufacturers, including Toshiba, Pioneer, and Samsung, an interim standard was published that did not include some features, such as managed copy.
Launch and sales developments
The first BD-ROM players were shipped in mid-June 2006, though HD DVD players beat them in the race to the market by a few months.
The first Blu-ray Disc titles were released on June 20, 2006. The earliest releases used MPEG-2 video compression, the same method used on standard DVDs. The first releases using the newer VC-1 and AVC codecs were introduced in September 2006.The first movies using (50 GB) dual-layer discs were introduced in October 2006. The first audio-only release was made in March 2008.
The first mass-market Blu-ray Disc rewritable drive for the PC was the BWU-100A, released by Sony on July 18, 2006. It recorded both single- and dual-layer BD-R as well as BD-RE discs and had a suggested retail price of US $699 Competition from HD DVD
Main article: High definition optical disc format war
The DVD Forum, chaired by Toshiba, was deeply split over whether to develop the more expensive blue laser technology or not. In March 2002, the forum voted to approve a proposal endorsed by Warner Bros. and other motion picture studios that involved compressing HD content onto dual-layer standard DVD-9 discs.In spite of this decision, however, the DVD Forum's Steering Committee announced in April that it was pursuing its own blue-laser high-definition solution. In August, Toshiba and NEC announced their competing standard, Advanced Optical Disc.It was finally adopted by the DVD Forum and renamed HD DVD the next year,after being voted down twice by DVD Forum members who were also Blu-ray Disc Association members—prompting the U.S. Department of Justice to make preliminary investigations into the situation.
HD DVD had a head start in the high definition video market, as Blu-ray Disc sales were slow to gain market share. The first Blu-ray Disc player was perceived as expensive and "buggy", and there were few titles available.This changed when the PlayStation 3 was launched, since every PS3 unit also functioned as a Blu-ray Disc player. At CES 2007, Warner proposed Total Hi Def—a hybrid disc containing Blu-ray on one side and HD DVD on the other—but it was never released. By January 2007, Blu-ray discs had outsold HD DVDs,and during the first three quarters of 2007, BD outsold HD DVDs by about two to one. In a June 28, 2007 press release, Twentieth Century Fox cited Blu-ray Disc's adoption of the BD+ anticopying system as a key factor in their decision to support the Blu-ray Disc format.In February 2008, Toshiba withdrew its support for the HD DVD format, leaving Blu-ray as the victor.
Some analysts believe that Sony's PlayStation 3 video game console played an important role in the format war, believing that it acted as a catalyst for Blu-ray Disc, as the PlayStation 3 used a Blu-ray Disc drive as its primary information storage medium.They also credited Sony's more thorough and influential marketing campaign.
Where we stand on Blu‐ray Disc.
October 2, 2008 - A few days ago, eMedia online posted an article by
freelance writer Mark Fritz entitled “Is AACS killing the Blue-ray Disc
industry”, in which officers of the DVD Association were quoted offering
certain opinions about AACS and how it might be impacting the growth
of the BD format.
I'd like to take a moment to prevent any misunderstandings before they occur: we are
not pessimistic about AACS or Blu-ray Disc. Rather, we’re expressing the hope that the
format can open itself up for faster adoption and faster growth.
For over 10 years, The DVDA has been a strong supporter of DVD. In recent years, we
eagerly looked forward to introduction of a high definition optical disc format that we
could get behind wholeheartedly. When they finally arrived, we got two of them! The
nearly 2 years spent in the war between HD DVD and BD had a number of
consequences, including, frankly, uncertain initial consumer acceptance of both formats.
One of the other unexpected consequences of the format war was the splitting of
research and development energies between two formats, instead of them being
concentrated on a single format. This split also co
ntributed to delays in establishing a
single standard for authoring and programming protocols – an important key to
energizing content publishers and producers to adopt the new format.
With the demise of HD DVD earlier this year, the path was now clear for blue ray to
thrive. However, it takes more than having just one format to create a successful
format.
We sincerely believe the DVD was a major success due to a number of factors:
it was a revolutionary shift for video delivering, and after the first few years of R&D,
authoring tools started to become available that were affordable, and could be embraced
by a large number of authors and publishers worldwide. In addition, the DVD format did
not have licensing agreements that prevented publishing on the format by anyone who
chose to pay the cost of entry for the hardware or software required to author. If you
wanted content protection, you were free to elect to use CSS for virtually no additional
charge, or MacroVision for a fee commensurate with the quantity of discs created.
The end result was major adoption of the DVD format by publishers worldwide, a flood of
titles coming to market from both Hollywood and non-Hollywood content owners alike,
and, for many years, a healthy market for authoring service providers.
Our current concern is that unlike DVD the “path to Blu-ray” is a lot more complex, and
far costlier than DVD. We have heard from a number of independent producers that the
costs of licensing are preventing them from adopting the blue ray format for publication at
this time, and that’s a problem. As we stated in the article, if the goal of licensing is to
inhibit or eliminate the pirates, the unexpected spinoff shouldn’t be to inhibit the adoption
of the format by the very independent producers who we believe contributed to making
DVD the overwhelming success that it had become.
With DVD, an independent producer was free to create a title and bring it to market with
very little or no additional cost other than encoding, premastering and replication.
Publishing a blue ray title at this point is far more complex, not only in encoding and
premastering, but also in replication.
A certain amount of this complexity is due to the mandatory licensing requirements that
exist in the BD format. Now don’t get us wrong, we’re not suggesting that BD licensing
be eliminated entirely, because we certainly understand why the licenses were included
in the first place.
Our goal was merely to bring focus to this issue, and to strongly suggest a tiered
approach to licensing fees that will enable everybody to participate according to
their means.
Doing so will unleash the pent-up creativity of thousands of independent producers who
are waiting to participate profitably in growing the blue ray format.
Anecdotally there are over 93,000 DVD titles in the marketplace. Many of these were
created by non-Hollywood entitles. And here’s how those entities can help build a more
robust market for Blu-ray disc:
Let’s assume for the moment that relaxing licensing fees and complexity will bring
perhaps 1000 new independent producers to the BD marketplace.
• Even if each producer only does one BD title, that’s one million new pieces of
replication, generating $2 million conservatively for replicators, maybe even more.
• If AACS content participant or provider agreement fees were reduced from $3000 (a
high hurdle for most independents to cross) and restructured to begin at $500 for a
simple license, then those 1000 producers would bring in an additional $500,000 in
licensing agreement fees for AACS, and potentially the same for BDA, assuming they all
signed up for a $500 BDA CPA-light agreement.
• Those 1000 new titles would create 1000 new AACS title key certificates generating
$1.3 million conservatively.
• Those 1000 new titles would provide more impetus for people to purchase a blue ray
player, to be able to play that content. This translates into increased retail sales for
players, and increase retail sales for the BD-ROM media as well. One million new Bluray
Discs at $20 retail = $20 million!
In summary: in the same way that reducing taxes frequently generates greater overall
revenue for the taxing authority, we sincerely believe that reducing the financial and
licensing complexity barriers to entry for new BD producers will generate more money for
everyone in the entire BD ecosystem
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