History of Blu‐ray Disc

First Generation


When the CD was introduced in the early 80s, it meant an enormous leap from traditional media. Not only did it offer a significant improvement in audio quality, its primary application, but its 650 MB storage capacity also meant a giant leap in data storage and retrieval. For the first time, there was a universal standard for pre‐recorded, recordable and rewritable media, offering the best quality and features consumers could wish for themselves, at very low costs.


Second Generation

Although the CD was a very useful medium for the recording and distribution of audio and some modest data‐applications, demand for a new medium offering higher storage capacities rose in the 90s. These demands lead to the evolution of the DVD specification and a five to ten fold increase in capacity. This enabled high quality, standard definition video distribution and recording. Furthermore, the increased capacity accommodated more demanding data applications. At the same time, the DVD spec used the same form factor as the CD, allowing for seamless migration to the next generation format and offering full backwards compatibility.

Third Generation

Now High Definition video is demanding a new solution. History proved that a significant five to ten time increase in storage capacity and the ability to play previous generation formats are key elements for a new format to succeed. This new format has arrived with the advent of Blu‐ray Disc, the only format that offers a considerable increase in storage capacity with its 25 to 50 GB data capacity. This allows for the next big application of optical media: the distribution and recording of High Definition video in the highest possible quality. In fact, no other proposed format can offer the data capacity of
Blu‐ray Disc, and no other format will allow for the same high video quality and
Interactive features to create the ultimate user experience. As with DVD, the Blu-ray Disc format is based on the same, bare disc physical form factor, allowing for compatibility with CD and DVD. The Blu‐ray Disc specification was officially announced in February 2002. Blu‐ray Disc recorders were first launched in Japan in 2003.

• 1982 ‐First working CD player developed by Philips. Philips and Sony developed CD standard – 12cm disk, 74 minutes on a single spiral
• 1983 ‐First CD players sold
• 1985 ‐CD‐ROM introduced – not popular at first. More powerful PCs lead
to demand for multimedia, image processing and larger applications. Growth in sales brings prices down.
• 1990’s ‐ CD‐R and CD‐RW introduced – big success.
• 1996 ‐DVD introduced
• 1999 ‐DVD becomes mainstream
• 2003 ‐BD introduced