Encyclopedia
A
Blu-ray Disc is a next-generation
optical disc format designed for high-density storage of
high-definition video and data.
Overview
The name Blu-ray is derived from the blue-violet
laser it uses to read and write to the chalcogenide disc. A Blu-ray Disc can store substantially more data than a
DVD, because of the shorter
wavelength of the blue-violet laser , which allows more information to be stored digitally in the same amount of space. In comparison to
HD DVD, which also uses a blue laser, Blu-ray has more information capacity per layer . Sony has released 50 gigabyte recordable BDs and will soon be releasing 50 gigabyte BD media discs.
In August 2006,
TDK developed a Blu-ray disk with a 200 gigabytes capacity.
History
The Blu-ray standard was jointly developed by a group of consumer electronics and
PC companies called the Blu-ray Disc Association , spearheaded by
Sony. It is currently competing with the
HD DVD format for wide adoption as the preferred next generation optical standard, similar to the
videotape format war between
VHS and Sony's
Betamax. As of 2006, neither format has succeeded in supplanting the present home video standard, the
DVD.
The Blu-ray Disc Association unveiled their plans for a May 23, 2006 release date at the
Consumer Electronics Show in January 2006. Since then, Blu-ray was delayed, but eventually shipped in the U.S. on June 20, 2006.
Currently, a Blu-ray disc can hold a maximum of 50 gigabytes.
Specifications
- About 9 hours of high-definition video can be stored on a 50 GB disc.
- About 23 hours of standard-definition video can be stored on a 50 GB disc.
TDK recently announced that they have created a working experimental Blu-ray disc capable of holding 200 GB of data on a single side .
| Physical size | Single layer capacity | Dual layer capacity | Sextuple layer capacity |
|---|
| 12 cm, single sided | 25 GB | 50 GB | 200 GB TDK |
| 12 cm, double sided | 50 GB | 100 GB |
| 8 cm, single sided | 7.8 GB | 15.6 GB |
| 8 cm, double sided | 15.6 GB | 31.2 GB |
Laser and optics
Blu-ray systems use a blue-violet
laser operating at a
wavelength of 405 nm, similar to the one used for HD DVD, to read and write data. Conventional
DVDs and
CDs use red and
infrared lasers at 650 nm and 780 nm respectively.
Hard-coating technology
Because the Blu-ray standard places the data recording layer so close to the surface of the disc, early discs were susceptible to contamination and scratches and had to be enclosed in plastic caddies for protection. The consortium worried that such an inconvenience would hurt Blu-ray's market adoption in the face of the rival HD DVD standard, as HD DVDs place the data layer farther away from the surface, rather like DVDs. Blu-ray discs now use a purpose developed layer of protective material over the reflective data backing .
Both Sony and Panasonic replication methods include proprietary hard-coat technologies. Sony's rewriteable media are sprayed with a scratch-resistant and antistatic coating.
TDK also announced a way to remedy the problem in January 2004 with the introduction of a clear
polymer coating that gives Blu-ray Discs substantial scratch resistance. The coating was developed by
TDK Corporation and is called "Durabis". It allows BDs to be cleaned safely with only a tissue. The coating is said to successfully resist "wire-wool scrubbing" according to Samsung Optical technical manager Chas Kalsi. It is not clear, however, whether discs will use the Durabis coating or if the use of the coating will prove too expensive.
Verbatim announced in July 2006 that their Blu-ray Recordable and Rewriteable discs would incorporate their hard-coat ScratchGuard technology which protects against scratches, abrasion, fingerprints and traces of grease.
Software standards
Codecs
Codecs are compression schemes that can be used to store audio and video information on a disc. For video, all standalone BD-ROM players must be able to decode three codec formats: MPEG-2 , H.264/AVC , and VC-1 .
Initial versions of Sony's Blu-ray authoring software only included support for MPEG-2 video, so the initial Blu-ray discs were forced to use MPEG-2 rather than the newer codecs, VC-1 and H.264. An upgrade was subsequently released supporting the newer compression methods so the second wave of Blu-ray titles were able to make use of this. The choice of codecs affects disc cost as well as program capacity. The two more advanced video codecs can typically achieve twice the video runtime of MPEG-2. When using MPEG-2, quality considerations would limit the publisher to around two hours of high-definition content on a single-layer BD-ROM.
For audio, BD-ROM players are required to support
Dolby Digital and
DTS, and linear PCM The standard has optional support for Dolby Digital Plus and the lossless formats
Dolby TrueHD and
DTS HD. The linear PCM 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 formats are mandatory, meaning that one of them may be used as the sole soundtrack on a disc, because every player will have a decoder that can process any of these three bitstreams. For lossless audio in movies in the PCM, Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD formats, Blu-ray discs support encoding in up to 24-bit/192 kHz for up to six channels, or up to eight channels of up to 24-bit/96 kHz encoding. For reference, even new big-budget Hollywood films are mastered in only 24-bit/48 kHz, with 16-bit/48 kHz being common for ordinary films.
For users recording digital television broadcasts, the Blu-ray's baseline datarate of 36 Mbit/s is more than adequate to record high-definition broadcasts. Support for new codecs will evolve as they are encapsulated by broadcasters into their MPEG-2 transport streams, and consumer set-top boxes capable of decoding them are rolled out.
Java software support
At the 2005
JavaOne trade show, it was announced that
Sun Microsystems' Java cross-platform software environment would be included in all Blu-ray players as a mandatory part of the standard. Java will be used to implement interactive menus on Blu-ray discs, as opposed to the method used on
DVD video discs, which uses pre-rendered MPEG segments and selectable subtitle pictures, which is considerably more primitive and less seamless. Java creator
James Gosling, at the conference, suggested that the inclusion of a Java virtual machine as well as network connectivity in BD devices will allow updates to Blu-ray discs via the Internet, adding content such as additional subtitle languages and promotional features that are not included on the disc at pressing time. This Java Version will be called
BD-J and will be a subset of the Globally Executable MHP standard. GEM is the world-wide version of the
Multimedia Home Platform standard.
There is some concern about the cost of implementing and licensing the
Multimedia Home Platform standard. The first generation Blu-ray players are only required to implement a subset of the Java layer, and are not required to support certain features such as
Picture-in-Picture, persistent storage, or network connections.
Region codes
The Blu-ray movie region codes are different from the
DVD region codes. The following are the region codes for Blu-ray discs:
Digital rights management
Blu-ray has an experimental
digital rights management feature called BD+ which allows for dynamically-changing keys for the
cryptographic protections involved. Should the keys currently in use be 'cracked' or leaked, manufacturers can update them and build them into all subsequent disks, preventing a single key discovery from permanently breaking the entire scheme. Blu-ray also mandates the Mandatory Managed Copy system, which allows users to copy content a limited number of times, but requiring registration with the content provider to acquire the keys needed; this feature was originally requested by
HP. The lack of a dynamic encryption model is what has made
DeCSS a disaster from the industry's perspective: once CSS was cracked, all DVDs from then on were open to unauthorized decryption . However this new technology, together with Self-Protecting Digital Content , can allow players judged 'bad' to be effectively disabled , preventing their use by their purchaser or subsequent owners. See Advanced Access Content System .
The Blu-ray Disc Association also agreed to add a form of
digital watermarking technology to the discs. Under the name "ROM-Mark", this technology will be built into all
ROM-producing devices, and requires a specially licensed piece of hardware to insert the ROM-mark into the media during replication. All Blu-ray playback devices must check for the mark. Through licensing of the special hardware element, the BDA believes that it can eliminate the possibility of mass producing BD-ROMs without authorization.
In addition, Blu-ray players must follow AACS guidelines pertaining to outputs over non-encrypted interfaces. This is set by a flag called the Image Constraint Token , which restricts the output-resolution without HDCP to 960×540. The decision to set the flag to restrict output is left up to the content provider. According to CED Magazine, Sony/MGM and Disney currently have no plans to down-convert, and Fox is opposed to it as well. Warner Pictures is a proponent of the ICT, and it is expected that Paramount will also implement it . Other studios releasing Blu-ray content have not yet commented on whether or not they will use down-conversion. AACS guidelines require that any title that implements the ICT must clearly state so on the packaging.
Applications
Compatibility
While it is not compulsory for manufacturers, the Blu-ray Disc Association recommends that Blu-ray drives should be capable of reading DVDs for backward compatibility. For instance, Samsung's first Blu-ray drive can read and write CD, DVD, and Blu-ray discs.
JVC has developed a three layer technology that allows putting both standard-definition DVD data and HD data on a BD/DVD combo disc. If successfully commercialized, this would enable the consumer to purchase a disc which could be played on current DVD players, and reveal its HD version when played on a new BD player. This form of hybrid disc does not appear to be ready for production, however, and no titles have been announced that utilize this disc structure.
Stand-alone recorders and game consoles
The first Blu-ray recorder was unveiled by
Sony on March 3, 2003, and was introduced to the Japanese market in April that year. On September 1, 2003,
JVC and
Samsung Electronics announced Blu-ray based products at IFA in
Berlin,
Germany. Both indicated that their products would be on the market in 2005.
In June 2004
Panasonic became the second manufacturer to launch a Blu-ray recorder to the Japanese market. Launching in July the DMR-E700BD was one of the first few units to support writing to existing DVD formats, and to single-side dual-layer Blu-ray Discs with a maximum capacity of 50 gigabytes.
The launch price of the recorder was $2780 USD, with 50 GB disc costing around $69 USD and the 25 GB disc costing around $32 USD.
Sony has announced that the
PlayStation 3 will be shipped with a 2x Blu-ray drive, likely read-only as is the case with most game console optical drives. According to Sony's press releases, it will support DVD, CD and SACD formats in addition to BD-ROM, BD-R, and BD-RE. The Japanese release date for PS3 is on November 11, 2006. The release date of the PS3 in North America has been announced for November 17, 2006, and everywhere else in March, 2007. Sony also announced in March 2006 their first consumer Blu-ray disc player the BDP-S1, would be available in stores by July 2006.
On January 4, 2006, at the
Consumer Electronics Show Samsung and Philips announced their first Blu-ray consumer products to the US market. Samsung launched the first Blu-ray player for the US market, the BD-P1000, retailing for $1000 USD and sporting HDMI output with backwards support for most of today's standard DVD formats , while Philips launched the BDP-9000 player. Both players were expected to arrive in stores sometime in 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2006.
On April 13 2006, Panasonic announced their first Blu-ray player for the US market, the DMP-BD10 would be shipping together in late 2006 along with their first commercially available plasma 1080p HDTVs.
PC data storage
Originally, blu-ray drives in production could only transfer approximately 36 Mbit/s , but 2x speed drives with a 72 Mbit/s transfer rate are now available. Rates of 8x or more are planned for the future.
Hewlett Packard has announced plans to sell Blu-ray-equipped desktop PCs and laptops. In December 2005, HP announced that they would also be supporting the rival
HD DVD technology.
Philips was scheduled to debut a Blu-ray computer drive in the second half of 2005, but it was also delayed. On March 10, 2005
Apple Computer joined the Blu-ray Disc Association.
In July 2005, information was leaked about an upcoming
Pioneer Blu-ray drive; the OEM
BDR 101A. On December 27, 2005, Pioneer formally announced the drive which was released in the late second quarter of 2006. The drive writes at 2x on BD-R and BD-RE, 8x on DVD+R and DVD-R, and 4x on DVD-RW and DVD+RW.
Optical heads allowing the reading of CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs have already been developed and are expected to be included after first release of DVD/Blu-ray only drives.
The Panasonic Blu-ray SW-5582 is the first drive to support all 3 formats.
On January 4, 2006, at the
Consumer Electronics Show Philips announced its SPD7000 Triplewriter Blu-ray internal drive for the PC and Blu-ray BD-R/B-RE/BD-RE media discs would be available in 2nd quarter of 2006.
In March 2006 Sony announced a Blu-ray disc player, a
VAIO desktop PC with a Blu-Ray recorder, and a Blu-ray internal PC drive would be released in the summer of 2006.
In April 2006 Panasonic said it would be releasing a Blu-ray internal PC drive in the summer, the LF-MB121JD, priced at $850
USD. The new drive would be able to comprehensively read and/or write 13 BD / DVD / CD formats, which includes both BD-R/RE formats. It will read both 25 GB and 50 GB dual layer discs and write to them at 2x speeds.
As of June 2006 Sony sold the first commercially available
VAIO AR laptop and RC desktop PCs with a built in Blu-Ray recorder.
In June 2006 LiteOn announced their first internal Blu-ray drive LH-2B1S would be released August 2006 for the UK market. Also in June Plextor announced their first internal 2x Blu-ray drive PX-B900A would be released in 3rd quarter of 2006.
In July 2006 BenQ announced they will be selling a Blu-ray device for the Europe, China and Taiwan markets.
Sony's first after-market Blu-ray drive is announced in July 2006 with shipment due in August.
In August 2006 LiteOn announced their first triple laser internal Blu-ray drive for the US market would be available in 3rd quarter of 2006.
Corporate support
- On June 30, 2004 Panasonic, part of Matsushita Electric, a founder member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, became the second manufacturer after Sony to launch a Blu-ray consumer product into the Japanese market. The DMR-E700BD recorder supported writing to existing DVD formats, and became one of the first units to read and write to dual-layer Blu-ray Discs with a maximum capacity of 50 gigabytes. The launch price of the recorder was $2780 USD.
- On October 3, 2004 20th Century Fox announced that it was joining the BDA, and on July 29, 2005 the studio officially announced its support for Blu-ray.
- On December 8, 2004 The Walt Disney Company announced its non-exclusive support for Blu-ray.
- On January 7, 2005 Vivendi Universal Games and Electronic Arts announced their support for the Blu-ray Disc format.
- On March 10, 2005 Apple Computer announced its support for Blu-ray and joined the BDA.
- On July 28, 2005 Verbatim Corporation, part of Mitsubishi Chemical Media, announced its support for Blu-ray and HD DVD storage format development.
- On August 17, 2005 Lions Gate Home Entertainment announced it would release its content using the Blu-ray disc format.
- On September 7, 2005 Samsung confirmed their next-generation of optical drives will support Blu-Ray and HD DVD discs.
- On October 2, 2005 Paramount announced they would endorse Blu-ray, while still supplying content on the rival HD DVD -- in order to give consumers a choice.
- On October 20, 2005 Warner Bros. announced they would release titles on the Blu-ray format, in addition to HD DVD Video. Of the six largest Hollywood studios, this leaves only Universal Studios supporting HD DVD exclusively.
- On November 9, 2005 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer announced it would support Blu-ray Disc, and plans to have titles available when Blu-ray Disc is launched.
- On November 19, 2005, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that they finished editing the first Blu-ray Disc, a full-length movie, . The disc uses MPEG-2 compression at a resolution of 1920x1080 and claims to use a menu interface that would succeed current DVD-Video interfaces.
- On January 4, 2006, at the Consumer Electronics Show Samsung and Philips announced their first Blu-ray players for the US market. Samsung announced the BD-P1000, retailing for $1000 USD and sporting HDMI output with backwards support for DVD formats , while Philips announced the BDP-9000. Philips also announced their all-in-one PC TripleWriter Blu-ray drive and range of Blu-ray medias would arrive in 2nd quarter of 2006.
- On January 5, 2006, the Consumer Electronics Show displayed Blu-ray movie titles with the 1080p logo on the case.
- On January 12, 2006 Digital Playground, a prominent pornographic movie studio, announced it would release its content using the Blu-ray disc format.
- On March 7, 2006 Sony announced it would be shipping rewriteable single-layer 25 GB 2x speed Blu-ray discs to Europe, with dual-layer discs arriving later in the year.
- On March 16, 2006 Sony announced a Blu-ray disc player, the first VAIO desktop PC with a Blu-Ray recorder, and a Blu-ray internal PC drive would be released in the summer of 2006. The VAIO PC would be shipped with a free 25 GB Blank BD-RE Blu-ray disc worth $25 USD.
- On April 3, 2006 Blueray, an Italian videoproduction company, announced it would release its content using the Blu-ray disc format.
- On April 10, 2006 TDK announced in a press release that it began shipping 25 GB BD-R and BD-RE media . TDK also announced that it would be releasing 50 GB BD-R and BD-RE media later this year .
- On May 16, 2006 Sony announced its first VAIO notebook computer that will include a built-in Blu-ray burner with a 17" WUXGA display capable of displaying 1080p . The VAIO shipped in June including software to play Blu-ray movies and an HDMI-A input for other HD devices.
- On May 17, 2006 Pioneer shipped BDR-101A, a PC-based Blu-ray burner drive.
- On June 15, 2006, Samsung announced the industry's first BD-P1000 player had begun shipping to US retail stores for availability on June 25 2006.
- On June 29, 2006, Plextor announced their first internal Blu-ray drive PX-B900A would be released in 3rd quarter of 2006.
- On July 11, 2006 Human Computing announced that it is shipping the first Blu-ray PC software.
- On July 18, 2006 Verbatim Corporation announced that it was shipping its ScratchGuard coated BD-R and BD-RE Blu-ray recordable and rewriteable discs to stores in Europe, with discs priced between £20 and £24 .
- On August 16, 2006 Sony announced shipment of 50 GB dual-layer Blu-ray recordable disks with a suggested retail price of $48.
- On August 31, 2006 Sun Microsystems
...
joined the BDA
The BDA has over 170 members. Its Board of Directors consists of representatives from
Apple Computer Corp.;
Dell, Inc.;
Hewlett Packard Company; Hitachi, Ltd.;
LG Electronics Inc.;
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation;
Panasonic ;
Pioneer Corporation;
Royal Philips Electronics;
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.;
Sharp Corporation;
Sony Corporation;
Sun Microsystems;
TDK Corporation; Thomson;
Twentieth Century Fox;
Walt Disney Pictures and Television;
Warner Bros. Entertainment.
Alternatives
The primary rival to Blu-ray is
HD DVD, championed by
Toshiba,
NEC Corporation,
Microsoft, and
Intel. HD DVD has a lower theoretical disc capacity per layer , but currently benefits from correspondingly lower manufacturing costs for both pre-recorded and recordable media. In addition, since no Blu-ray movie titles have shipped on 50 GB dual-layer discs,
HD DVD currently features more real-world capacity . Blu-ray detractors believe that the 50 GB disc is unlikely to ever be cost effective, while Blu-Ray proponents expect BD media manufacturing costs to approach those of HD DVD, once production volume has ramped. All Blu-ray movies currently released have been on single-layer 25 GB discs. Sony's goal is to reach the standard of 50 GB dual-layer discs capable of storing four hours of high-definition MPEG-2 video content, but up to this point in time the cost of mass producing dual-layer Blu-ray discs has been too high. Alternatively, studios releasing movies on Blu-ray may choose to switch to VC-1 or H.264/AVC in the future, allowing four hours of high-definition content to fit on a single layer BD disc.
In terms of audio/video compression, Blu-ray and HD DVD are similar on the surface: both support MPEG-2, VC-1, and H.264 for video compression, and Dolby Digital , PCM, and DTS for audio compression. The first generation of Blu-ray movies released used MPEG-2 , while initial
HD DVDs releases used the more efficient VC-1 codec. Blu-ray proponents point out that Blu-ray permits a higher maximum video-bitrate, as well as potentially higher average bitrates . In terms of audio, there are greater differences. Blu-ray allows conventional AC-3 audiotracks at 640 kbit/s, which is higher than DVD/HD DVD's maximum, 448 kbit/s. On the other hand, Dolby Digital Plus support is mandatory for standalone HD DVD players at a maximum of 3 Mbit/s, while only optional for BD players and capped at 1.7 Mbit/s.
On November 29, 2004 four Hollywood studios announced non-exclusive agreements to support
HD DVD. Since that time, Paramount and Warner have chosen to release titles in both Blu-ray and HD DVD.
Blu-ray is a very similar format to
PDD, another optical disc format developed by Sony but offering higher data transfer speeds. PDD is not intended for home video use and is aimed at business data archiving and backup. The
UDO format is also aimed for similar purposes.
Other competitors:
- Digital Multilayer Disk – the successor technology to Fluorescent Multilayer Disc
- Forward Versatile Disc – red laser format
- Holographic Versatile Disc - standards with 200 and 300 GB storage are under development and prototypes expected in 2008
- Versatile Multilayer Disc
Released titles
The first Blu-ray titles released on June 20, 2006 were
Hitch,
The Fifth Element is a science fiction [i] action movie [i], directed by Luc Besson [i], starring Milla Jovovich [i] ...
,
House of Flying Daggers,
,
50 First Dates,
XXX by
Sony; and
The Terminator is a 1984 [i] science fiction [i]-action film [i] featuring body-builder [i] ...
by
MGM.
To date, 55 titles have been released and a further 53 have been given release dates for 2006. All titles currently released are on 25 GB single-layer Blu-ray discs. Apart from 3 VC-1 and 2 AVC encoded titles all current releases use MPEG-2 video compression.
On September 5 2006 Warner released the first 3 titles using VC-1 encoding,
Blazing Saddles,
Firewall and
Lethal Weapon.A further 6 VC-1 encoded titles ,
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride is a 2005 [i] Academy Award [i]-nominated stop-motion-animation [i] ...
,
Swordfish,
Space Cowboys,
The Fugitive,
Lethal Weapon 2 and
House of Wax, were released on September 26. On November 28 2006 Warner will release their first 50 GB title,
Superman Returns is a 2006 [i] superhero film [i] based on the fictional [i] ...
On September 19 2006 Disney released the first two titles to be encoded using AVC, namely
Eight Below and
The Great RaidOn November 14 2006 Fox will be releasing their first 50 GB dual-layer Blu-ray title, Kingdom of Heaven. Sony will release their first dual-layer titles, Layer Cake and Black Hawk Down. Other titles,
,
Fantastic Four and the
recent remake of The Omen will be released on the same day and will be using AVC encoding and DTS HD Lossless Master Audio.
See also
...
References
External links
- by Hugh Bennett
- - BDA web site
-
- - Includes pictures and a comparison of HD-DVD and Blu-ray.
- - Comparison of HD DVD and Blu-ray
- - 200 GB BD-RE with 6 Layers
- - JVC Develops World's First Blu-ray/ DVD Combo ROM Disc Technology
- - FAQ for Blu-ray, HD DVD, EVD, FVD...
- - An up-to-date list containing all movies announced for Blu-ray with release dates
][
