Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience.

While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. Despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray products can easily be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit. The benefit of using a blue-violet laser (405nm) is that it has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm), which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly and stored in less space, so it's possible to fit more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 is what enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25GB/50GB.

Blu-ray is currently supported by more than 170 of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer, recording media, video game and music companies. The format also has broad support from the major movie studios as a successor to today's DVD format. Seven of the eight major movie studios have already announced titles for Blu-ray, including Warner, Paramount, Fox, Disney, Sony, MGM and Lionsgate. The initial line-up is expected to consist of over 100 titles and include recent hits as well as classics such as Batman Begins, Desperado, Fantastic Four, Fifth Element, Hero, Ice Age, Kill Bill, Lethal Weapon, Mission Impossible, Ocean's Twelve, Pirates of the Caribbean, Reservoir Dogs, Robocop, and The Matrix. Many studios have also announced that they will begin releasing new feature films on Blu-ray Disc day-and-date with DVD, as well as a continuous slate of catalog titles every month.

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So thats the "info"


Any opinions.....

Thanks for the info, Savage. I'd heard the name bantered around for the past ~6 months on another site, but didn't really know what it was. I think all these advances are exciting and am looking forward to this.

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=177371

PERSONALLY, I hope BlueRay fails miserably for Sony, mostly because they put the rights of the studios at the forefront - at the expense of any rights of the consumer.

Sony designed BlueRay with Digital Rights Management and copyrighted-material protection as its PRIMARY FUNCTION:

Digital rights management (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc#Digital_rights_management)

Blu-ray has an experimental digital rights management (DRM) feature called BD+ which allows for dynamically-changing keys for the cryptographic protections involved. Should the keys currently in use be 'cracked', 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 [7] . 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 (commonly known as "ripping"). However this new technology, together with Self-Protecting Digital Content (SPDC), can allow players judged 'bad' to be effectively disabled [8], preventing their use by their purchaser or subsequent owners.[9] See Advanced Access Content System (AACS).

The Blu-ray Disc Association also agreed to add digital watermarking technology to the discs. Under the name "ROM-Mark", this technology will be built into all ROM-producing devices, and prevent content from being reproduced in the event that a watermark is detected. Through licensing, 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 (ICT), which restricts the output-resolution without HDCP to 960×540. The decision to set the flag to restrict output ("down-convert") 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 [10]. 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.

What all that means is that the technology has the potential built-in to the players and disks to change and control your rights to play and copy any BlueRay disks at any time in the future. They can limit the number of players a disk can be played on (what's that - you have three different dvd players? - sorry you can't watch THAT movie in the bedroom, you've already played it in the den AND the living room, SORRY!), the number of times a disk can be played (remember the original idea for DivX - it was to be for movie "rentals" that would only play for a certain time period), and to limit the ability to copy any disk - either to a limited number of times or to prevent it altogether.

It just seems to me that Sony goes TOO FAR in their efforts to protect their own interests - remember this is the same company that was caught installing Rootkits (http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,69601,00.html) (basically a Trojan-like virus undetectable by any standard Windows utilities ot antivirus software) on the computers of unsuspecting consumers that were unfortunate enough to try and play Sony music cd's on their computers. Sony has STILL never come up with a satisfactory way to restore these users' compromised systems - if you want it totally removed you pretty much have to reformat your hard drive.

Sony thought it was more important that they prevent consumers from copying their music, and have a way for them to KNOW what illegal music of theirs you have on their system (the software WAS proved to be "calling home" to Sony, despite their initial claims), than to worry about the rights or security of their consumers. I love this quote:

On Nov. 4, Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG's president of global digital business, demonstrated the company's disdain for its customers when he said, "Most people don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?" in an NPR interview. Even Sony's apology only admits that its rootkit "includes a feature that may make a user's computer susceptible to a virus written specifically to target the software."

For the BluRay players, even if they initially are sold without any of these features enabled, they have been designed so that Sony can turn these features on simply by adding code to future disks that will change the software on these players. I am also concerned about whatever ELSE they may decide to put in there.

Simply put - i just don't trust them, and I don't think anyone else should either.

Hmmm. That sucks. I've already dealt with Napster/iTunes & their DRM protection. (Which means if I legally purchase a track from Napster, they have made it next to impossible for me to play that track on my iPod. Fortunately, I found Soundtaxi software which removes both Napster & iTunes DRM, thereby making Napster tracks playable on iPods & iTunes tracks playable on non-Apple MP3 players. Again, this is for legally purchased tracks.)

I love the advanced technology in that the storage capacity is much greater than current technology. But I DO NOT like the other aspects.