Ian Clanton-Thuon Billy Joraskie Korinne Mills Blu-Ray Discs Ian Clanton-Thuon Billy Joraskie Korinne Mills

Introduction Read with a Blue-Light Laser Between one and four layers for 25 to 100Gb of storage Players are manufactured by several companies, but as Sony has historically been the chief supporter of Blu-Ray, their players are typically released with the newest version of the format Alternatives HD DVD (discontinued) DVD Menu software is written in a distribution of Java called “BD-J”

Introduction

Introduction Video is either progressive (as in 1080p) or interlaced (1080i) High Definition (or HD) video is either 1080i/p (1920x1080) or 720i/p (1280x720) Transmitted over the HDMI format and hardware Based on the DVI (Digital Video Interface) standard Allows for transmission of up to 8 channels of uncompressed audio HDCP is the new standard for copy protection of HD media Players, receivers, and displays must be HDCP-Compliant for copy protected media to work

Background Information Betamax and VHS There are many reasons why Betamax become the dominant standard VHS was dominant for many years LaserDisc never became popular DVD replaced VHS as the dominant standard Blu-Ray and HD DVD Format War Hardware manufacturers stopped supporting the HD DVD format Blu-Ray Spec 2 is the latest iteration of the standard

Wonderful World of Blu-Ray Discs Shorter Wave lengths that allow for maximized information storage High definition has up to 1,080 lines 5 times the resolution: makes viewing cleaner and sharper Advanced menu navigation Increased capacity for bonus features and new interactive capabilities Blu Ray allows the user to rewrite, record, and play back all in high definition video

Criticisms Sony’s Marketing PS3 Licensing Content Protection Cost of playing system Limited Movie titles available

Opinion Piece The Blu-Ray discs themselves are the natural evolution of optical storage media. Although the software that has been developed for the Blu-Ray Disc format is somewhat disappointing compared the HD DVD’s HDi standard. This, coupled with the low standards for the first version of the format (i.e.- no onboard storage or internet connectivity required) has made the format unfriendly to early-adopters. The picture and sound quality of Blu-Ray Discs is far superior to that of DVD and is comparable to that of HD DVD. The discs themselves and the players are somewhat expensive, but prices are falling. We recommend the format to anyone who wants better picture quality and doesn’t mind spending a lot more for it.