Blu-ray and HD DVD Technologies Corey Collins Mark Merrill

Main Topics Current Media Format Theory of Blu-ray Technology Integration of Blu-ray Theory of HD DVD Technology Integration of HD DVD Comparison - Which is better? Which one is more likely to catch on?

Current Media Format CD’s Consist of pits and lands stamped out in a spiral pattern on the disc. A laser then reads the pits and lands. The change from a pit to a land or a land to a pit indicates a one while no change indicates a zero.

Current Media Format Cont. CD-RW’s Consist of a metal phase change alloy which when heated can be to change to reflectivity CD-R’s Consist of a dye that is applied to the disc. When a writing laser is shined it changes the reflectivity.

Current Media Format Cont. DVD’s Also contain pits and lands. Are more highly compact than a CD. Special laser is needed to read them.

High Definition To better understand the need for media formats with greater storage lets briefly describe what High Definition is. Your regular TV signal has about 480 pixel lines, but HD has about 1280 pixel lines that go across your TV Because of this difference the bandwidth of HD is about 5 times greater than standard video. Currently a standard movie takes up almost an entire DVD so we need something that’s almost 5 times that. Enter Blu-ray and HD DVD technologies….

Blu-ray Technology Name Derived from the blue-violet laser used to read and write data. Developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association with more than 180 members. Dell Sony LG

Blu-ray Technology Cont. Data capacity Because Blu-ray uses a blue laser(405 nanometers) instead of a red laser(650 nanometers) this allows the data tracks on the disc to be very compact. This allows for more than twice as small pits as on a DVD.

Blu-ray Technology Cont. Data Capacity Cont. Because of the greatly compact data Blu-ray can hold almost 5 times more data than a single layer DVD. Close to 25 GB! Just like a DVD Blu-ray can also be recorded in Dual-Layer format. This allows the disk to hold up to 50 GB!! Because the polycarbonate layer of the Blu-ray disc is so much larger than a DVD because the recording layer is so much smaller it can have even more than two layers.

Blu-ray Technology Cont. Writing Data Blu-ray uses a combination of two lenses to greatly shrink the laser to read the data. This also allows for higher data rate transfer close to 36 mbps. It could record 25 GB of data in an hour an a half.

Blu-ray Technology Cont. Formats BD-ROM (read-only) - for pre-recorded content BD-R (recordable) - for PC data storage BD-RW (rewritable) - for PC data storage BD-RE (rewritable) - for HDTV recording

Blu-ray Integration Blu-ray discs are able to record HD without any signal loss. Single layer up to 2 hours of HD video Dual layer up to 4.5 hours of HD video

Blu-ray Integration Cont. Security Blu-ray discs are better armed than current DVDs. They come equipped with a secure encryption system -- a unique ID that protects against video piracy and copyright infringement.

HD DVD Technology Name Obviously comes from the term High Definition Developed by Toshiba and NEC

HD DVD Technology Cont. Data Capacity HD DVD uses close to the same blue laser that the Blu-ray disc does. It is also 405 nanometers wide. Thus allows for data to be greatly compressed.

HD DVD Technology Cont. Data Capacity Cont. Single Layer Disc 15 GB Dual Layer Disc 30 GB

HD DVD Technology Cont. Formats HD DVD (read-only) - for pre-recorded content HD DVD-R (recordable) - for PC data storage HD DVD-RAM (rewritable) - for HDTV recording

HD DVD Integration Compatibility Because a lot of home-users don’t yet have a high definition Television the makers of the HD DVD disc made it backwards compatible by using the twin format scheme.

HD DVD Integration Cont. Compatibility Cont. But what about dual layer?? In order to accommodate for the needs of the storage capacity of the dual layer format the makers designed the combination format.

HD DVD Integration Cont. Security Uses the same security feature as Blu-ray. Both Blu-ray and HD DVD makers said would be extremely hard to pirate with this security feature. Eight days after HD DVD discs hit the market a hacker called muslix64 reportedly cracked the security feature.

HD DVD vs Blu-ray Both formats use blue lasers rather than red. Both have the same options for video and audio compression. Blu-ray offers significantly more storage space -- 50 GB on a dual-layer disc versus HD-DVD's 30 GB. The DVD Forum, which creates DVD standards, has approved HD-DVD and has not approved Blu-ray. HD-DVD is less expensive than Blu-ray. HD-DVDs can be produced on existing equipment, and Blu-ray discs can't. HD-DVD players are selling for $499 (Toshiba HD-A1) to $799 (HD-XA1), and Blu-ray players are selling for around $1,000 (Samsung DB-P1000). HD-DVD players hit the market on April 18, 2006, two months before the first Blu-ray player hit the U.S. market in June, 2006.

HD DVD vs Blu-ray Cont. DISCS Blu-Ray sample taken from 7 sources on Amazon.com, highest was $26.95, lowest was $19.95 HD DVD sample taken from 7sources on Amazon.com, highest was $27.95, lowest was $19.95

HD DVD vs Blu-ray Cont. Current supporters of HD-DVD include Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, and Microsoft, in addition to New Line Cinema, Paramount, Universal, Time-Warner, and the official approval of the DVD Forum. Current supporters for Blu-Ray includes PC makers Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Sony, and electronics giants Hitachi, LG, Mitsubishi Electric, Matsushita/Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, TDK, and Thomson. Add to this the support by movie studios such as Columbia TriStar, Sony Pictures and MGM (all three owned by Sony), 20th Century Fox, Lions Gate Entertainment, and Disney, as well as video game makers Electronic Arts and Vivendi Universal Games, and the bastion of support for Blu-Ray looks formidable indeed

WAR!! In summary it is hard to tell which media format will win this format war. It all depends on which format consumers can get more cheaply, more quickly, with more movies available for it. Blu-Ray is technologically superior However, the VHS and Betamax war shows that the technologically superior product does not always win.