Blu-Ray FAQ

 Who exactly developed Blu-ray?
Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of prominent consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers developed the Blu-ray Disc format. There are greater than 170 member companies internationally.
The Board of Directors presently includes:
Apple Computer, Inc.
Dell Inc.
Hewlett Packard Company
Hitachi, Ltd.
LG Electronics Inc.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Pioneer Corporation
Royal Philips Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Sharp Corporation
Sony Corporation
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
TDK Corporation
Thomson Multimedia
Twentieth Century Fox
Walt Disney Pictures
Warner Bros. Entertainment

What particular Blu-ray formats are there and what formats are being planned?
Like CDs and DVDs, Blu-ray plans to offer a variety of formats which will include ROM/R/RW. Blu-ray Disc specification includes the following formats:

BD-ROM - read-only format for distribution of HD movies, games, software, etc.
BD-R - recordable format for PC data storage and HD video recording
BD-RE - rewritable format for PC data storage and HD video recording

A BD/DVD hybrid format that combines Blu-ray and DVD on one disc which enables its use in both Blu-ray players and DVD players, is being planned.

About how much data fits onto a Blu-ray disc?
A single-layer disc may hold 25GB.
A dual-layer disc may hold 50GB.

Support for multi-layer discs is included by the Blu-ray Disc format in order to ensure its extended use. This should let storage capacity increase to 100GB-200GB (25GB per layer) by simply adding layers.

How much video can a Blu-ray disc take?
A 50GB disc can take more than 9 hours of high-definition (HD) video and around 23 hours of standard-definition (SD) video.

What video codecs can Blu-ray support?
MPEG-2 - enhanced for HD, also used for playback of DVDs and HDTV recordings.
MPEG-4 AVC - part of the MPEG-4 standard known as H.264 (High Profile and Main Profile).
SMPTE VC-1 - standard based on Microsoft's Windows Media Video (WMV) technology.

Blu-ray players and recorders must support playback of these video codecs. The movie studios will have to opt for which video codec(s) they want to utilize for releases.

How about audio codecs?
Linear PCM (LPCM) - provides up to 8 channels of uncompressed audio.
Dolby Digital (DD) - format used for DVDs known as AC3, provides 5.1-channel surround sound.
Dolby Digital Plus (DD+) - extension of DD, provides increased bitrates and 7.1-channel surround sound.
Dolby TrueHD - extension of MLP Lossless, provides lossless encoding of up to 8 channels of audio.
DTS Digital Surround - format used for DVDs, provides 5.1-channel surround sound.
DTS-HD - extension of DTS, provides increased bitrates and up to 8 channels of audio.

Blu-ray players and recorders must support playback of these audio codecs. The movie studios will have to opt for which audio codec(s) they want to utilize for releases.

Does Blu-ray require an Internet connection?
No. The basic playback of Blu-ray movies doesn’t require a net connection. This will only be required for value-added features like downloading new extras, viewing recent movie trailers, web browsing, etc. It’s also needed for the authorization of managed copies of Blu-ray movies that may be transferred over a home network.

How about mandatory managed copy, will Blu-ray support this?
Yes. Mandatory managed copy (MMC) is included in the Blu-ray format. MMC enableS consumers to create legal copies of their personal Blu-ray movies that again may be transferred over a home network.

When exactly did Blu-ray products come out?
In the United States, they were set to launch this past June 25, 2006 when Samsung  introduced its Blu-ray player (pushed back from May 23, 2006). Pioneer and Sony planned to follow suit in July with their own respective Blu-ray players.
DVD vs. Blu-ray

Is Blu-ray set to replace DVDs?
They have been expected to. The format has gotten major support from prime movie studios as newest successor to the DVD format. Seven of the eight prime movie studios have been announcing their titles for Blu-ray. This includes Warner, Paramount, Fox, Disney, Sony, MGM and Lionsgate. More than 100 titles have been included in the set line-up as well as recent hits and classics like: 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.

But it is very likely that both formats (DVD and Blu-ray) will co-exist for an extensive period of time as HDTVs continue their spread.

Blu-ray compared and contrasted to DVD

PC’s and Blu-ray

Plans for BD-ROM (read-only), BD-R (recordable) and BD-RE (rewritable) drives for PCs are being planned along with support from two largest PC manufacturers, HP and Dell.

HD-DVD vs Blu-ray
Is HD-DVD and Blu-ray the same?

No. HD-DVD or AOD was developed by NEC and Toshiba and is a competing new optical disc format. The format heavily relies on blue-laser technology in order to maintain higher storage capacity.

Blu-ray compared and contrasted to HD-DVD: