What is blu ray technology?

Feb 20, 2008

Blu ray is the next generation optical disk format. OK, every new technology is "next generation" so whenever you get something new of the old it becomes "nextgen". Prior to Blu ray (not blue ray, strangely) we had the HD format of a burning data onto CDs. So what is a big difference? Unlike the HD DVD (high-definition DVD) format (pioneered by Toshiba) that uses a red colored laser to write data on CDs the Blu ray technology uses, yes smarty, you guessed it right, a blue colored laser (rather, blue-violet).

The Blu ray enables you to compress more data on smaller CD area. With the help of Blu ray technology you will be able to burn anywhere between 25 GB to 50 GB of data on a single CD. This is because the blue-violet laser has a shorter wavelength (405nm — nm stands for nanometer) compared to the red laser (wavelength 650mn). This quality of the Blu ray technology enables the laser to focus upon the CD area with greater precision and this further means more data can be stored on the same amount of CD space.

Major movie studios like Disney, Fox, Warner, Paramount, Sony, Lionsgate and MGM have already started releasing movies in Blu ray format. So is it going to render your current DVD players useless? Remains to be seen. You can read more on the Blu-ray website.