by Lorraine Traylor

Created on: October 29, 2009

I'm dreaming of a Blu-ray Christmas

DVDs are on the way out, what is replacing them you ask? Blu-ray disc players, named after the blue-violet laser used to read the disc. A standard DVD uses a 650 nanometer red laser while a Blu-ray disc uses a 450 nanometer blue-violet laser which allows nearly six times the amount of storage as a DVD on the same size disc.

Have you ever tried to store a high definition picture on a CD and gotten an error message that there was not enough memory on your disc? Blu-ray solves this problem for high-definition movies and games. Just like with a high definition picture, a high-definition movie has many, many MGs of information to be stored and will not fit on a standard DVD. Blu-ray is the answer.

A single layered disc can hold about 25GBs and a dual layered disc, 50GBs. To put that is perspective for you, your brand new iPod touch which can hold up to 3,500 songs, has 16GB of memory. That is a lot of information for such a small space. The shorter wave length explains why.

HD TVs have been on the market for over a decade but we are not using the to their full potential with DVDs. Once again Blu-ray is the answer.

Blu-ray discs can record high-definition and regular TV and movies and a DVD sized disc will hold more information than a DVD would due to the short wave length. Of course, make sure you purchase a model that promises not only to play but to record. Most models of Blu-ray disc players will play CDs and DVDs although DVD and CD players will not play Blu-ray discs. Again make sure before you purchase that you are buying a model that plays both.

Because Blu-ray uses a shorter wave length to record, Blu-ray disc makers had to come out with a tougher disc so the information on the disc, which is stored closer to the surface, did not become victim to scratches. A hard coating disc was developed and is used by most all of the Blu-ray disc producers making Blu-ray discs much more durable than DVDs and CDs.

The audio portion of the Blu-ray disc is supported by Dolby digital, the software support by Java (Sun Microsystems) other contributors were included Microsoft and Sony just to name a few.

This Christmas, dream of white snow, and Blu-ray . . .

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