by kkiat

Created on: July 27, 2007

A blu-ray disc is a type of storage media in the optical disc format (similar to Cds, DVDs, HD DVDs etc which are other examples of the optical disc format). The main difference between these medium is the type of laser used for reading and writing. Both Blu-ray and HD DVD use blue violet laser while DVD and Cd use red laser. Skipping all the technical jargon, the implication of using a blue laser is that it can write more data in a standard disc area as compared to the red laser. If you like to know more about the technical aspect of how this works, you can visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc.

Now, on to the pros and cons of blu-ray:

Pros:

-high storage capacity of 25 Gb per layer.

Having more storage capability means that more data can be stored per disc. For movie watchers, this means that the image and audio quality can potentially be better than other formats such as DVD (which can only store 4.7Gb per layer). More content (such as trailers, interviews, behind the scene clips) can also be squeezed into the standard disc. For gamers, it means basically the same thing, more space equals less compression, which means better graphics and sound. Bonus materials such as more levels, weapons, etc.

-supported by big name retailers such as Blockbuster Video and Target Corporation.

Blockbuster Video, one of the largest video rental store is set to carry Blu-ray movies in 1450 other stores, while Target Corporation, one of USA's top retailer, announced that it will expand its Blu-ray disc inventory as well as exclusively carry Blu-ray stand alone players through the holiday season. It currently does not carry any other high definition DVD players other than Xbox 360's HD DVD addon. This means that the availability of Blu-ray products will be more widespread as compared to its competitor such as HD DVD.

Cons:

-Blu-ray players generally more expensive than its competitors.
-Hi-def media requires hi-def ready television sets.

If your television set is not hi-def ready, the difference in quality between Blu-ray and normal DVD would not be that apparent.

-Region Coded + DRM enabled.

In an attempt to stop/deter piracy, Blu-ray employed both region coding as well as DRM (digital rights management). Region coding makes it such that movies bought from a region A (eg. USA) cannot be play on a player that is bought in region B (eg. Europe). DRM is used to only allow the disc to be played if certain conditions (such as whether the player has been tampered with, whether the disc being played has the correct ID, etc) were met. It usually would not pose any problem unless you want to make a copy of the protected disc.

-Data stored very close (about 0.1mm) to surface of disc.

Data in the Blu-ray disc is stored very close to the surface of the disc (0.1mm) as compared to DVDs and HD DVDs (0.6mm). Scratches of more than 0.1mm will possibly damage all data stored under the scratch marks. However, various companies have came up with their own method of hard-coating the surface to make it scratch proof. TDK's Durabis technology is one such method and claims to be able to withstand steel wool scrubbing.

Learn more about this author, kkiat.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.