About Blu-ray Disc

Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer, and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK, and Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting, and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs offers consumers an unprecedented HD experience.

While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. Despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray products are fully backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs. Blu-ray allows data to be packed more tightly and stored in less space, so it's possible to fit more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD and DVD. Blu-ray players also support upscaling of regular DVDs to almost high-def quality.

Blu-ray is currently supported by more than 170 of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer, recording media, video game, and music companies. The Sony Playstation 3 game console also includes a built-in Blu-ray player. The format has broad support from the major movie studios as a successor to today's DVD format. Many studios have started releasing new feature films on Blu-ray Disc on the same day as DVD, as well as updating a continuous slate of older movies to Blu-ray every month.

Click here to view all Blu-Ray products
Click here to learn more about Sony Blu-Ray
Click here to view all DVD Players at Abt