DVDizzy Forum

Ok, i know there is an "Official Blu-ray Post" but this post is dedicated to those who don't know what they are, so here i go...

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. The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data.

The difference between this disc and dvd (besides capacity) is that dvd a red laser to read data which wavelenght is 650nm, on the other side blu ray discs use blue-violet ray (there their name) which has a wavelenght of 405nm, allowing to focus the laser with greater precision and therefore packing the data more thightly and stored in less space.

Comparison with HD-DVD and DVD:


Will they be compatible with DVD?
Yes, several consumer electronics companies (including Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and LG) have already made products that can read/write CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs using a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical head, so you don't have to worry about your existing DVD collection becoming obsolete.

So, as you can see, HD-DVD also relies on reading data with blue-violet ray, but the thing is they offer lower disc capacity than blu-ray.

Update*
In fact blu-ray blank discs will cost about $50 and the players will start with prices of about $1000 - $1800, the price is high but it will lower with time...(i hope )

Oh! Cool! I never heard of Blu-Ray before now! That's really cool. Thanks.

well...the important thing here is the price isn`t?
And I don`t mean only for the Blu-DVD and the HD-DVD players but the HD-TVs but untill the tvs are not cheaper it may be not transition to the new formats

That $50 price is for the dual layer 50GB blank. In which you can fit 24 hours of DVD video (a TV season in one dual-layer disc?). For the single layer 25GB blank disc it's $18. That can hold 12hours (hold a TV season in 2 single-layer discs for $36?). This is full retail price and at launch. Does anybody remember how much full retail price was for blank single layer 4.7GB DVD-Rs at launch. Look at them prices now.

Same wil happen with the HDTV displays. what today costs a kilobuck will be much lower in price when it becomes the standart TV at home and everybody buys it, just like DVD players are now so cheap cus it's the movie machine you have at the house when before you had a VCR. etc etc


From another perspective, there's also Re-Writable BDs just a little more expensive. Imagine taking a dual-layer RW disc on a small BD camcorder on which you can record 24 hours of DVD quality video in a single disc of your vacation to Italy and later dump it and edit them into a DVD, and REUSE the BD disc for other vacations birthdays weddings etc.. Compare that to carrying 12 VHS tapes everytime through your trip or 24 DV tapes.. and thats just one disc.
And that's using just the common-today mpeg2 codec. One thing that it's not mentioned often is Blu-ray can use mpeg4 so that could increase things 2 or 3 fold. So 36 hours of DVD quality rewritable "tape", just fitting in one thin single-layer disc, for $20 bucks starting is not so bad, no?

btw as i've mentioned somewhere before, Blu-ray discs are to come with a scratch-proof coating specially developed for them. If it works as they are promising, that is very nice.




Ay Isidour, so all that matters is money? not quality?

well, not for me, but for the rest of the buyers yes...too sad if you ask me

deathie mouse wrote:Ay Isidour, so all that matters is money? not quality?

Hey I totally agree with you! in fact i have bought some of my movies 2 times

deathie mouse wrote:For the single layer 25GB blank disc it's $18. That can hold 22hours (hold a TV season in 2 single-layer discs for $36?).

But if a TV season is 22 episodes, and they're usually either 45 or 22 minutes long, you could put two seasons of a half-hour show on one disc, or one season of an hourlong show on one disc, and STILL have room to spare.

Would the quality be the same, though?

Escapay

Escapay wrote:Would the quality be the same, though?

Of course! Especially with this type of discs... But i think video quality would increase though, so they may use not one or 2 discs, maybe 4 which is a little compared to todays series of 6 or 9 dvds

oops i goofed/typoed on some of the hour's digits but not on the actual seasons per disc/layer which were correct (which is what i was calculating in my mind ). Layers can drive you bats! Serves me right for having the lightsabre err i mean the calculator on the next room and being lazy not to fetch it pulling it through the air using my hand while sitting confy like a budda-yoda.


i corrected the numbers

and i was calculating with 26 episodes = full season

the quality should be the same as average DVD if BD is used for this piurposes

I just read that a company called Broadcom has made a chip called BCM7411D that supports the (MPEG-4) H.264 and VC-1 video standarts (Blu-ray and HD-DVD I think) and also the high definition MPEG-2 (the normal DVDs standart I believe)

the news can be read here:
http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=799861

anyone knows if this is true?

By the way, it seems that the BD regions will be like this:
Region 1: América (and I mean all the countries, not just the US), East Asia (except China)
Region 2: Europe and África.
Region 3: China, Rusia, and the remaining countries

Blu-Ray looks awesome...I just wish that something other than Dinosaur was the first film to grace Blu-Ray...

deathie mouse wrote:just to refine yoda_four's numbers,
*whips out dethicalculator once again for truth justice and the film resolution way:

Thank god I didn't get it wrong. I wouldn't want to see the deathiewrath

Sorry for the double post, but after more research, I really think blu-ray will be better than hd-dvd, both of them will need new players, but blu-ray discs have more capacity than hd-dvd, thus, allowing the movie to have greater quality.
For more characteristics of comparison between blu-ray and hd-dvd look at this thread: Blu-ray? Everything you want to know about it

I've seen Chicken Little and The Incredibles mentioned as follow ups...




(i have a list of 97 titles announced/shown in CES for the first wave and follow up (90 are movies, 6 music/concert titles and also 1 TV series). I'm probably missing about 3 titles that escaped me but i think i have an idea what they are )

of those i'm interested in 50 (52%)

i have 6 on DVD (and i already have a person to give her one! ) and 3 on LD (actualy i have one of those 9 BOTH in dvd AND ld (T2) but i'm never giving away my T2 Deluxe LD 12" leather/glossy photos box . (And unless the Blu-ray has the same secret code stuff where it says Macs didn't go down and helped save the world mmm, nope ahh ahh, my DVD stays too )

I will only buy little Mermaid, Aladdin, Snowwhite, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas,Hercules and Atlantis in Blue-ray, because these are my favourite movies. Everything you buy just for prestige is a clear stupidity. I'll keep my DVD player and my dvds, like I did with the (very few) vhs I had.

i like telling people what i buy and not buy cause it makes me feel important.

lol Well I guess we all new to get that "importance feeling" one way or another.

Blu-Ray just won the battle
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10932364/

^Ha Ha, or it could cause people to boycot blue-ray.

just kidding

Okay I change my opinion about Blu-Ray and I think Blu-Ray might be king since it's supported by Disney and tons of other companies.