Blu-ray in depth
This is a research I made about Blu-ray, I collected some information about it from multiple resources, I think it is interesting topic, have fun
Blue Ray aka Blu-ray Disc (BD)
Overview
Blu-ray, is a modern technology
derived from Blue-Violet Laser, it is used to read/write to the disc.
Blu-ray Disc was developed by the
Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) with a
group of leading electronics companies, such as (Apple Computers, Dell, HP,
Hitachi, LG, Sony, Pioneer, TDK, Walt Disney, Warner Bros ...) and so many
other companies, about 170 member companies from all over the world.
Hardware Specifications
·
Blu-ray uses blue-violet
laser at a wavelength of 405 nm, on the other hand DVD uses red laser at
a wavelength of 650 nm and CD uses infrared at a wavelength of 780 nm.
·
Up to 9 hours of High
Definition (HD) video can be stored on a 50 GB disc.
·
Up to 23 hours of Standard
Definition (SD) video can be stored on a 50 DB disc.
·
Single Layer disc can hold
25 GB, Dual Layer disc can hold 50 GB.
·
BD speed according to
Blu-ray Disc specifications, 1x speed is defined as 36 Mbps, However, BD-ROM
movies will require 54 Mbps data transfer rate, so the minimum speed expected
is 2x
·
Hard-Coating technology is
used to protected the Blu-ray disc surface, because according to to BD
standards, the data is placed to a layer so close to the surface, so the
Hard-Coating technology will protect the surface from scratches.
Software Specifications
·
Codecs Supported
o
For Video, ISO MPEG-2,
H.264/AVC, and SMPTE VC-1 are mandatory
§
MPEG-2 allows backward
compatibility with DVD’s
o
For Audio, Dolby Digital,
AC3, DTS and Linear PCM are mandatory
·
Java Software Support
o
Java cross platform
software environment are included in all Blu-ray Disc players as a mandatory
part of the standard.
o
Java will be used to
implement interactive menus on Blu-ray Discs.
Blu-ray Disc vs. DVD
In general Blu-ray can store
substantially more data than DVD’s, because blue ray wavelength is shorter than
DVD’s red laser wave length, so this allows storing more information in the
same amount of space.
This is a comparison between
Blu-ray and DVD.
|
Parameters
|
Blu-ray
|
DVD
|
|
Storage capacity
|
25GB (single-layer)
50GB (dual-layer)
|
4.7GB (single-layer)
8.5GB (dual-layer)
|
|
Laser wavelength
|
405nm (blue laser)
|
650nm (red laser)
|
|
Numerical aperture (NA)
|
0.85
|
0.60
|
|
Disc diameter
Disc thickness
|
120mm
1.2mm
|
120mm
1.2mm
|
|
Protection layer
Hard coating
|
0.1mm
Yes
|
0.6mm
No
|
|
Track pitch
|
0.32µm
|
0.74µm
|
|
Data transfer rate (data)
Data transfer rate (video/audio)
|
36.0Mbps (1x)
54.0Mbps (1.5x)
|
11.08Mbps (1x)
10.08Mbps (<1x)
|
|
Video resolution (max)
Video bit rate (max)
|
1920×1080 (1080p)
40.0Mbps
|
720×480/720×576 (480i/576i)
9.8Mbps
|
|
Video codecs
|
MPEG-2
MPEG-4 AVC
SMPTE VC-1
|
MPEG-2
-
-
|
|
Audio codecs
|
Linear PCM
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital Plus
Dolby TrueHD
DTS Digital Surround
DTS-HD
|
Linear PCM
Dolby Digital
DTS Digital Surround
-
-
-
|
|
Interactivity
|
BD-J
|
DVD-Video
|
Products and Applications
Stand-alone Recorders
1. The first Blu-ray Disc recorder was unveiled by Sony, on March
3, 2003.
2. JVC & Samsung announced Blu-ray Disc based products on
September 1, 2003
Game Consoles
Sony has announced that the Play Station 3 will be
shipped with 2x Blu-ray Disc drive, read only.
PC Data Storage
1. HP announced plans to sell Blu-ray Disc equipped desktop PC’s
and Laptops.
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_ray
http://www.blu-ray.com
http://www.blu-raydisc.com/assets/downloadablefile/general_bluraydiscformat-12834.pdf