Alexis Sylvester
IT 103, Section 001
10/5/10
Blu-Ray: Making its Mark
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Introduction
Technology is always updating and coming out with new devices. Take the cassette tape for example, it was the most famous way to listen or record music in the 1970’s. But then CD’s came out and everyone had moved onto the newest obsession. Now, MP3’s and Ipod’s run the show and are the most renowned way to listen to music nowadays. First there was VHS for movies, which was the coolest way to watch videos back in the day. Then DVD’s came out which took over VHS because it was so much simpler and easy to carry. The new way to watch movies now is Blu-Ray, which offers the highest picture quality on the market right now. It is not just an updated version of DVD’s, it is completely different. According to “Blu-Ray Disc” (2002), it is different because of the blue-violet laser used to burn the information, hence the name Blu-Ray. DVD’s have the standard red laser, which has a much smaller wavelength. Because Blu-Ray has a bigger wavelength, more information could be written on the disc and eventually saved.
Background
Researchers were looking for a solution to store as much information as possible on rewriteable discs. Sony and Pioneer were the first to come out with DVR-Blu, which was thought to hold the most information. The first device became available in 2003 in Japan and was selling for $3,800. The player was created way before any discs were made to play on it. Most major filmmaking companies did not trust Blu-Ray yet because it was so new and because of the DVD player. Finally in October of 2004, the Blu-Ray Disk Association, BDR, was officially founded with 20th Century Fox as one of its board of directors. With that, Sony released the first mass market Blu-Ray player in July of 2006 just after seeing in HD became a huge hit. Blu-Ray was always a close second to HD players until PS3 was released with used the Blu-Ray disc for the games and movies it played. In the next year, Blu-Ray had made more sales than HD, which made it the number one way to watch movies in High Definition.
Further Required Research
No changes have been made to Blu-Ray since it released because it has been such a hit and in high demand. However, certain aspects of the Blu-Ray discs could be tampered with. The amount of media the disc can hold and process is what Blu-Ray can improve on. According to “Blu-Ray Disc” (2002), an original disc has one or two layers of media; some companies such as Hitachi are trying to push the limits to four layers which means the disc can hold up to 400 mb of information. This many layers on one disc means it can hold up to seven hours worth of information.
Further research for the mini Blu-Ray discs is in the works. These eight cm wide discs were created for video and personal cameras. Even the mini discs are rewriteable and re-useable, which makes them even more useful. Blu-Ray discs have made a breakthrough, being the only disc you can erase the information and rewrite it.
According to Beaumont (2008), not only does Blu-Ray offer the function of playing the highest definition videos, it has a number of other remarkable abilities too. It can help manage personal profiles, record and play audio media, burn disks, and allows complex video game systems to work. One of the cool things about Blu-Ray is the personal profiles aspect of it. This allows more than one person to set up his or her own personal preferences on a Blu-Ray player. This means if you and your brother share a Blu-Ray player, you can both had your own personal preferences set to how you like to watch a movie, or play a video game. These settings include videos, songs, gaming memory, and even parental control, which can allow older viewers to watch more mature content while younger viewers are not exposed to anything they shouldn’t be. The last setting is privacy control, which lets you put a password on your account in case you want to be the only one who can access it.
Blu-Ray’s ability to record and play audio media makes it a huge competitor for the normal MP3 files on your computer. People find this feature very attractive because this allows you to store your music right along side your movies and video games. These players can also burn disks with music on it as well and since these discs can hold more information (and play much more) that is a huge plus. This just means people can watch longer movies (or more movies), listen to more songs, and play video games in greater depth with the Blu-Ray player. The high quality gaming experience gives gamers a new experience and a window into the next generation of video games. Since this player can do so much more than a regular DVD player, it’s no wonder it is so popular.
Potential Benefits
We already know that the Blu-Ray player surpasses the DVD and HD-DVD players on many different levels. According to “Blu-Ray Information” (2008), one main difference between Blu-Ray and the other two is the amount of information that can be stored on a Blu-Ray disc. The standard Blu-Ray disc has 50 gigs of storage due to its two layers. The largest a simple DVD could hold was only 10 gigs of storage. Basically, Blu-Ray could hold up to five times the amount of storage any DVD could, which makes it more practical and essential. The next big difference is the speed/quality the disc can be read. Blu-Ray’s resolution beats the DVD’s almost three times.
The inventors of Blu-Ray were smart and not only did they intend to make movies into Blu-Ray but also video games. According to “Blu-ray Disc” (2009), Playstation 3 played a key role in persuading people to try this new and improved system. When Sony introduced Blu-Ray players as the new way to watch movies, millions of people went out to buy this widely renowned system. Not only could they transfer their movies to better quality, but their video games were being made into Blu-Ray as well. Inventors of Blu-Ray made a smart decision by not only improving the way consumers watched movies, but also connecting to a larger consumer group by converting video games as well.
Conclusion
In the world of movies, VHS was the coolest way to watch movies for a solid period of time. Then came the invention of the DVD player, which “wowed” everyone because of the simplicity of the disc, compared to the huge videos everyone was used to. For a while DVD’s were the only way to watch movies until the invention of Blu-Ray came along. DVD’s didn’t stand a chance after everyone noticed how much of an improvement Blu-Ray was. Blu-Ray was not only the newest way to watch movies, but to play video games as well. This new and improved system was the only option for some people because of all the advantages. Because Blu-Ray has the highest quality, it is hard to go back to regular DVD’s after just testing Blu-Ray. After seeing what a hit Blu-Ray was, all of the research and expertise used for Blu-Ray will most definitely be used for all the newest technology around the world.
References
Blu-Ray. (2010). Retrieved on October 1, 2010 from
This website described the different types of Blu-Ray discs that are available. This helped me when I was researching for why Blu-Ray was such a competitor to DVD and HD-DVD players.
Blu-Ray.com: What is blu-ray? (2007) Retrieved on October 2, 2010 from Blu-
Ray.com. http://www.blu-ray.com/info/.
This website explained the different layers that are on a Blu-Ray disc compared to a regular DVD disc. This helped when I was describing why Blu-Ray could store more information.
Beaumont, Claudine. (2008, January 8). Blu-Ray Group Claims Victory In DVD
Format War. The Telograph, p. A6
This article talks about how Blu-Ray has the ability to do so much more than a regular DVD.
Blu-Ray Information. (2008). Retrieved on October 1, 2010 from http://www.ps3vault.com/blu-ray-information.
This website explains how Playstation 3 converted to Blu-Ray players due to the higher quality which helped my explain how Blu-Ray is diverse and can serve more than one purpose.
Blu-Ray Disc. (2009) Retrieved on October 4, 2010 from
This website had all the basic information about Blu-Ray discs and players. It helped me understand why Blu-Ray is the most popular buy right now.
How Blue Ray Discs Work. (2006) Retrieved on October 4, 2010 from How Stuff
Works.com. http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/blu-ray.htm.
This website describes how Blu-Ray runs and why it is the best compared to leading competitiors.
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