Top 5 reasons to switch to Blu-Ray players
March 3, 2010
There are umpteen numbers of features and functions in Blu-Ray players when compared to the DVD players. The advanced technology, enhanced features and a lot of other factors makes Blu-Ray player superior to the ordinary DVD players. Given below are top 5 reasons to why one should replace their outdated DVD players with advanced Blu-Ray players.
1. Compatible with DVD and Blu-Ray discs
The very first reason which makes this Blu-Ray player appealing to you is its compatibility with both DVD discs as well as Blu-Ray discs. If you have a number of DVD collections at home and you are worried about disposing then don’t worry as these Blu-Ray players are compatible with both Blu-Ray as well as DVDs.
2. Cheaper price
Earlier prices of these Blu-Ray players and Blu-Ray discs were too high and one cannot possibly afford one. As time passed by, the prices of these Blu-Ray players and discs have reduced to a large extent. This makes them very affordable and economically feasible to a number of users.
3. Enjoy 1080p high-definition images
Blu-Ray is able to offer full 1080p high-definition to your HD flat screen TV. These players can utilize the features and function of the HD TVs to their best and you can watch HD images too. Older TV sets displays 1080i or 720p images while Blu-Ray players enhances the picture quality by offering full 1080p images.
4. Great surround sound effects
DVD normally offers 5.1 surround sound at the same time Blu-Ray offers much improved 5.1 surround sound enhancing your listening experience. Preferably you can go for Dolby TrueHD or a DTS-HD Master Audio sound on a Blu-Ray disc. These formats are compressed on an ordinary DVD and they will not be able to offer the same dynamic range and clarity as offered by Blu-ray discs which has uncompressed formats.
5. An object of envy
With an HD flat screen and compatible Blu-Ray players you can make your friends envy of your possessions. Impress them with the exceptional picture clarity and enhanced surround sounds offering them perfect entertainment.
These are just few reasons to why you should go for a Blu-Ray disc players there are plenty other reasons which will motivate your buy.
Comparison of Blu-ray with HD-DVD
June 6, 2008
Currently, Blu-ray and HD-DVD are the only two competitors in high-definition home entertainment market. However, HD DVD is likely to become obsolete in future as many manufacturers have discontinued HD-DVD format and many studios are switching to blu-ray disc format. If anything that can make HD-DVDs to stay in competition with blu-ray, it is their relatively cheaper prices. A HD-DVD movie is four times cheaper than a blu-ray while there is similar gulf between the prices of two incompatible players.
Blu-ray disc has a definite edge over HD-DVD, when it comes to storage capacity. Blu-ray disc is considered the next generation video format and its technology promises high storage optical discs exceeding 250 GB in near future. So, the manufacturers and studios are more than ready to bet on blu-ray than HD DVD. As a consumer, it is important that you go for the product that is future proof and that your investment does not go waste if anything happens in home video market.
Before you compare Blu-ray with HD-DVD, bear in mind following things:
- You cannot play blu-ray disc on HD DVD player and vice versa as both formats are different and incompatible.
- Blu-ray/HD-DVD hybrid discs that come with movies in both the format are not available in the market. This leads to the inevitable choice of either of these two players, if you plan to buy a player for high-definition video play back.
- Currently, the most popular PlayStation 3 can play blu-ray discs. It is cheaper option when compared with stand-alone blu-ray disc player but lacks connections for home theatre system.
What are common in Blu-ray and HD-DVD?
A quick summary of common technical features that you will find in blu-ray and HD-DVD:
- Both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats use a blue laser to read and write the data on their discs.
- Both can read and write data in the same video and audio formats. Video formats like MPEG-4, MPEG-2, H264 and VC1 are employed in both discs. Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD and Uncompressed PCM are some of the audio formats that are compatible with both the devices.
- Both disc players can provide picture in 1080p resolution.
- Blu-ray and HD-DVD players come with component video output for HDTV connection. In addition, both players also have HDMI or DVI connections for the same purpose.
Differences between Blu-ray and HD-DVD
The major difference is storage capacity. A double layered blu-ray disc can hold more than two times that a similar HD-DVD is capable of. The following table demonstrates the higher storage capacities of blu-ray disc when compared with HD-DVD.
| Optical disc | Disc storage |
|
|||||
| Single side Blu-ray | 26GB | 4 hours | |||||
| Single side HD-DVD | 14GB | 2 hours | |||||
| Double side Blu-ray | 50GB | 20 + hrs | 12 hours | ||||
| Double side HD-DVD | 30GB | 5 – 9 hours | 3 – 5 hours | ||||
Both HD-DVD and Blu-ray use different software for their interactive features. Blu-ray uses BD-Java while HD DVD uses iHD interactive software.
As for internet access, all HD DVD players usually come with Ethernet ports while Blu-ray optionally employ them so you need to make sure that your blu-ray disc player comes with Ethernet port if you intend to access online video websites with your disc player.
Most blu-ray discs come encoded with regional code, making blu-rays encoded with particular regional code unusable in another geographical location. HD-DVDs do not have this feature so you can play a HDVD you bought in Region A (the USA) in the UK.
Currently, blu-ray enjoys the support of nearly three-fourths of studios that include Sony Pictures, Fox, Mirmax, Touchstone etc. Most of the popular titles in blu-ray discs have hit the market and it is more likely that the number will increase in future as sales in blu-ray in current market outnumbered the HD DVD titles by more than two times.
Price factor is another major difference between two discs. However, blu-ray compensates its high price with high data storage and the availability of popular titles only in blu-ray format.
Both discs come with copy protection features. Blu-ray disc is copy right protected by ICT, BD-ROM Mark and AACS. HD DVD discs are copy protected by ICT and AACS.
Conclusion
In the current scenario, it is rather difficult to make a choice between Blu-ray and HD DVD as they offer more or less similar features and capabilities. While the cheaper price is the major advantage with HD-DVD, Blu-ray has other significant advantages that are more likely to make it as the next generation video format. Currently, Blu-ray has more manufacturers support and studios’ support to its credit and this could be the major factor that can impact the consumers’ choice between Blu-ray and HD-DVD.
Basics of Blu-Ray Disc Players
June 2, 2008
When it comes to cheaper and high quality home videos, DVD is naturally the leader in home video market. However, the advent of high definition videos and the latest optical disc technologies like Blu-ray and HD-DVDs have changed that. At best, a DVD can store only a full-length movie in standard definition. For high definition features, you have to either look for a HD-DVD or blu-ray disc. As most studios have been abandoning HD-DVD and adopting to blu-ray disc format, the future belongs to blu-ray disc technology.
HD-DVD and Blu-ray disc player
There is hardly anything that can put you in dilemma over making a choice between these two players. Here are the important features that can help you to compare these technologies:
- Both disc players use blue laser to read and write data so that larger information can be recorded on a regular 12 cm diameter disc.
- Higher capacity than DVDs: A double layered HD-DVD has 30GB data capacity while a similar blu-ray has capacity up to 50GB of data. Technological improvements in blu-ray promise 250GB capacity in future.
- Both discs are suitable for playback of high definition videos and audios. A double layered blu-ray disc has a capacity of more than 8 hours of high definition videos while HD-DVD has just half of this capacity.
However, both are incompatible formats and require a separate player for play back.
Blu-ray Vs HD-DVD
As both HD-DVD and blu-ray discs can provide excellent home entertainment, blu-ray has some significant advantages over HD-DVD which is already losing support from many studios. Here are some compelling reasons why you should consider buying a blu-ray disc player instead of HD-DVD player:
- As blu-ray disc can hold large data (double the capacity of HD-DVD, nearly three-fourths of studios support blu-ray disc format. The number of studios switching from HD-DVD to blu-ray is on increase after some of the optical disc manufacturers like Toshiba have discontinued the use of HD-DVD.
- Many popular films like Harry Potter series in high definition are available in blu-ray discs while the number of newer HD-DVDs and sale of HD-DVD have been dwindling in recent times. In contrast, the sales growth in blu-ray has doubled.
- Sony’s PlayStation 3 comes with blu-ray compatibility and can be used to play blu-ray discs. You can also connect it to websites or download high-definition videos from VoD services.
- Blu-ray disc players come with outputs for home-theatre so you can get the perfect audio quality to match your viewing experience.
Can I play DVDs and CDs on blu-ray disc player?
DVD has the largest number of titles till date, as it remains the cheapest storage medium format for home videos. As blu-ray disc player can also play DVDs so your DVD collection is never in a state of becoming outdated, when you go for a blu-ray disc player.
If you intend to play standard CDs on your blu-ray disc player, make sure that it is compatible with CD format as a few models may not play CDs.
Should I have an HDTV?
Blu-ray disc provides optimum results when it is connected to HDTV using HDMI connection. As only HDTVs like LCD TV or Plasma TV have this option, HDTV is ideal for the best viewing experience.
Blu-ray player can also be connected to standard TV via composite video output while this may not render high definition features while component video output can provide HD resolution.
Look at the connection types
To provide standard definition as well as high definition videos, most blu-ray players come with following connections:
- Composite video output
- Component video connection
- S-Video output
- HDMI or DVI connection for high-definition video and audio
- Audio outputs like digital optical & coaxial and analog stereo
- Analog audio outputs (5.1channel) to provide digital surround features.
Other factors
Blu-ray disc players and blu-ray discs are expensive
Currently, blu-ray disc costs four times higher than a HD-DVD so is the case with blu-ray disc player. This is the major reason why blu-ray disc has not made as much penetration as DVD. If you are looking for cheaper blu-ray disc players, you can go for the basic blu-ray players that can provide 1080i resolution but not 1080p resolution.
Right now, there is no clear indication whether blu-ray disc will become affordable in near future despite its clear emergence as a next generation video format.
Hardware support
Currently, the major manufacturers of blu-ray disc players include Sony, Panasonic, Samsung and Pioneer and their models come with different profiles and all of them provide 1080p resolution. There are still compatibility issues between these profiles despite the standardization of Profile 1.1 in 2008.
Blu-Ray Discs – Types, Data Storage, Features
May 28, 2008
Although the disc storage technology began with CD, it was the advent of DVD in 1997 that made the essential breakthrough in making of discs of high storage capacity. With a typical DVD, you can store a full-length movie in higher resolution format with Dolby sound features as it has six times more storage capacity than a CD.
However, a DVD, even with its 4.7GB storage capacity and its MPEG-2 compression technique, you can only store videos of standard definition but high definition videos and audios which needed discs of still higher capacity than a DVD. This led to the development of HD-DVDs and Blu-ray discs which have one thing in common – they can hold three to five times more data than a DVD.
As for the video & audio format and other features, HD-DVDs and blu-ray discs differ so much from each that that they are truly incompatible storage media formats. Currently, HD-DVD is slowly dying in the home video market as blu-ray disc has overtaken it as better storage medium for high definition videos. Despite the unending popularity of DVDs, blu-ray disc market is expected to grow faster as the newer blu-ray disc players come with compatibility with CDs and DVDs.
How is a blu-ray disc different from other discs?
Whether CD or DVD or blu-ray discs, they are all optical discs (technically speaking) as they use light (laser beam) to read data which are recorded on their surfaces in the form of bits or bumps. Compared with CD, on a DVD, the pit size is minimized and the tracks are much more densely knitted, so, much larger amount data can be written on a DVD. Video compression methods like MPEG-2 and advanced data error correction methods also enable a DVD to increase its data storage capacity.
Blu-ray discs are more advanced optical discs than DVDs and can store much larger information on the same area (12 cm diameter) by further minimizing the pit size and increasing data density on their surfaces. In addition, a blu-ray disc essentially differs from their predecessors in following ways:
- Blu-ray disc uses blue laser instead of red laser which is generally used by DVDs/CDs.
- The shorter wave length of blue laser (405 nm) can read and write much more data on the same area.
- The image sensor in a blu-ray disc player comes with advanced optical features that help the lens to focus the laser on smaller area.
- Newer blu-ray discs come with advanced polymer coating technologies that make them scratch-proof and highly durable.
Data storage capacity of blu-ray discs
Disc capacity of blu-ray depends on whether it is single layered or double layered. A single layer blu-ray disc can store up to 25 GB of data while a double layer disc has up to 50 GB data storage capacity. In comparison, a double layered DVD can store up to 30 GB of information.
As for playback time, a double layer blu-ray can playback standard definition videos for more than 22 hours and high definition videos for five to eight hours.
A new variant of blu-ray disc ‘quad-layer’ that has four layers and 100 GB capacity has already been rolled out by TDK while developments in blu-ray technology to hold 250 GB capacity are currently underway by some of the manufacturers.
Resolution, audio and compatibility features
Standard DVDs come with EDTV resolution (480p) and cannot support higher resolutions. However, blu-ray discs can store video details in high definition format, i.e., 720p or 1080i or 1080p resolution. In addition, they are also compatible with lower DVD resolution so you watch DVDs using a blu-ray disc player.
Blu-ray discs support high definition audio standards like Dolby True High-Definition, DTS, DTS-High Definition Master Audio, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS Uncompressed linear PCM.
Other features
Blu-ray disc players come with higher drive speeds than HD-DVD players. A 6X drive can have data transfer rate at 36 Mbits/s for writing purposes. This is nearly double the speed of a HD-DVD player. Many latest blu-ray disc players have drive speeds up to 54 Mbits/s.
Blu-ray discs are compatible with video standards like VC1 encoding, MPEG-2 and MPEG-2.
With Blu-ray disc, you can connect to VoD services and download videos although you need to make sure that your blu-ray disc player comes with Ethernet ports and other networking hardware.
Although stand-alone blu-ray disc players are available, video game consoles like Playstation 3 can be used to play blu-ray discs.
While numerous movies (more than 50,000) are available in DVD format, you can find less than 1000 titles available in blu-ray disc format. Hundreds of titles are available in HD-DVDs, however, you cannot play a HD-DVD movie on your blu-ray player due to incompatibility issues.
Blu-ray discs come with region codes meaning you can not play a blu-ray disc that is encoded with another region code. However, the regional coding is sometimes optional, depending on the manufacturing.
Currently, blu-ray disc players and discs are very expensive when compared with DVD or HD-DVDs. A blu-ray disc player or blu-ray disc is nearly four times costlier than HD-DVD.
While all Hollywood studios support DVD format, they are divided over the format of HD-DVD and blu-ray. Studios like Universal, Dreamswork Animation and Paramount use HD-DVD while Sony pictures, Miramax, Touchstone and Fox studios use blu-ray as format for their movie releases.
Types of blu-ray discs
While blu-ray disc technology in common, features like size, capacity, data transfer speed, read-write feature, applications and other features may vary that led to different types of blu-ray discs.
Here are some of the types of blu-ray discs:
Low capacity blu-ray discs
As regular blu-ray discs are much expensive, some discs use BD5 and BD9 standards that provide as much capacity as a double layered DVD but contain blu-ray quality video and audio features. These discs are compatible with DVD and blu-ray format and can also be used with home computers.
Mini Blu-ray discs
They are smaller in size (8 cm diameter) and can hold more than 7 GB of data. They come with BD-R and BD-RW features and they are often used in compact camcorders and other such devices.
BD-R and BD-RE discs
Blu-ray disc recordable come with two types of features. With BD-R discs, data can be written only once while BD-RW discs allow data to be erased and recorded as many times as you like. You can find both the features in regular and mini blu-ray discs.
AVCREC discs
It is another lower capacity variant disc for storing data with blu-ray format on a standard DVD disc. This type of discs find applications that need to use cheaper blu-ray discs such as camcorders or production of high definition video contents meant for broadcasting.
Blu-ray/HD-DVD hybrid discs
This type of discs are compatible with both blu-ray and HD-DVD format as data is stored on one side of the disc using blu-ray format while the other side of disc is used for recording data in HD-DVD format. Warner Brothers released the first blu-ray/HD-DVD hybrid disc in 2007, however, hybrid discs failed to make any significant impact on the video market as most studios preferred either HD-DVD or blu-ray format. It is less likely that you will find a movie on a hybrid disc.
How does a Blu-Ray Disc Player Work?
May 22, 2008
The mechanism behind all optical disc players like Blu-ray and DVD is more or less similar. They use laser technology to read and write information on the discs. This is how digital information is stored on the discs:
- Optical discs have spiral paths (also known as tracks) that start from the centre of the disc and end at the edge of the discs.
- Very tiny pits on the tracks contain digital information which is encoded and decoded by the disc player unit.
- Smaller the pit size and closer the tracks, the more storage a disc will have.
When it comes to functionalities, a Blu-ray disc player differs a lot from a DVD player
- Blu-ray disc player uses blue laser to read and write data while DVD player uses red laser. As blue laser has shorter wave length of 405 nm (when compared with red laser of 650 nm wavelength), a blu-ray disc player can record much more information (ten times more than DVD player). Blue laser can be focused on smaller pits precisely so data can be read and processed much faster.
- The optical unit in blu-ray disc player uses improved optical features like powerful lens that can increase its aperture to 0.85 with ease.
- Thirdly, the pit size on a blu-ray disc is less than half of the pit size on a DVD (0.15 microns Vs 0.4 microns). The track length is also minimized on a blu-ray disc (0.32 micros) when compared with DVD disc (0.74 microns).
- Next, the polycarbonate layer over the bumps (which contain data) on the blu-ray disc is thinner (1.1 mm thickness) and this helps to remove optical aberrations and focus the laser more precisely on a smaller spot.
Recording and reading data from Blu-ray discs
The laser head of blu-ray disc player slides over the disc surface to read the video and audio data encoded on the bumps. The blue laser gets refracted from bumps & pits and the magnitude of received laser varies depends up on the surface it struck. The compressed, encoded digital information is decompressed and decoded by the disc player.
There are different formats of blu-ray discs available for recording purpose. BD-ROM is read-only disc and all blu-ray disc movies are BD-ROM. BD-R disc is recordable but only once and can be used with PC. BD-RW discs can be used for multiple times and can be used with PC. For recording HDTV content, you will require BD-RE discs.
Compression standards
DVDs and Blu-ray discs use different codecs or compression methods to store more data and usually, audio and video information is stored using different codecs. Most blu-ray disc players are compatible with codecs used in DVDs in addition to their additional codec features. This makes your blu-ray disc player to play DVDs also.
Blu-ray disc players support video compression standards like MPEG-2, VC1 and H.264/AVC and audio codecs that include DTS, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD.
Drive speeds and Data transfer speeds
A blu-ray disc player with 1X drive speed has a data transfer rate of 4.5 Mbits/s which is minimum standard for blu-ray disc players. For movies playback, any disc player with drive speed between 1X and 2X will provide enough transfer rate for both video and audio information. However, for recording HDTV content, higher drive speeds like 6X or above (54 Mbits/s) are highly desired.
History of Blu-Ray Disc Technology
May 18, 2008
The use of Blue laser diodes extended to Blu-ray disc
Blu-ray disc which hit the commercial market in 2006 is hailed as the future generation optical disc, however, the history of blu-ray disc technology can be traced in late nineteen nineties when the inventor Shuji Nakamura demonstrated the practical uses of blue laser diodes. In the same period, the onset of HDTVs like plasma TVs and LCD Televisions in consumer market also began to impact the future trend of home entertainment market.
Sony released the prototype blu-ray disc player
It was Sony that laid the foundation of future blu-ray disc format by employing blue laser diodes in its projects – Ultra Density Optical disc (UDO) and DVR Blue discs. The latter had the concept that was later improved in blu-ray discs.
In late 2000, Sony demonstrated the first DVR Blue discs at CEATEC exhibition. The earlier discs came with marked defects such as proneness to scratches and damage, as layer that contained data was much closer to the disc surface. These discs often needed plastic cartridges for storage.
The first Blu-ray device
Two years later, Blu-ray device was officially approved followed by the formation of Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) with nine members.
In April, 2003, Sony rolled out the first Blu-ray disc player (BD-RE with recording capabilities) and the product was available only in Japan. As Digital Rights Management (DRM) was still not formed by the time, so no blu-ray disc movies were not available by the time.
Blu-ray disc format finalised
The next three years saw the blu-ray disc format making its way towards becoming an acceptable standard for home videos. By 2004, the members of BDA declared the technical specifications of Blu-ray disc format. Next year, the new polymer coating technology developed by TDK gave scratch proof feature to blu-ray disc.
In June 2006, the first BD-ROM player and the first Blu-ray movies hit the commercial market. The earlier blu-ray discs were single layered and used DVD video format (MPEG-2). However, by September, 2006, dual layer blu-ray discs came with 50GB storage capacity and used newer codes like AVC compression methods and VC-1.
In July, 2006, Sony rolled out BWU-100A, a rewritable blu-ray disc for PC storage. This disc was available in two formats – BD-R and BD-RE.
Competition from HD-DVD
The slow growth in Blu-ray discs continued in 2006 due to the high cost, the availability of fewer titles and competition from HD-DVD. Soon, Sony launched its Playstation 3 that came with blu-ray disc player and recorder. This game console became so popular with consumers and made many of them to adopt to blu-ray disc video play back. Within twelve months, the sales figure in Blu-ray discs jumped skyward and indicated double the sales of HD-DVDS.
The emergence of Blu-ray as future generation video format
While HD-DVD was losing consumer support, many Hollywood studios started Blu-ray disc adoption and released movies in blu-ray format. In early 2008, Warner Brothers announced that it would stop using HD-DVD format and use Blu-ray format only for the newer releases from May 2008. Likewise, another supporter of HD-DVD, Paramount Pictures also announced that it would use blu-ray format for its forthcoming releases.
Many HD-DVD retailers like Wal Mart, Woolworths and Netflix also announced that they would not sell HD-DVDs in future.
In February, 2008, Toshiba, the major HD-DVD manufacturer announced that it would stop the production of HD-DVD discs and players thus ending the long battle between HD-DVD and Blu-ray disc formats.
