Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is an digital multimedia optical disc format developed by Sony and the Blu-ray Disc Association. It is the successor of the DVD and the CD, and it was designed to store and play high-definition movies, surround sound music, and rich interactive content.
Physical Disc
While CDs have 700MB of data and dual-layer DVDs have 8.5GB of data, each layer of a BD offers 25GB and has a continuous spiral track. A dual-layer BD has 50GB of data storage. High-definition video and uncompressed audio with very high bitrates take up space, so the disc storage capacity is very large and necessary.
The Blu-ray's physical structure and layout are complex and more advanced than the CD and DVD. A Blu-ray disc is the same size as an average CD and DVD (12 cm (4.7 in)) long and 1.2 mm thick and has an ultra-hard yet skinny polymer coating to prevent scratches and damage. The disc is made from many materials, polycarbonate for the substrate, polycarbonate film, silicone, and others for the cover layer, aluminum or silver alloy for the reflective layer, silicon nitride for the moisture barrier, pressure sensitive adhesive, photocurable acrylate adhesive, and others for the space layer, and silicon dioxide resin, silicone and others for the protective hard coating.
There are three kinds of Blu-ray Discs, prerecorded (BD-ROM), recordable (BD-R) and rewritable (BD-RE).
BD-ROMs
BD-ROMs (Read-Only Memory) is a a variant with data permanently molded (pressed) into them at the factory and is typically used to distribute commercial movies and albums. Another reason why they're called "BD-ROMs", because it was designed to be an all-in-one multimedia format, so there not officially called "BD-Video, BD-Audio, etc." like the naming conventions of the CD and DVD.
Studios must have a license from the BDA to officially manufacture and sell BD-ROMs.
BD-Rs & BD-REs
A BD-R (recordable) is a recordable variant of Blu-ray aimed at consumers (and TV broadcasters) to burn or record video/audio and store data. It is a write-once format employing inorganic material (organic dye) recording layer to which information is written (burnt) using a laser. A BD-RE (rewritable) is similar to BD-Rs except it's a rewritable format incorporating a recording layer composed of a phase-change alloy that can be rewritten at least a thousand times.
BDXL is a variant of BD-R/BD-RE, but offers 100GB storage, however, it's not compatible with standard BD players and drives, and will need a BDXL compatible player or drive.
History
On April 10 2003, Sony introduced the BDZ-S77, the first Blu-ray recorder (burnable BD-Rs/BD-REs) designed for households. It was priced at US$3,800 and targeted toward the Japanese consumer markets to record or play recordable content. At the time, the product took advantage of the digital satellite broadcasting that was bringing HDTV to more and more households.
On June 25 2006, Samsung released the first BD-ROM
player, the Samsung BD-P1000, months after HD-DVD launched, priced at
US$999.99. The first Blu-ray Disc launch titles were released on June
20, 2006: 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Hitch, House of Flying
Daggers, Underworld: Evolution, xXx (all from Sony), and MGM's The
Terminator.
From 2006 to 2008, Sony's Blu-ray competed with
Toshiba's HD-DVD and won. Blu-ray emerged victorious in the format war,
but not without consequences. It never replaced the DVD because the
rivalry caused much confusion to normie consumers (especially Americans)
as they couldn't tell the difference between the two, and many thought
HD DVDs played on standard DVD players.
When the first Blu-ray disc players launched (Samsung BD-P1000, Sony BDP-S1), they mostly received positive reviews for their superior image quality, immersive sound, and interactive features. However, they also faced some criticism. Initially, the players were slow to load content, the price was high, there were playback glitches, a few launch titles to choose from, and some models were incompatible with CDs. Today, newer players have improved over the years and are usually affordable. According to Blu-ray.com (not affiliated with BDA), there are over 20,000 Blu-ray titles.
Application Formats
BD-ROMs use the BDMV application format to meet the standard requirements for distributing high-definition commercial movies, surround sound music, and Java video games. For menus and interactive software, BDMV applications have two 32-bit play modes, HDMV mode and BD-J mode. These modes are more advanced than primitive DVD menus.
See: BDMV Application formatBD-ROMs that use non-standard applications and specs (e.g. PS3, Xbox One) are called Data BDs (equivalent to Black Book CD).
BD-Rs/BD-REs commonly use the BDAV Application format for simple DVD-like interactivity, usually for broadcasters, owners of TV recorders, and hobbyist. BDAV (v.5) has three play modes, HDMV TS, HEVC TS, and SESF (Also supports Japan's IDSB broadcasting format). BDMV apps can be burned to BD-Rs/BD-REs. BDAV apps can be converted to BDMV apps (HDMV TS to HDMV only). BDAV interactivity is very similar to DVD.
BD-REs use the RREF (Realtime recording and Editing Format).
Some film labels will release BDMV
movie titles in burnt BD-Rs (because it's cheaper without going through licensing with the BDA). It's not illegal or anything, but it's not recommended because since BD-Rs use organic dye it
will eventually fade over time, making it a burden for collectors. In
contrast, disc storage of a BD-ROM is permanently molded, meaning it
will last for a very long time. Also, commercial BD-Rs are NOT allowed to use the Blu-ray disc logo.
Successor
In 2016, Ultra HD Blu-ray (UHD-BD or UHDs) (ROM Part3 V3.2) was released as a successor to Blu-ray, providing 4K video and HDR. Adoption is slow and is targeted toward a niche market for cinephiles.
Footnotes
- [1] Source from Page 3 of White paper Blu-ray Disc Format 3. File System Specifications for BD-RE, R, ROM - 2004
- [2] Source from Error-Correction codes For Optical Disc Storage (PDF)
Standards and specs
- Blu-ray Official White Paper Tech Specs and 3D specs (PDF) Version 2.5 - 2011 - Details of the BD platform standards (Up-to-date for standard BD development)
- Blu-ray Official White Paper Tech Specs and 3D specs (PDF) Version 2.4 - 2010 - Details of the BD platform standards
- BD-J Baseline Application and Logical Model Definition for BD-ROM (PDF) 2005 - Details of BDJ Application Software Standards on Figure 7.0
- White Paper Blu-ray Disc™ Format 1.C Physical Format Specifications for BD-ROM - 8th Edition December 2012
- White Paper Blu-ray Disc™ Format 1.C Physical Format Specifications for BD-ROM - 6th Edition October, 2010
- Blu-ray Official White Paper Tech Specs for Ultra HD BD (PDF) Version 3.2 - 2018
- Physical Format Specifications for BD-ROM (PDF) - 2015
- Blu-ray Official White Paper Tech Specs (PDF) Draft Version 0.2 - 2005
- File System Specifications for BD-ROM (PDF) - 2004
- Other Official General Tech Info
- White paper Blu-ray Disc Format 4. Key Technologies - August 2004
- Blu-ray Format BD-J Application Definitions and Specs (PDF)
- Blu-ray Disc (BD) Multi-Media Command Set Proposal for INCITS Version 1.1 8 July 2008
- Blu-ray Disc (BD) Multi-Media Command Set Description - Draft 0.5 2005
- White Paper Blu-ray Disc ™ Rewritable Format Audio Visual Application Format Specifications for BD-RE Version 5.0 - 2018
- White Paper Blu-ray Disc ™ Rewritable Format Audio Visual Application Format Specifications for BD-RE Version 1.0 - 2006 (outdated)
- White paper Blu-ray Disc Format 3. File System Specifications for BD-RE, R, ROM - 2004
- White Paper Blu-ray Disc™ Format (PDF) - General 3rd Edition December, 2012
- White Paper Blu-ray Disc™ Format 1. B Physical Format Specifications for BD-R - 5th Edition October, 2010
- White Paper Blu-ray Disc™ Format 1.C Physical Format Specifications for BD-ROM - 6th Edition October, 2010
- White Paper Blu-ray Disc™ Format 1.C Physical Format Specifications for BD-ROM - 9th Edition August 2015
- White paper Blu-ray Disc Format General - August 2004
Other links
- Wikipedia article
- Archive Team page
- Blu-ray Disc Association website
- Why Facebook thinks Blu-ray discs are perfect for the data center
- More on Facebook's "Cold Storage"
- Related patent application (European Patent Application EP1821310)
- Article on UHD Blu-ray
Author(s) : Æ Firestone
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