Title: Blue Ray Disk

Description: Blue Ray Disk

The thrust for an advanced format of data storage on optical disc led to revolutionary
introduction of BLU-RAY DISC. This advances in the race against its competitors DVD (Digital
Video Disc) & AOD (Advanced Optical Disc) in that it has high storage capacity, advanced
security and privacy features and the A/V high quality O/P (generally video) of the media files
stored on it makes it quite unique & gives an edge over the others, letting BD to be widely
adaptable in every application possible.

suprisingly, the necessity for a next generation disc had begun in 1994 even before the advent of
the DVD in the market in 1996. The then scientists predicted the limitations of the DVD format
& begun working on BD even before DVDs release. This paper essentially is confined with the
structure, construction, reading issues & advantages of the Blu-Ray Disc. To be effective, at
every stage the disc is compared with DVD.

The founding stones for the Blu Ray Disc technology were laid in 2002 by the Blu Ray Disc
Association (BDA) in an attempt to overcome the drawbacks in DVDs. This attempt has almost
reached the zenith & the world now is shortly about to use a disc of an incredible storage
capacity & with almost all the apex features incorporated, that ensures user security and privacy
and enables one to operate the disc in the most efficient and convenient way ever imagined.

Early in 1997, a new technology emerged that brought digital sound and video into homes all
over the world almost thrashing out the then conventional CDs. It was called DVD, and it
revolutionized the movie industry. This format ruled the market for over a span of 5 years, but
now is facing some very tight challenges. Here are some reasons why theres been a rush to
change from the current format of DVD:

A single-sided, standard DVD can hold 4.7 GB (gigabytes) of information. Thats about the size
of an average two-hour, standard-definition movie with a few extra features. But a high-
definition movie, which has a much clearer image, takes up about five times more bandwidth and
therefore requires a disc with about five times more storage. As TV sets and movie studios make
the move to high definition, consumers are going to need playback systems with a lot more
storage capacity, which a DVD cannot support. Also, more space on a single disc invariably
results in higher disc size. This bulky size of the disc is neither convincing nor convenient.

CSS is toast, thanks to some smart programmers in Europe and some foolish programmers at the
now-defunct Xing Technologies. The group that created the DeCSS software figured out how to
break the encryption by reverse engineering Xings DVD decryption key, which wasnt properly
protected. The end result is that DVDs can be copied as easily as music CDs. The market hates
the fact that the DVD format is now vulnerable and there's nothing they can do about it, and are
eager for a new format that is much more secure.

The final reason for the change is video quality. DVD video is presented in 480p, or 480 lines
per screen, progressive scanned video. High Definition TV (HDTV) is presented in 720p or
1080i. You wont notice any difference without a high definition television, but if you do have an
HDTV set, the improvement in quality is very noticeable. The quality of the video o/p of the
media files on a DVD or a CD is not up to the mark.

The industry is set for yet another revolution with the introduction of Blu-ray Discs (BD). With
their high storage capacity, Blu-ray discs can hold and playback large quantities of high-
definition video and audio, as well as photos, data and other digital content. Also incorporated
are some advanced security and privacy options and convenient accessibility features. A single
sided blu ray disc has the capacity to store information of about 27 gigabytes, thats about the size
of 13 hr standard definition movie or more than 2.5 hrs of a high definition movie. While the
double layered one can store to about 54 gigabytes. This enormous storage capability is
considered to be the major plus point of the blu ray disc to that of the conventional DVDs in the
market right now.

Blu ray disc is the next generation digital video disc. It has an edge over the traditional dvd's &
lesser used cd's that it has more storage capacity with the size of the disc being constant. Also
we'll discuss now the other features of this disc which makes it quite unique & gives it a chance
to be well adapted in all sorts of applications everywhere.

The structure of the Blu-Ray disc is shown as below. It differs from the traditional DVD that, in
a DVD the data is sandwiched between two 0.6mm polycarbonate layers. While in the case of a
BD the data layer is placed on a 1.1mm polycarbonate layer. To prevent the data on the top of
the disc from getting erased, the data layer is covered by a 0.1 mm protection layer. This makes
the size of all the CDs DVD's & the BD's constant. This packing of the data has many
advantages which will be discussed in the later sections.