By Martin Wyman
They’re coming, they’re coming! The Blu-rays are coming! If you’ve been anxious for Blu-ray technology to arrive to your PC or laptop, the day has come. Blu-ray drives for computers are making their way into the mainstream.
These first generation drives come at a pretty penny and often require video card upgrades if you want to view Blu-ray movies on your computer. Both Sony and Phillips have Blu-ray disc drives specifically for computers.
Depending on whether the drive has writing capabilities, this Blu-ray technology lets computer users store up to 50 gigabytes of data on a disc. That’s oodles of storage capacity especially considering many hard drives have less storage capacity.
If watching high-definition Blu-ray discs on your computer is the ultimate goal and storage capacity isn’t your primary concern, a Blu-ray player without writing capabilities will suffice. Keep in mind that you will need to upgrade your video card to handle the high definition video.
These Blu-ray disc players and Blu-ray recorders for PCs come in standard 5.25 inch drives just like your typical DVD or CD-ROM drive. If you’ve ever installed a new drive before, you’ll know it’s a matter of turning off the PC, unplugging the PC, opening up the case, installing the Blu-ray disc drive into an available slot, and plugging in the various cables to the motherboard and power supply all the while making sure to be static-free.
While you have the case open, swap out your old-fashioned video graphics card for a high definition graphics card. In addition to the physical installation, you must also install software and drivers. If installing the new Blu-ray device, related hardware and software sounds like too much of a hassle, your local electronics store or computer shop will be well-equipped for the job.
What’s a little more money to get the job done correctly, right?
Martin Wyman is a contributing author on Blu-ray News at http://www.mangotango.co.uk/technology-news/.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Martin_Wyman
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Blu-ray: A Primer
By Kenny Hemphill
Blu-ray is an optical disc format which is set to rival HD-DVDin the race to be the de-facto standard storage medium for HDTV. The HD-DVD vs Blu-ray battle resembles that between Betamax and VHS and DVD+RW and DVD-RW.
Currently, the major Hollywood film studios are split evenly in their support for Blu- ray and HD-DVD, but most of the electronics industry is currently in the blue corner.
The key difference between these new players and recorders and current optical disc technology is that Blu-ray, as its name suggests, uses a blue-violet laser to read and write data rather than a red one.
Blue light has a shorter wavelength than red light, and according to the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), which is made up of, amongst others, Sony, Philips, Panasonic, and Pioneer, this means that the laser spot can be focussed with greater precision.
Blu-ray discs have a maximum capacity of 25GB and dual-layer discs can hold up to 50GB - enough for four hours of HDTV. Like HD-DVD, Blue laser discs don’t require a caddy and the players and recorders will be able to play current DVD discs.
Codecs supported by Blu-ray include the H.264 MPEG-4 codec which will form part of Apple’s QuickTime 7, and the Windows Media 9 based VC-1.
The BDA says that although blue laser discs and players are already shipping in Japan, they won’t ship in the US until the end of 2005 at the very earliest. It is likely that players will be very expensive initially, compared to DVD players.
In Japan, they cost the equivalent of $2000. However, as with all new technology, prices will quickly fall - particularly as Blu-ray will be competing with HD-DVD for that space under your TV.
Kenny Hemphill is the editor and publisher of The HDTV Tuner - a guide to the kit, the technology and the programming on HDTV.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kenny_Hemphill
Blu-ray is an optical disc format which is set to rival HD-DVDin the race to be the de-facto standard storage medium for HDTV. The HD-DVD vs Blu-ray battle resembles that between Betamax and VHS and DVD+RW and DVD-RW.
Currently, the major Hollywood film studios are split evenly in their support for Blu- ray and HD-DVD, but most of the electronics industry is currently in the blue corner.
The key difference between these new players and recorders and current optical disc technology is that Blu-ray, as its name suggests, uses a blue-violet laser to read and write data rather than a red one.
Blue light has a shorter wavelength than red light, and according to the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), which is made up of, amongst others, Sony, Philips, Panasonic, and Pioneer, this means that the laser spot can be focussed with greater precision.
Blu-ray discs have a maximum capacity of 25GB and dual-layer discs can hold up to 50GB - enough for four hours of HDTV. Like HD-DVD, Blue laser discs don’t require a caddy and the players and recorders will be able to play current DVD discs.
Codecs supported by Blu-ray include the H.264 MPEG-4 codec which will form part of Apple’s QuickTime 7, and the Windows Media 9 based VC-1.
The BDA says that although blue laser discs and players are already shipping in Japan, they won’t ship in the US until the end of 2005 at the very earliest. It is likely that players will be very expensive initially, compared to DVD players.
In Japan, they cost the equivalent of $2000. However, as with all new technology, prices will quickly fall - particularly as Blu-ray will be competing with HD-DVD for that space under your TV.
Kenny Hemphill is the editor and publisher of The HDTV Tuner - a guide to the kit, the technology and the programming on HDTV.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kenny_Hemphill
Blu-Ray Technology in a Nutshell
By Martin Wyman
Just when you finally ditched all those VHS tapes in favor of DVD, another technology comes out promising even better picture quality and gobs of storage capacity - Blu-ray technology. But what exactly is a Blu-ray disc and is it worth the upgrade?
If Blu-ray sounds like a sci-fi laser beam to you, you're on the right track. No, it's not an alien death ray gun. While Blu-ray discs are sure to feature plenty of B movies crawling with aliens, the technology behind the format is high tech.
Traditional DVD players use red laser beams to read and write the data. These red laser beams do the job however the blue-violet lasers that Blu-ray recorders and Blu-ray players use is far superior. The shorter wavelength of the blue lasers allows for greater focusing precision and tighter packaging of data.
A Blu-ray disc can hold more than five times the amount of data than a DVD disc, up to 50 gigabytes. And the Blu-ray technology promises to evolve with rumors of a multi-layer 200GB Blu-ray disc in the works.
Now that's impressive! Imagine getting the entire Star Wars series on a single disc. The technology supports additional layering so today's Blu-ray players will be able to play tomorrow's multi-layer discs.
A key reason to consider investing in a Blu-ray player or recorder is to take advantage of its high definition capabilities.
What good is that 50-inch HD plasma TV if you can't enjoy your movies in all their HD glory? Major movie studios support Blu-ray technology with many now releasing movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. You won't have to toss your DVD collection either as Blu-ray players are backwards-compatible with DVDs.
If you remember the days of Betamax versus VHS, you may be concerned about format wars. Get over it! Major manufacturers including Sony, Apple, Hitachi, HP, Dell, JVC, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, LG, Pioneer, TDK, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, and Thomson are all on board and each played a part in the joint development of the Blu-ray technology.
The future is here folks. Now, if only someone would come out with an affordable jetpack.
Martin Wyman is a contributing author on Blu-ray News at http://www.mangotango.co.uk/technology-news/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Martin_Wyman
Just when you finally ditched all those VHS tapes in favor of DVD, another technology comes out promising even better picture quality and gobs of storage capacity - Blu-ray technology. But what exactly is a Blu-ray disc and is it worth the upgrade?
If Blu-ray sounds like a sci-fi laser beam to you, you're on the right track. No, it's not an alien death ray gun. While Blu-ray discs are sure to feature plenty of B movies crawling with aliens, the technology behind the format is high tech.
Traditional DVD players use red laser beams to read and write the data. These red laser beams do the job however the blue-violet lasers that Blu-ray recorders and Blu-ray players use is far superior. The shorter wavelength of the blue lasers allows for greater focusing precision and tighter packaging of data.
A Blu-ray disc can hold more than five times the amount of data than a DVD disc, up to 50 gigabytes. And the Blu-ray technology promises to evolve with rumors of a multi-layer 200GB Blu-ray disc in the works.
Now that's impressive! Imagine getting the entire Star Wars series on a single disc. The technology supports additional layering so today's Blu-ray players will be able to play tomorrow's multi-layer discs.
A key reason to consider investing in a Blu-ray player or recorder is to take advantage of its high definition capabilities.
What good is that 50-inch HD plasma TV if you can't enjoy your movies in all their HD glory? Major movie studios support Blu-ray technology with many now releasing movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. You won't have to toss your DVD collection either as Blu-ray players are backwards-compatible with DVDs.
If you remember the days of Betamax versus VHS, you may be concerned about format wars. Get over it! Major manufacturers including Sony, Apple, Hitachi, HP, Dell, JVC, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, LG, Pioneer, TDK, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, and Thomson are all on board and each played a part in the joint development of the Blu-ray technology.
The future is here folks. Now, if only someone would come out with an affordable jetpack.
Martin Wyman is a contributing author on Blu-ray News at http://www.mangotango.co.uk/technology-news/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Martin_Wyman
BLU-RAY REV
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson).
The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience.
While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. Despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray products can easily be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit.
The benefit of using a blue-violet laser (405nm) is that it has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm), which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly and stored in less space, so it's possible to fit more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 is what enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25GB/50GB.
Blu-ray is currently supported by more than 180 of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer, recording media, video game and music companies. The format also has broad support from the major movie studios as a successor to today's DVD format. In fact, seven of the eight major movie studios (Disney, Fox, Warner, Paramount, Sony, Lionsgate and MGM) have released movies in the Blu-ray format and six of them (Disney, Fox, Sony, Warner, Lionsgate and MGM) are releasing their movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format.
Many studios have also announced that they will begin releasing new feature films on Blu-ray Disc day-and-date with DVD, as well as a continuous slate of catalog titles every month. For more information about Blu-ray movies, check out our Blu-ray movies and Blu-ray reviews section which offers information about new and upcoming Blu-ray releases, as well as what movies are currently available in the Blu-ray format.
For more information about Blu-ray, please see our Blu-ray FAQ
Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson).
The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience.
While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. Despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray products can easily be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit.
The benefit of using a blue-violet laser (405nm) is that it has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm), which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly and stored in less space, so it's possible to fit more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 is what enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25GB/50GB.
Blu-ray is currently supported by more than 180 of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer, recording media, video game and music companies. The format also has broad support from the major movie studios as a successor to today's DVD format. In fact, seven of the eight major movie studios (Disney, Fox, Warner, Paramount, Sony, Lionsgate and MGM) have released movies in the Blu-ray format and six of them (Disney, Fox, Sony, Warner, Lionsgate and MGM) are releasing their movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format.
Many studios have also announced that they will begin releasing new feature films on Blu-ray Disc day-and-date with DVD, as well as a continuous slate of catalog titles every month. For more information about Blu-ray movies, check out our Blu-ray movies and Blu-ray reviews section which offers information about new and upcoming Blu-ray releases, as well as what movies are currently available in the Blu-ray format.
For more information about Blu-ray, please see our Blu-ray FAQ
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Blu Ray a New Age Optical Media Format
By Chuck Red
DVD has long overtaken VHS as the medium for recording TV and pre recorded films.
How long will it be before DVD is superseded by the next development? Capacity is the issue here. The possibilities in terms of audio and audiovisual quality created by HDTV will require a medium with greater capacity than can be afforded by today’s DVD disc.
The next generation of recordable media are being developed. Blu ray disc is currently being developed by a consortium of companies including Hitachi, LG, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Thompson.
Dell and Hewlett Packard are also supporting Blu ray disc technology. Blu ray disc has a capacity of 25GB per layer compared to DVDs 4.7GB.
This technology is being developed because of this greater capacity and this is being mainly driven by the expected explosion of high definition TV. The additional capacity will be nessercary to capture the enhanced quality feature of HDTV.
At present Sony has launched a Blu ray recorder onto the Japanese market specifically for recording HDTV.
In parallel, Toshiba and NEC are developing a rival format HD DVD, which although has less capacity than Blu ray (15GB) but the HD DVD is similar to Blu ray but the physical properties are closer to current DVDs and can be replicated on existing machinery.
Blu ray on the other hand requires new manufacturing equipment.
Whether HD DVD or Blu ray disc become the established protocol remains to be seen, but either one could become the industry standard over the next few years.
Chuck Red Owns and maintains several websites including http://www.ps3-er.com and http://www.blueray-media.co.uk
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chuck_Red
DVD has long overtaken VHS as the medium for recording TV and pre recorded films.
How long will it be before DVD is superseded by the next development? Capacity is the issue here. The possibilities in terms of audio and audiovisual quality created by HDTV will require a medium with greater capacity than can be afforded by today’s DVD disc.
The next generation of recordable media are being developed. Blu ray disc is currently being developed by a consortium of companies including Hitachi, LG, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Thompson.
Dell and Hewlett Packard are also supporting Blu ray disc technology. Blu ray disc has a capacity of 25GB per layer compared to DVDs 4.7GB.
This technology is being developed because of this greater capacity and this is being mainly driven by the expected explosion of high definition TV. The additional capacity will be nessercary to capture the enhanced quality feature of HDTV.
At present Sony has launched a Blu ray recorder onto the Japanese market specifically for recording HDTV.
In parallel, Toshiba and NEC are developing a rival format HD DVD, which although has less capacity than Blu ray (15GB) but the HD DVD is similar to Blu ray but the physical properties are closer to current DVDs and can be replicated on existing machinery.
Blu ray on the other hand requires new manufacturing equipment.
Whether HD DVD or Blu ray disc become the established protocol remains to be seen, but either one could become the industry standard over the next few years.
Chuck Red Owns and maintains several websites including http://www.ps3-er.com and http://www.blueray-media.co.uk
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chuck_Red
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