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Blu-ray Disc

Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage media format. Its main uses are high-definition video and data storage. The disc has the same dimensions as a standard DVD or CD.The name Blu-ray Disc is derived from the blue-violet laser used to read and write this type of disc. Because of its shorter wavelength (405 nm), substantially more data can be stored on a Blu-ray Disc than on the DVD format, which uses a red (650 nm) laser. A dual layer Blu-ray Disc can store 50 GB, almost six times the capacity of a dual layer DVD.

Blu-ray Disc was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, a group of companies representing consumer electronics, computer hardware, and motion picture production. The standard is covered by several patents belonging to different companies. As of March 2007, a joint licensing agreement for all the relevant patents had not yet been finalized. As of April 5, 2008, more than 530 Blu-ray Disc titles have been released in the United States, and more than 250 in Japan.

During the high definition optical disc format war, Blu-ray Disc competed with the HD DVD format. On February 19, 2008, Toshiba — the main company supporting HD DVD — announced it would no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders, leading almost all other HD DVD supporters to follow suit, effectively naming Blu-ray the victor of the format war.

 

DVD Disc

DVD (also known as "Digital Versatile Disc" or "Digital Video Disc" - see Etymology) is a popular optical disc storage media format. Its main uses are video and data storage. Most DVDs are of the same dimensions as compact discs (CDs) but store more than six times as much data.

Variations of the term DVD often describe the way data is stored on the discs: DVD-ROM has data which can only be read and not written, DVD-R and DVD+R can be written once and then function as a DVD-ROM, and DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, or DVD+RW hold data that can be erased and thus re-written multiple times. The wavelength used by standard DVD lasers is 650 nm, and thus has a red color.

DVD-Video and DVD-Audio discs respectively refer to properly formatted and structured video and audio content. Other types of DVDs, including those with video content, may be referred to as DVD-Data discs. As next generation High definition optical formats also use a disc identical in some aspects yet more advanced than a DVD, such as Blu-ray Disc, the original DVD is often given the retronym SD DVD.

 

Compact Disc

An optical disc used to store music and data. Commonly abbreviated CD. Compact discs are made from a thin disc of polycarbonate and a metal layer in the middle of the disc. They are available in a range of sizes but the most commonly available by a long way is 120mm in diameter. A 120mm disc can store about 74 minutes of music or about 650 megabytes of data.

Compact discs cannot be easily recorded; they are manufactured by etching a glass plate and using that plate to press metal. However there are also CD-R discs, which can be recorded by a laser beam using a CD-R writer (most often on a computer, though standalone units are also available), and can be played on (most) compact disc players.