Blu-ray Players

Guide Note

A Blu-Ray player is a device used to play Blu-Ray discs. It uses a blue-violet laser used to read the data on the disc.

Fast Facts

1. Developed: 2003 in Japan
2. Developers: Blu-ray Disc Association
3. Released in US: 2006

Blu-Ray was first announced at the CEATEC exhibition in October 2000, becoming an official project of in February 2002. The first Blu-Ray players were available to consumers in Japan, beginning in April 2003, costing approximately $3,800. After many changes were made to the format, the first consumer DVDs were made available for sale in June 2006. Shortly after the first discs were made available, Sony began to mass market their Blu-Ray player for approximately $699.

Blu-Ray and HD-DVD were in a format war, each attempting to be the high-definition standard. Early on, HD-DVD was the favored type due to Blu-Ray having few titles available and the players having many bugs. The PlayStation 3 was released, doubling as a Blu-Ray player. This caused Blu-Ray to become the more popular choice, selling double the amount of HD-DVDs during the first three quarters of 2007. The war ended in January 2008 because Warner Brothers announced they would only sell Blu-Ray beginning May 2008.