Blu-Ray Background
Blu-Ray was created by Sony, first announcing them in October 2000. The project was made official in February 2002, with the first consumer devices reaching stores in July 2003. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD had been in a format war, each attempting to be the standard for high-definition discs. The war ended when Warner Brothers announced in January 2008 that they would begin only releasing Blu-Ray DVDs beginning in May 2008. This announcement caused major retailers to quit carrying HD-DVD discs.
Blu-Ray Structure
Blu-Ray uses a shorter wavelength, 405 nm, allowing for much more data to be stored on a single disc. Dual-layer Blu-Ray discs have the ability to hold up to 50GB of media, which is more than six times the capacity of a normal DVD.
References
Fast Facts
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Fact:
Blu-Ray is a high-definition DVD format
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Fact:
Uses a blue violet laser to read and write data
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Fact:
Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD in the format war
