The World in High Def with Blue Ray TV
DVD movies first appeared in the 1990's, and they became the
most popular home video format sometime around 2000, a position
that DVD's enjoy even today. However, with a storage capacity
of only 4.7 Gb, home theater users require discs which can hold
high definition content, DVD's simply do not have the storage
capacity to hold all of that data. Therefore, nine leading
electronics companies, including Sony, Samsung, and Sharp,
began developing a next generation movie format to hold high
definition video to usher in a new era of the home theater.
With the so called “blue ray” specifications finalized, an
affordable product with Blueray TV capabilities is available
for the average consumer to watch High Definition TV.
Comparison
The biggest difference between the DVD (digital
versatile/video disc) format and the Blue ray format is that
DVD players use a red laser to read data while Blue ray players
use a blue/violet laser to read data. Basically, the shorter
wavelength of the blue/violet laser means that Blue ray discs
can store more data in the same amount of space, resulting in a
limit of 50 Gb of data as opposed to 4.7 Gb for DVD. However,
this has resulted in the players being much more expensive (at
least initially) than DVD players, and adoption rates have been
slow because of the following reasons (besides cost).
Average consumers have been confused in this recent “format
war” between Blue ray and its rival format HD-DVD in the high
definition home video market. The market was split nearly 50/50
in the beginning as vast marketing efforts in both areas and an
even split in endorsements from large movie studios like Disney
and Universal, with only two studios (Warner Bros. And
Paramount) supporting both formats, although Warner Bros. will
be Blue ray exclusive on May 31, and Paramount is already
exclusively HD-DVD. As it currently stands, about 45% of
planned and released titles are available on HD-DVD and 70% on
Blue ray.
In addition too that, Blue ray discs popularity is quickly
growing as all of Sony's PS3s can play Blue ray movies, with
millions of owners using their video game console to play
movies on. An HD-DVD drive for Microsoft's X-Box 360 was only
available as an addon while the PS3 had built in support. If
you are looking to enjoy a unique experience with movies where
you are thrown into the action, then check out Blue ray players
and movies
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