Tuesday 10 November 2009

The Blu-ray Ascendancy

By James Pynn

Celebrating 70 years, Disney released the definitive Blu-ray edition of PINOCCHIO this past spring. This edition features a richer, more detailed version of the beloved classic and has a wealth of previously unreleased bonus material, hence the second disc. To be sure, the list of exclusive Disney DVDs being converted to the blue laser has grown exponentially.

The avid fan would be well advised to start saving. Over the past two years the Blu-ray catalog of films has tripled. Though most studios are release their home entertainment features on both DVD and Blu-ray, the future is exclusively blue. Seven of the big eight studios, including Disney, will be releasing future films exclusively on Blu-ray. This means the still relatively expensive Blu-ray readers will be dropping in price. It's the CD revolution all over again.

The end of the'90s brought with it a heated technological battle between the emerging HD DVD and the Blu-ray disc, it was glaringly obvious that nothing could compare to the Blu-ray capacity. The best HD discs could not compete with the Blu-ray's data storage capacity or even its audio or video transfer rates. When Sony enabled their PS3 line with Blu-ray readers, it was the effective end of HD DVDs.

The success of the Blu-ray disc has everything to do with who funded its development, namely Apple, Sony, and Dell. Yes, that's right. These powers converged around this little disc because it utilizes a revolutionary blue-violet laser to read the disc. That's right: a blue laser. The blue spectrum provides a more detailed video image and its narrow focus allows more information to be encoded on the disc. In fact, it can hold twice the information on one disc than an ordinary HD disc. Say goodbye to the double-DVD movies.

Though DVDs are still in wide circulation, the average consumer would be well advised to make the changeover sooner rather than later. Its a powerful new disc, virtually identical to the CD disc were come to know and love. What is the big difference? They tend to blue. The only significant difference is in the reading of the laser-encoded data. The reading? Fear not, my friend, come closer and listen. Just as every dawn has its day, so too, does every disc have its own kind of reader.

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