What Is Blu-Ray Disk (BD)?

If you're looking for a high-capacity optical disk medium designed for recording, rewriting and playing back high-definition video, look no further than the Blu-Ray Disk (BD). It can store large amounts of data and be designed to supersede the DVD. The technology behind Blu-ray disks has been available since the 1990s. It wasn't until 2003 that Sony introduced a commercial product based on blue lasers. This type of laser is more efficient than red lasers used on DVDs, allowing for greater storage capacity in less space. The BD was first developed in 1996 by Sony and Philips, but it wasn't until 2006 that they were released commercially. Blu-ray offers a higher storage capacity than DVDs, with the same physical size. The newer standard also allows for easier authoring and faster load times for computer software, thanks! to a higher density of data stored on the disks. As of 2016, there are few Blu-ray writers for PC, though the technology is expected to become more familiar with the release of Windows 10, including a Blu-ray driver. Though most Blu-ray players are manufactured for the Asian market, several American and European electronics companies sell these devices. Most Blu-ray discs are encoded for a specific country (region code). There are a few discs that are encoded for all regions. Blu-ray disks are also much more durable than DVDs. If you drop one or scratch it up, don't worry! You can still use it without any loss in quality. If your Blu-ray player breaks down or gets lost in transit? No problem. You can still watch your movies on any computer with an internet connection and a DVD drive. You can think of Blu-ray technology as the big brother of DVDs. It uses a blue laser to read disks, allowing more information to be stored at greater density. That means you can fit more data on a disk and play it in your home theater system. That's pretty cool!