BLU-RAY DISC

Blu-ray Disc (BD), sometimes called “Blu-ray,” is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the standard DVD format. Its main uses are for storing high-definition video, PlayStation 3 video games, and other data, with up to 25 GB per single layered, and 50 GB per dual layered disc. The disc has the same physical dimensions as standard DVDs and CDs.

Blu-ray is the next-generation digital video disc. It can record, store and play back high-definition video and digital audio, as well as computer data. The advantage to Blu-ray is the sheer amount of information it can hold:

• A single-layer Blu-ray disc, which is roughly the same size as a DVD, can hold up to 27 GB of data — that’s more than two hours of high-definition video or about 13 hours of standard video.
• A double-layer Blu-ray disc can store up to 50 GB, enough to hold about 4.5 hours of high-definition video or more than 20 hours of standard video. And there are even plans in the works to develop a disc with twice that amount of storage.

BLU RAY DISK

MEDIUM TYPE: High density optical disc

ENCODING: MPEG-2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and VC-1

CAPACITY: 25 GB (single-layer)
50 GB (dual-layer)

Block size: 64kb ECC

Mechanism: 1× @ 36 Mbit/s (4.5 MByte/s)
2× @ 72 Mbit/s (9 MByte/s)
4× @ 144 Mbit/s (18 MByte/s)
6× @ 216 Mbit/s (27 MByte/s)
8× @ 288 Mbit/s (36 MByte/s)
12× @ 432 Mbit/s (54 MByte/s)

Usage: Data storage
High-definition video
High-definition audio
PlayStation 3 games

Recordable 25GB single-layer and 50GB dual-layer discs for $17.99 and $42.99 respectively as well as rewritable 25GB and 50GB discs for $24.99 and $59.99 respectively.