The technology of home video has advanced significantly over the past few years, and is continuing to grow at an incredible rate. Up until recently Digital Vesatile Discs or DVDs were the last big advance in consumer video technology and they remain on top of the market for the time being. Recently a new home video product has been released to keep up with the ever advancing world of electronics, it is a new format of video storage called Blu-ray Disc or BD.



Blu-Ray or BD is the next generation of optical discs and it uses superior technology to the basic DVDs we currently watch. Conventional DVDs use a red laser that has long wave lengths, which limits the storage capacity of the DVD. Blu-Ray or BD use a blue laser that has much shorter wave lengths. The wave lengths being shorter on a Blu-Ray or BD allow for more storage capacity on the disc because the laser can focus on a much smaller area, and this allows the data to be packed more tightly on the BD.

The average Single Layer DVD disc can only hold about 4.5 GB of data, while the average Single Layer Blu-Ray discs can hold up to 25 GBs. That is almost 5 times the storage capacity of the technology most people are using right now with the standard DVD. Blu-ray or BD has significantly increased the amount of data that we can save on one single disc and over time it will change the way we save our information.

A dual layer Blu-Ray disc has the ability to hold up to 4 hours of high definition video or 50GB of Data. That means that movies that used to come in a two disc set can now be on one BD disc or that box sets that had several discs may now need only one or two discs. Having 50GB of storage is around the same size

of many of our home computer hard drives and with the creation of the BD disc we will be able to take that amount of information with us easily anywhere that we want to.

It took several years, but DVD eventually over threw the VHS as the primary home video technology. The same situation should eventually occur between the DVD and BD discs over the next several years. Over time more people will begin switching to HD TV sets and along with that they will want quality HD video to play on their TV. Blu-ray is the best source for quality HD video and as more people convert other technologies to HD they will begin using BD.

Additionally, people that are using DVD or CD for storage will greatly benefit from the ability to eventually store their information on a BD. The technology will give them the ability to fit all the information they want on one BD disc rather than having to use multiple DVDs or CDS. Once the

BD disc becomes more readily available for purchase it will slowly but surely replace our currently more prevalent technologies.