Blu-ray recorders are already available in Japan, where more consumers have access to HDTV than in the United States. Outside of Japan, once more TV sets come equipped with a high-definition tuner and more films and television shows are produced in high-definition ( which is expected to happen by late 2005 or 2006), BIu-ray movies and TV shows on disc should become widely available. But the format is already available for home recording, professional recording and data storage.

Another important factor is cost. Just as with most new technologies, Blu-ray equipment will be pricey at first. In 2003, Sony released its first BIu-ray recorder in Japan with a price tag of around $3,000. The price is expected to drop as the format gains popularity. Blu-ray discs may also be initially more expensive than today's DVDs, but once demand grows and they can be mass-produced, manufacturers say the price will drop to within 10 percent of the price of current DVDs.

Even when the new video standard begins to replace current technologies, consumers won't have to throw away their DVDs, but they will need to invest in a new player. The industry is planning to market backward-compatible drives with both blue and red lasers, which will be able to play traditional DVDs and CDs as well as Blu-ray discs.

APPLICA TIONS:

The Play station 3 will be the first Blu-ray accessable player.

The first BIu-Ray recorder was unveiled by Sony and was introduced to the Japanese market. JVC and Samsung Electronics announced Blu-ray based products at IFA in Berlin, Germany.

Sony has announced that the PlayStation 3 will be shipped with a Blu-Ray drive, but possibly just a read-only one. Sony's machine will also support BD-ROM pre-recorded media, which are expected to be available in early 2006.

PC DATA STORAGE

Blu-ray drives currently in production can transfer approximately 36 Mbit/s (54 Mbit/s for BD-ROM), but 2x speed prototypes with a 108 Mbit/s transfer rate are in development. Rates of 8x or more are planned for the future.

Hewlett Packard has announced plans to sell Blu-ray-equipped desktop PCs and laptops. In December 2005, HP announced that they would also be supporting the rival HD DVD technology. Philips was scheduled to debut a Blu-ray computer drive in the second half of 2005, but it was also delayed. On March 10, 2005 Apple Computer joined the Blu-ray Disc Association.

CONCLUSION:

Blu-ray disc has been a consistent road map to emerging disc technologies. Blue-ray can store up to 54 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.

It’s very likely that the technology will be adopted as the next generation optical disc format for PC data storage and replace technologies such as DVD+-R, DVD+-RW, and DVD-RAM.

REFERENCES:

TEXT BOOKS:

1. Complete Guide to Digital Audio By—Chris Middleton.

2. The Digital Bits Insider Guide to DVD By—Bill Hunt

3. DVD Demystified By – Jim Taylor

WEBSITES:

1. www.howstuffworks.com

2. www.blue-ray.com