These blu-ray discs have faced a good competition and struggled to be a part of the commercial market. This is only because of the expensive ‘laser blue-violet diode’ used in them. Though expensive they over leaped the other formats and now are the extensively used discs all around the world.

These blu-ray discs are the optical storage media which superseded the DVDs due to their huge storage capacity that is 10 times more than the normal DVDs. They are available both in single layered and double layered which can store 25GB and 50GB respectively. The store very high definition data and can be used with maximum resolution, Sony playstation3 games also comes under this type of data, which can be processed on these discs very easily.

Their physical appearance is same as that of the normal DVDs and their names comes from the laser light used for reading and writing purposes; it’s the ‘blue-violet light’. This blue-violet light is of the shorter wavelength then the red light used to read and write regular DVDs. It has a wavelength of 405nm where as it is 650nm or more used for regular DVD media.

At the beginning there was a format war between the HD DVD and the blu-ray discs. Toshiba, the electronics company was behind the war and promoted the HD DVDs. But the blu-ray discs were far more advantageous than the HD DVDs. Due to the drawbacks of the HD DVDs Toshiba has come down and the war ended in 2008 and then onwards it started to manufacture their own blu-ray discs. There were also many issues regarding the commercializing of this blu-ray technology due to their cost.

The Sony BDZ S77 was the first blu-ray disc burner which was available in the market and it was $4000(us)! There were no movies for the player too. The physical specifications and other standard factors came into existence only in the year 2004.

Sony pioneer, Toshiba, Samsung then started to work on this blu-ray technology. The BD ROM was introduced in the year 2006. The blu-ray discs have faced competition with the HD DVD ROMs players which were introduced 6 months earlier to this blu-ray innovation. The 50GB discs were available in the market from 2006 only.

The first blu-ray disc drive which grabbed all the attention was the BWU-100 A from Sony which supported both single layered and double layered disc and also the BD-RE discs and them after 9.6 million devices were sold in the year 2008!. These were also called as the next generation storage media. Today many companies are trying to produce discs with more storage data capacity which can range up to 100GB!

So all these are the factors that help analyze the future of these blu-ray discs and the vast amount of data they are about to provide on one single disc. So be ready to dump all the huge number of DVDs you have and replace them with one blu-ray disc.

The performance of this Disc Burner is very good.  No error has yet been noticed in the data recorded.  This DVD burner has passed all the quality checks prescribed by the testing authorities.  This burner is capable of recording all types of data on the DVD.  There are many brands obtainable in the market.  If thinking of buying a dual layer DVD burner, internet is the best resource available for seeking the information.  All information related to specifications, configurations and compatibility, technical qualifications are available on internet.  Is always recommended to go through the information regarding the equipment before the purchase.  It helps in making the decision regarding the brand, the qualities etc.  These burners are very reliable and affordable in price.   The most reliable brand name in the Dual layer DVD burners is M/s Verbatim.  Initially, this company use to manufacture the floppy disc but now it is manufacturing the DVD burners.  Usually, the speed of the DVD burners is measured in 2x, 4x, 8x and so on.  This DVD burner is competable with drive.  Technically, the speed of this burner is less and hence this aspect makes it little bit less popular that single layer DVD burners.  When compared in quality, the output is good.  But the time taken to record the data is much more.  This aspect downgrades the performance of the DVD burner and also affects the market.  These DVD burners come with a plug and play facility.  They are the inbuilt software, whenever they are plugged in the software will start functioning, and the equipment will start working.  Following are the few points which should be remembered while purchasing the dual layer DVD burners and while functioning:-

The DVD to be written of should be branded one.  Local DVD should not be used.  This might corrupt the data stored and may also effect the functioning of the DVD burners.

While the DVD burner is in process, the equipment should not be disturbed.  Might effect the process.

History

Sony began with two projects applying the new diodes: The Ultra Density Optical (UDO), and DVR Blue a set-up of rewritable discs that would ultimately develop into Blu-ray Disc. The base technologies of the formats are similar overall.
The first DVR Blue sample was revealed at the CEATEC exhibition in October 2000. On February 19, 2002, the project was formally declared as Blu-ray, and the nine initial members founded Blu-ray Disc burner.
The first customer device was in supplies on April 10, 2003. This gadget was the Sony BDZ-S77, a recorder that was made obtainable only in Japan. The suggested price was US$3800, yet, there was no standard movies or prerecorded video, released for this player. The Blu-ray Disc standard was yet years away, as a newer, more protected Digital Rights Management system was desired before the Hollywood studios would agree to use it. On October 4, 2004, the Blu-ray Disc Founders were authoritatively changed to the Blu-ray Disc Association and 20th Century Fox joined the Board of Directors of this association.

BLU RAY DISC

Blu-ray Disc sometimes termed as “Blu-ray,” is an ocular disc storage means designed to take the place of the customary DVD format. Its major uses are to store PlayStation 3 video games, high-definition video, and other data, with about 25 GB each single layered, and 50 GB each double layered disc. The Blu ray disc has the same substantial dimensions as customary DVDs and CDs.
The given name Blu-ray Disc is derived from the blue-violet laser used to read the disc. whilst a standard DVD use a 650 nm red laser, Blu-ray has a shorter wavelength of a 405 nm blue-violet laser, and consent to for roughly six times additional data storage than a regular DVD.
All through the format war on the high-definition optical discs, Blu-ray raced with the HD DVD format. The main company supporting HD DVD Toshiba, surrendered in February 2008, and the thus format war finished; in July 2009, Toshiba declared plans to publicize its own Blu-ray Disc device by the end of 2009.
The Blu-ray Disc Association, a group representing makers of consumer electronics, computer hardware, and motion pictures, developed Blu-ray Disc. More than 1,500 Blu-ray disc titles are existing in Australia, 1,500 in the United Kingdom, with 2,500 in Japan, and 2,500 in the United States and Canada.

When blu-ray discs hit the market, there was tough competition from HD DVD (which is also termed format war). Toshiba was behind the promotion of HD DVDs and tried its best to make HD DVD popular. There are many drawbacks associated with HD DVDs and Toshiba had to back down. The format war came to an end in early 2008 and Toshiba started making its own blu-ray devices. Blu-ray discs superseded the HD DVDs. The blue-ray discs is developed by the blu-ray disc association which is a group comprising of computer hardware, consumer electronics and motion picture associations. In matter of just an year, thousands of movies and games were made available on blu-ray media. There were many issues for commercialization of blu-ray technology and devices. Initially, the devices were very expensive and the blue laser diode invented by the Shuji Nakamura could not be utilized because of lawsuit.

Blu-ray discs were based on optical rewritable discs which used ultra density optical diodes and DVR blue. The DVR prototypes that were developed came to known as blu-ray discs. Blu-ray discs were commercially available in the year 2003 and were only available in Japan. The blu-ray device – Sony BDZ S77 was very expensive and priced at $4000.No movies were released for the player and had no standards. The physical specifications and other standards came in to existence in 2004. Sony, Toshiba, Samsung and Pioneer were the companies that started producing blu-ray discs. The BD ROM players were actually introduced in the year 2006 and had to face competition from HD DVD ROM players since they arrived in the market 6 months earlier. Mpeg 2 codec were used, later AVC and VC1 were also implemented. 50 GB dual layer discs were commercialized in 2006. The first writer that became famous was blu-ray disc rewritable drive – BWU-100 A from Sony. The writer supported both single and dual layer discs and also BD RE discs. Blu-ray became extremely popular after the format war ended and was better accepted than DVD format. 9.6 million blu-ray devices were sold in 2008.

Blu ray discs uses Indium Gallium Nitride lasers that produce 405 nm photons without using any mechanisms like non-linear optical mechanisms or frequency doubling. The regular DVDs and CDs use red infrared lasers at 650 and 780 nm respectively.

The shorter wavelength makes it possible to focus laser light on a smaller spot size that boosts the size of the optical media. The spot size of the blu-ray disc may be equivalent to 580 nm. Data encoding techniques have also been improved that has contributed to the success of the blu-ray discs. Although the blu-ray discs out beat the DVD discs in every manner, the blu-ray discs are more prone to damage or scratching of the disc since the data layer is very close to the disc surface. Cartridges were being used, but it made blu-ray discs even more expensive. Later scratch protection coatings were developed and it was first introduced by TDK. Nowadays, many companies have their own customized hard coat technology to protect the data layer of the blu-ray discs. Blu-ray discs have come a long way and they are the next generation storage media. Many companies are trying to produce even higher storage capacity discs that can store over 100 GB.

The advantage of blu-ray disc over the DVD is that the data is placed directly on the top of a 1.1 mm thick polycarbonate layer. This avoids all the readability issues, since birefringence (double refraction) is prevented. Birefrigence is a phenomenon in which light waves are split into unequal transmitted or reflected waves through an optically anisotropic medium. The disc tilting problem present in the DVDs is completely avoided, since the data layer is situated closer to the object lens. This closeness may cause damage to the data layer and hence the layer is coated with hard coat to avoid finger print and scratches.

The design of blu-ray discs is such that it avoids manufacturing costs. DVDs are built using injection molding process, which uses two 0.6 mm discs and the recording layer is sandwiched between them. The process has to be carried out extremely carefully to avoid birefringence. After molding, the recording layer is attached to one of the discs and the two discs are glued together. In the case of the blu-ray disc, the injection molding process is carried out on a single 1.1 mm thick disc. This saves the manufacturing cost and the savings is used for protecting the layer. The data transfer rate of a blu-ray disc is 36 Mbps that is 3.5 times more than a latest DVD – 10 Mbps. Future for blu-ray discs and devices look very bright.

• DVD+R – These are recordable discs similar to CD-R and once data is written, it cannot be erased or changed. The data is permanently stored on the disc. Most of the companies like Sony, Hewlett Packard, Dell, Yamaha and many more companies support this format.
• DVD+RW – This type of discs can be rewritten or modified as many times. They are called re writable DVD discs. Of course, the number of times the data can be re-written is limited and the disc is prone to damage after excessive usage.
• DVD-R: These are DVDs that can be recorded only one time and once recorded; the data is permanent and cannot be changed or erased. There are two types available and they include DVD-RG and DVD-RA. DVD-RG is common recordable disc available for general use and DVD-RA are used for mastering. Hitachi, Smasung, Apple Panasonic and Toshiba are some of the companies that support this format. The “+” and “-“(DVD+R and DVD-R) just refer to physical format and way of data storing. There is no other difference.
• DVD-RW: This is similar to DVD+RW. Data can be burned on to the disc any number of time without damaging the disc.
• DVD–RAM: These discs are rewritable discs that can be burned and modified repeatedly, but they can be used with only disc burners that support it. They are encased in cartridges and are very expensive.
• DVD-ROM: This is the de facto standard that is similar to CD-ROM. These discs are read only and cannot be altered. Popular games DVDs are provided on this type of optical media.
• DVD+R DL – These are dual layer DVD recordable discs. They can hold more data compared to the single layer or ordinary DVDs. Double sided dual layer discs can hole approximately 16 GB of data. DVD-R DL is also similar to DVD+R DL. They are also called DVD+R9 or DVD-R9.
• DVD VCD – An ordinary disc in which the data is encoded to MPEG1 video format. DVD-SVCD refers to DVD that provides SVCD content. DVD discs do not support this format and these are non standard discs.
• DVD-D: these are discs that get damaged and cannot be read after 48 hours. These help to curb piracy and are provided as rental DVDs.
• HD-DVD is a DVD that can store large amount of data, about 2-3 times that data stored on regular DVD.

From 2003 onwards, multi format disc burners have been introduced that can burn and read any type of DVD format.  Therefore, consumers need not worry about the compatibility issues with their burners.