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Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is
the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray
Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics,
personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP,
JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and
Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback
of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The
format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and
can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This
extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will
offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience. Recent development by Pioneer
has pushed the storage capacity to 500GB on a single disc by using 20 layers.
While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM
rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet
laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. Despite the different type of lasers
used, Blu-ray products can easily be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs
through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit. The benefit of
using a blue-violet laser (405nm) is that it has a shorter wavelength than a red
laser (650nm), which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater
precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly and stored in less space,
so it's possible to fit more data on the disc even though it's the same size as
a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 is what
enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25GB/50GB.