[emmaonline]

I know that the new PS3 will have this new Blue Ray DVD drive included with it and have seen that this is becoming a hot topic on the internet. Supposedly the picture and audio quality is light years ahead of the standard DVD formats.

My question is does anyone know when a Blue Ray drive is supposed to be available for the PC and what its cost will be?

[CG Man]

http://www.learningcenter.sony.us/as.../products.html Sony Blu-Ray 1080p burner PC multi format.

50GB Disk storage!

[Jade]

This is the first time that I have heard of Blue Ray, what exactly is and what does it offer over a standard drive?
CG Man I am looking to you for a response. :)

[CG Man]

HDTV comes in two formats

1080p which is 1920 by 1080 pixels same as 35mm film
720p which is 1280 by 720 pixels

Standard Uk TV has the detail of 768 by 576 the equvilent of looking at real life with a placky bag over your head.

So a 1080p HDTV format has five times more image detail and a new better sound format that needs more data to feed it. Somebody had to invent a new type of disk that could hold all the data for a HDTV movie. DVD can hold around 8GB of data Blu-Ray can hold 50GB

A Blue-Ray player or PS3 and a movie on a Blu-Ray disk is what you need to wotch HDTV on your computer or on a HDTV. The only other way is to buy a HD Sky box and subscribe an extra £10 a month for the few HD channels that are now available.

The thing to worry about is HD DVD format is out at the same time. Two formats to choose between one will die. My money is on Blu-Ray winning as millions will buy PS3 giving Blu-Ray the edge.

[emmaonline]

CG Man... do you think this format will pay off or is it going to become the next BetaMax?

Is it just Sony who is making this now or are others doing it as well and if so do the others have to pay sony a licensing fee?

What is the price tag on the PC drive?

[CG Man]

The Blu-Ray Disc standard was jointly developed by a group of consumer electronics and PC companies called the Blu-Ray Disc Association.

108 films are in the works 55 are already out on Blu-Ray.

companies backing and manufacturing the BLu-Ray format are:-

Sony
Panasonic
Philips
TDK
Hitachi
LG Electronics
Samsung
Mitsubishi
Sharp Corporation
Hewlett Packard
Apple
Dell
Pioneer
Plextor
20th Century Fox
Buena Vista
EA Games
Warner Bros
Twentieth Century Fox

Backing and manufacturing HD DVD format are:-

Toshiba
NEC Corporation
Intel
Microsoft
Universal Studios
Warner Bros
Loads loads more for this format I'm too tired.


Theirs loads more companies for both formats some support both It would take ages to list them all. A lot of people are going to buy the wrong format just like the betamax and VHS video war. From the looks of it every giant corporation in the world backs one or the other a few are backing both.

Pros and Cons

Blu-Ray holds 20Gb more data than HD-DVD

10s of millions of PS3 buyers will be roped into the Blu-Ray format in the next 12 months wether they like it or not.


Blu-Ray disks are alot more expensive to produce than HD-DVD disks hence why some companies are not sure about it.

[Jade]

So I take it these disks are going to cost a far lot more? Do you have any sort of idea of how much price is going to be increased by just because it's a Blue-Ray disk?

[CG Man]

US HD disk prices both formats http://www.movieweb.com/dvd/releases/hd/week.php

$30 thats £150 with british tax added.

Found some info while shopping 58% in the US are buying Blu-Ray 16% buying HD-DVD

[Jade]

£150 that's a bit steep I think it is cheaper than that as normally anything which is in $ in £ it's normally about half price. So if you look at it that way it's rather cheap.

[Dave Hybrid]

CG Man do you read encyclopedias for a living?

You know everything about everything lol. :D