The New Age of Optical Media

DVD has long surpassed VHS as the means of recording TV and movies previously recorded. How long will it be before DVD is replaced by the next development? Capacity is the issue here. The possibilities in terms of audio and audiovisual quality created by HDTV will require a medium with greater capacity that can be afforded by the current DVD.
The next generation of recordable media are being developed. Blu ray disc is being developed by a consortium of companies including Hitachi, LG, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Thompson. Dell and Hewlett Packard are also supporting Blu ray disc technology.
Blu ray disc has a capacity of 25 GB per layer compared to 4.7 GB DVD.
This technology is being developed as a result of this increased capacity and this is being driven mainly by the expected explosion of high-definition television. The ability to capture additional nessercary improving the quality characteristic of HDTV
At this Sony has launched a Blu-ray recorder in the Japanese market, specifically for recording high-definition television.
In parallel Toshiba and NEC are developing a rival format HD DVD, although that has less capacity than Blu ray (15GB), but the HD DVD is similar to Blu ray, but the physical properties are closer to current DVDs and can be replicated in existing mechanisms. Blu ray, on the other hand requires new manufacturing equipment.
Whether HD DVD or Blu ray disc become the established protocol remains to be seen, but one can become the industry standard in the coming years.



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