Apple Computer Corporation has signed on to both use and promote the Blue-Ray format for the next generation High Definition Disc format, which will supersede DVDs. (These new disc burners use Ultraviolet lasers which have a much smaller wavelength than visible light lasers, and therefore can burn much more data onto a compact disc.)
In the battle of Blu-Ray “BD†disc vs HD-DVD disc formats, Apple’s coming onboard is very big news. In a board meeting yesterday, Apple Computer has committed to join the Blu-ray Association and will occupy a seat on the main board.
Dell and HP are two other computer companies on the board. Apple will be the 16th company, joining 110 companies committed to Blu-ray.
Steve Jobs said “Apple is pleased to join Blue-ray Association board as part of our effort to drive consumer adoption of High Definition Television.” In return Apple will include the same HD video CoDec that Blu-ray uses in QuickTime 7.
Why do we need a new laser disc format? The answer is HD TV. Because of the resolution of a HD picture, a much greater amount of data storage is required for recordings.
Blu-ray discs are the same size as current CD and DVD discs, and can carry 25Gb per layer. There are two layers currently in market, single and dual layer. Others multi-layers discs are being brought to market and Sony has an eight layer, 200Gb disc running in their Lab.
Blu-ray has been shipping in Japan now for some time. Sony’s first product to ship was in the PlayStation, with a few playable movies, and this is being followed by other companies, which support the dual-layer 50Gb version.
This is great news for Mac users, because when HD comes to the Mac, there will already be discs available to store that programming.
Source: Rohan News Agency
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