The Format Wars Begin
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A while ago we took a look at the Blu-Ray technology. However at the time of publishing it didn't have more force than the paper on your desk. It was just white papers, theories, and talk. Now we come back at you with actual products available to the market as well as the beginning of the struggle to be the mainstream format of the twenty-first century.
Discs and Players
Last time Sony's prototype Blu-Ray player was being shown off. In the first quarter of 2007 we see many Blu-Ray devices and movies moving out to the mainstream. New Egg has a few computer drives as well as some stand alone players. These however are too pricey for most people; they can go from $600 - $1000. From there movies are roughly $30 apiece, which isn't too bad. I remember when DVDs were first coming out, they were $40. Blank media costs about $15 a pop, so those coasters will really hurt. Don't be too worried about these prices; they will come down to the price of DVDs sooner or later, but for the time being it may be too big of a price for consumers to swallow.
The specifications haven't changed; the sizes of the dies haven't changed. Here's a quick summery of the sizes and speeds. Each layer of the disc has 25GB of storage capacity with a total of two layers. It has a maximum transfer rate of 54 Mbit/s. The interactive menus are coded in Java vs. pre-rendered MPEG video clips with the current DVDs. Since it uses Java Virtual Machine, with an Internet connection it may be possible to download additional content.
Next: HD-DVD >>
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