An Introduction to Blu-ray Burners
Blu-ray is the next-generation optical disc format for PC data storage. In the near future, a Blu-ray burner will replace technologies such as DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM.
Blu-ray Burner Nomenclature
According to Sony's Blu-ray website, the correct acronym for Blu-ray is simply "BD.” It is commonly mistaken for terms like "Blu-ray DVD" and other similar names that relate it to DVD when in fact it is an entirely different media. The different discs are referred to as BD-ROM (Readable), BD-R (Writable) and BD-RE (Re-Writable). This is important to know, as with all optical media, the shorthand form of the name is what manufacturers and merchants use.
Storage Capacity
The storage capacity of BD-R writable and BD-RE rewritable discs is 25GB for single-layer and 50GB for dual-layer. For comparison, DVD-R and DVD-RW discs hold 4.7GB (single-layer) and 8.5GB (dual-layer).
Write Speeds
The theoretical maximum write speed for Blu-ray Discs is about 12x. At greater speeds, the rotation causes too much wobble for the discs to be properly written by the Blu-ray burner. This is similar to the 20x and 52x respective maximum speeds of DVDs and CDs.
Technology
Optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM use a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name “Blu-ray.” The benefit of using the blue-violet laser is that it has a shorter wavelength than a red laser, which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed even 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 is what enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25GB/50GB.
Backwards Compatibility
A Blu-ray burner will support every common optical-media format including: BD-ROM, BD-RE (25GB and 50GB), BD-R (25GB and 50GB), DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, DVD-Video, DVD+/-R DL, DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, Video CD, Photo CD, CD Text, CD Extra, CD-R, and CD-RW. Blu-ray burner multidrives will eliminate the need to have multiple drives in differing formats.
Considerations
When authoring Blu-ray discs with your Blu-ray burner you will need to make sure to use an optical disc authoring software that is compatible with Blu-ray. When playing Blu-ray movies, a Blu-ray standalone player, or a computer with Blu-ray disc player software is required.
The Last Physical Format?
“Understand that this is the last physical format there will ever be.” – Bill Gates
With streaming media, broadband connections, and huge capacity hard drives becoming much more prevalent, the need for physical media such as optical disc drives is decreasing. Bill Gates’ comment is probably based on these factors. He, and many others believe that eventually all media is going to be streamed directly or saved to a hard disk. When and if that happens is anybody’s guess. In the meantime, Blu-ray burners offer unprecedented capacity for optical storage, and Blu-ray multidrives will soon be the industry standard.
