Blu Ray Technology

Archive for June, 2009

If you are a do-it-yourselfer and you would like to put together a knock down on your house, you’ve got to visit Home storage area or Lows. These companies have the plans, tools, materials and all-purpose assistance to help you complete your project professionally and affordably. If you would like to put together a home theater room, however, you’ve come to the right place. Cinema Source has the plans, for more detail www.auction-words.com tools, materials and assistance to help you complete your home theater room, also professionally and affordably. We’ve been doing this for in excess of a decade at the present and have helped hundreds of Dyers from beginning to end their home theater room projects. Blue-ray Disc Players

You can be sure to take jam-packed advantage of your HDTV with the addition of a BD player. Now that Blue-ray is the sure-fire disc player of the hi-def generation, it’s time to make your investment. A surge protector is designed to block your HDTV and other entertainment devices from ground voltage spikes and electrical surges.  Blue-ray Disc players will not no more than play all BD formats but in addition up convert standard DVDs to 720p or 1080p video resolution on HDTV’s. You’ll certainly come across a use for your HDMI cables, for more detail www.mining-auction-gold.com as well. Blue-ray compact disk players take financial credit of HDMI ports for high-quality audio and video playback. A home-theater system needs a heart and brain in order to function normally-this is the purpose of an A/V receiver.

How we can help you put together your Home Theater Room:

• HOME THEATER IDEAS – Visit our Member’s Home Theater Showcase at Home Theater Village to see what other Dyers have done with their home theater room projects.

• DESIGN ASSISTANCE – We have a lot of Home Theater Design Guides available for free of charge download on this site. We also have an on the go community of other home theater builders on our Home Theater Guide site.

• PRODUCT and MATERIALS – Our Product Section shows you where you can obtain all the equipment and materials for your home theater room project. In good number cases, you can purchase these items from Cinema Source. If we don’t carry something, we will show you the most excellent place to get a hold it.

• ASSISTANCE – Every customer who is building a home theater room is assigned a home theater consultant who helps them throughout their entire project.
http://www.your-own-home-theater.com
http://www.auction-extreme-package.com

The process of ripping and burning dvds means you need to decrypt the dvd and copy the contents to your hard drive.  After this has been achieved you then transfer the files onto your choosen method of backup.  This can be a blank dvd, cd, left on your hard drive or by changing the format, putting it onto a handheld device such as an iPod.  The first part is called ripping and the second part of transfering the data to another media is called burning.  This entire process will be managed by software and a good piece of software will complete this in one task.

Most DVD movies are encrypted with CSS encryption. CSS stands for Content Scrambled System and is in place to prevent the illegal copy of the disc in question. This has become an older security encryption and has been super seeded by the newer AACS, which stands for Advance Access Content Systems. This was developed to be used on commercially published DVDs and blue ray discs. DVDs with any kind of the previously mentioned encryption formats cannot be copied directly to the hard drive of your PC without the aid of software to unscramble them. Software like DVD NEXT COPY will safely backup your movies and maintain a high quality product.

Something to be aware of when burning and ripping DVDs is the region codes. Different countries have different codes and this is to prevent illegal distribution. The US in region 1 and if you are ripping a disc from a different region you are living in then your DVD software should be capable of either eliminating the region function or changing it to the region of choice by applying the appropriate codes.

It is important to understand the difference between dvd9 and dvd5 when ripping DVDs. DVD9 is also known a a dual layer disc and dvd5 is known as a single layered disc. Most movies bought nowadays are dual layered which means they have an additional layer of data and can store up to 8.5gb. The single layered discs can hold up to 4.6gb and are the most used format when it comes to burning because they are the cheapest. There are several different formats of blank media and the most common are DVD-R and DVD+R. These formats both stand for the same thing. Digital Versatile Disc Record but the +R is the newer technology of the two. The draw back is that it wont work on some older DVD players. Most DVD players and burners on your PC will indicate what compatibility they are on the front of the drive. You can also buy the +RW format which is the re-writable version which means you can store data and then erase or over write it at a later date. These are ideal for backing up your PCs data regularly and only having to use one disc. They are not the best for copying movies to because only about two thirds of players read this format.

The different speed at which a DVD is copied will affect the time it takes to do a successful backup. You will need to look at your burners speed, found on the front of the burner or in the manual and the speed of the DVD, found on the DVD box or disc itself. Most software programs will burn at top speed as the default setting but this is not always good as burning at higher speeds results in more errors. If you are experiencing errors then try decreasing the speed to see if it resolves the issue. If you do not have a DVD burner in your PC but maybe only a CD burner than you do have the option of burning onto VCD and SVCD. This stands for video compact disc and super video compact disc. The super version holds more data but both hold a lot less than one average DVD.

After you have ripped the DVD to your computer then you are not limited to backing it up on a disc. You can use the DVD software, if you have a good piece of software, to change the format and use the files on your handheld devices such as iPods. Different formats include AVI, which is a Microsoft technology and stands for Audio Video Interleave. The AVI format produces high quality sound and images and is a great choice if watching the files from a PC. They are also relativity small compared to the DVDs raw files and make it good for sharing. Another format is DIVX and XVID. Both of these are forms of the AVI format but sometimes you are required to download a codec to view them. A codec is a package available for free on the web that once installed will tell your PC how to read the files to make them viewable. Mpeg4 files give high definition images and is the format Apple use on their iPods. Apple computers use mainly the .mov or .m4v formats which were developed by Apple and are used for apps like Quicktime and iTunes. They also deliver a high quality image.

Click the link to find which DVD Copying Software you should be using to get the best quality out of your backups and different formats.

Or you can also read another article called DVD Copy Software.

In dash dvd Navigation + 6.2″ detachable touchscreen + Dual Zone + Steering Wheel control + Bluetooth

• Regular Price: $369.99 Promotion Price:  $349.99
  Save:  $20.00

• Model:  ZC603GB
• Weight:  5100g

Qualir Recommendation:

• Newest 2 Din DVD GPS Player
• Theftproof Detachable Panel
• Steering wheel control
• Optional built-in DVB-T function
• You can change the startup logo by yourself
• You can enjoy music and radio while navigation

Key Features:

• Built-in GPS navigation receiver
• 6.2″ wide TFT LCD touchscreen
• Detachable front panel
• Steering wheel control
• Entertainment Dual Zone
• Built-in Bluetooth
• iPod control
• Support e-book
  
• TV tuner
• Radio tuner
• Anti-shock
• SD, USB port?
• NO RDS function
• NO CDC function

Detail Specifications

GPS

• Operating system: Windows CE 5.0
• GPS Processor: SAMSUNG S3C2440A-40
• Max. main frequency: 400MHZ.
• RAM Memory: 64MB
• Memory Size: can expand to 4GB
• Display output: CVBS or S-VIDEO output
• GPS receivers channels: 20
• Precision: 10m, 2D RMS 5m, 2D RMS, WAAS enable
• Supported Maps: Finean, IGO, ROUTE66, GET 5, PAPAGO and so on.
• Voice Guidance Cruise: Yes
• GPS languages: English, Deutch, Franch, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian……and so on, totally 19 languages
• GPS antenna: 1 GPS antenna interface on the back
• GPS dual zone: YES. You can enjoy music and radio while GPS navigation

DVD Player

• Formats played: DVD/VCD/CD/MP3/MPEG4/CD-R/WMA/JPEG.
• Media: this dvd player reads all popular media including DVD/DVD-R/DVD+R/DVD-RW/DVD+RW/CD/CD-R/CD-RW/MP3/MP4(DIVX)/VCD/SVCD/US

Screen

• Size: 6.2 ” 16:9 TFT LCD wide touch screen
• Number of Pixels: 480*234 (R.G.B), higher definition due to the RGB signal
• OSD language: English
• Touch panel: yes
• Brightness control: yes
• Night mode: Shiftable between day and night modes.
• Picture adjustment (brightness, contrast, color, settings)

Bluetooth

• Version: V2.0, Support AD2P (Bluetooth Stereo Music), can play stereo music through Bluetooth
• Built-in microphone:yes
• Received call: yes
• Dialled call: yes
• Missed call: yes

TV tuner

• Digital TV or Analog TV: Analog TV tuner (you can choose builtin DVB-T to enjoy digital TV, only $58.89, but make sure DVB-T is available in your region before you buy it. If you are American or Canadian, ATSC digital TV may suit you. )
• Video format: PAL/NTSC/SECAM
• Video output: D/K B/G I M/N
• TV antenna:2 TV antenna interface on the back, you can add a TV antenna to your cart (just $8.00) , but if you choose digital TV, you do not need the TV antenna.

• Can seve up to 100 channels.
• ATSC: no

Radio

• Radio Frequency: Europe, USA1, USA2, Japan, Russian
• AM Frequency range: 522-1620 (Europe/China), 530-1710 (America)
• FM Tuning range: 87.5-108 (Europe/China), 87.5-107.9 (America)
• FM Medium frequency: 10.7MHz
• RDS: NO (RDS is short for Radio Data System, which is used in Europe)
• Preset stations: 24, 8 for FM1, FM2 and AM respectively.
• Stereo/Mono Switch (for FM): Yes
• Radio antenna interface: 1 radio tuner antenna in, on the back

iPod control

• YES
• You can buy a iPod holder (with FM transmitter function) too
  

USB

• Interface: 1 mini USB interface. Support hot plug.
• Position: front
• Random / Repeat Play: YES
• You can buy a SD Card Reader from us, only $8.99

Video in/out

• 1 Back video in, press the Backsight to switch to the rear monitor status when you are reversing. With rear view camera, you can know the back circs by seeing directly from mainframe when backing the car. If you add a parking radar to the camera, then you can see the distance and the video image at the same time, which make your driving safer. Only $54.99

• 1 AUX video in
• 1 video out

Audio in/out

• 2 pair of RCA out: Front-L out, Front-R out, Rear-L out, Rear-R out

SD

• 2 SD card slots, one for GPS SD, the other for storing MP3, MP4, WMA, AVI, JPEG files.
• Max. capacity: 4G

Motorized slide-Out Face

YES

Detachable Control Panel

No

Entertainment

Dual zone:

YES. (With “Entertainment Dual zone” function, passengers on the backseat can enjoy DVD TV Music Radio from the headrest monitor connected with the front mainframe while it is playing or navigating. )

E-book compatible:

YES. Support txt files.

AUX in

AUX R IN, AUX L IN, AUX VIDEO IN

Games

NO

DTS

NO (DTS is short for Digital Theatre System)

Steering wheel control

Yes

Button Sound:

ON/OFF for sound of screen buttons

MOS-FET Amplifier

YES, Max 4*45W (Stereo) EQ

POP, ROCK, JAZZ,NORMAL

Portable HDD Compatible

YES. (The size must less than 20GB)

Built-in speaker

NO

CDC(CD Changer)

NO

Subwoofer output

NO

Anti-Shock

YES

Operating Envioroment

• Voltage requirment: 12 V DC (allowable range: 10.8-14.5V)
• Max. consumption of current: 15A
• Temperature: -20? ~ +70?

Auto Memory function

YES. All the kinds of adjustable parameter and postion can auto memory and can aotu restore

ISO connector

• Usually, we only offer power wire with ISO connector for European customers, please specify during online checkout process if you are not European custoemrs.

Accessories

• Manual (Language: english)
• Remote contorl (Battery included)
• GPS antenna
• Digital TV antenna (Must choose builtin DVB-T)
• Power cable
• Tool for Mainframe
• USB connector
• iPod connector

Packing

• Installation Size: 178*100*186mm (L*W*H)
• Unit Dimension (L*W*H): 178*180*100mm
• Qty per Export Carton: 4pcs
• Unit Packing: (L*W*H): 335*268*180
• Export carton (L*W*H): 63cm*28cm*28cm/4PCS
• Unit Packing (G. W.): 4.2kg/4.6kg
• Export carton (G. W.): 17.5kg

Warranty

12 months

Other features

CE&FCC, FDA approval

Note

In order for your safety, drivers are not recommended to watch TV or DVD while driving.

Check more info from http://www.autodvdgps.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11&products_id=262

A home movie theatre is a simple combination of television, DVD player or video player and a good set of speakers and amplifiers. But home movie theatre can have more accessories other than these simple things. Thus it can be an integration of a relatively high quality video output with surround sound thereby providing you with the ultimate in home entertainment.

It is instructive to note down the different components of a home movie theatre. Normally, home movie theatre is an assemby of video output or a display unit, music system with amplifiers, and processing devices like AV reciever or preamplifiers.A home movie theatre has several speakers, usually a six speaker system, which is placed around the room. This is very much unlike a TV system which has an inbuilt speaker system. The home theatre divides the soundtrack into multiple channels and sends different sounds to different speakers. This, in general, follows the concept of surround sound technology, which is found in the movie theatre. Thus the sound effects feel so real.

While installing the home movie theatre, your room can be treated as the basic and one of the most important components. If the person does not have a perfect room for a home theatre he can make some simple changes to make it ideal. While choosing the room one must keep it in mind that four walls should enclose the room. An enclosed room limits the area that has to be filled with sound, so the listener gets a more powerful effect from the system.

The shape of the room also holds an important place in the home movie theatre, as the shape of the room will influence how the sound will circulate around the room. Thus the most ideal shape is a rectangular one. Wall to wall carpeting is ideal, but a large rug over the floor or a carpeted floor is good enough to serve the purpose. Very little light or even complete darkness is what you need in order to get a vibrant picture.

The general components comprise of centre channels and subwoofers, blue ray players, DVD recorder, projectors, LCD or plasma TV. Placement of speakers for a home movie theatre is significant to get accurate sound reproduction. Speakers should be heard and not seen. The center channel and sub-woofer are the most difficult to place. The shape of the room mostly affects the sub woofers. The size of the sub woofers depends on the size of the room. And if the user wants to install multiple sub woofers the challenge becomes more difficult. The centre channel should be hidden behind a screen.

Screen quality has a direct and marked effect upon the resultant picture quality of the home movie theatre. Thus choosing the screen depends on the lighting, size and other attributes of the room. Each screen material has its own specific attributes in respect of gain, reflection and color shift. There are various manufacturers who make projectors for home movie theatre. There are CRT projectors, LCD projectors, DLP projectors and even light canons.

It all depends on the user how much he will spend on a home movie theatre as all these components of the home movie theatre come in different price ranges. The higher priced equipment is always better, but one should keep in mind that he must buy a system according to his room and budget as well.

Video software conversion is not just for the professionals in the arena. Any person can actually do video software conversion, so as long as you know the basics. Do not be intimidated by all the jargon that comes with converting videos. These technical terms may sound scary – codecs, extractions, bitrates, inputs, outputs, and containers, to begin with – but these are just terms. There really is no reason to be scared of them at all. To make things easier and less intimidating for you, here are some of the basics on video software conversion.* Choose a program that converts videos according to your needs.

There is actually a fast way for you to do this. First off, you have to choose the file formats that you might be working with. AVI, WMV, for more details visit to www.page-brand-generator.com and MP4 are some of the popular file formats to consider here. To acquaint you, here are some of the popular players in the market and the file formats they play respectively.

- A computer with Windows for its operating system: WMV or Windows Media Video
- A computer with Macintosh for its operating system: MOV and QT or QuickTime
- iPod: MP4 and MPEG-4
- PSP or PlayStationPortable: MP4 and MPEG4
- Creative Zen Media Player: AVI and WMV
- Microsoft Zune: WMV
- Archos Media Player: AVI and WMV
- DVD Burner: MPEG-2 and VOB
- Other Media Players or MP3 Players: AVI and WMV

If you have a media player, such as the iPod or Creative Zen, it is important to look at the player’s specifications section. You can also check out your guidebook for the video formats that your player supports.

* Understand the configurations.

The configuration of your settings is very important in video software conversion. Furthermore, it is important to know the basic terminologies here.

- CODEC: For the most part, file types are converted and compressed by using a coder-decoder algorithm, also known as a codec. Go for the codec that your portable device supports.

- VIDEO DIMENSIONS: When delving into video software conversion, it is important for your software to know the video dimensions of both the input and output videos. The standard 2.5-inch media player plays 320×240 videos. Your computer screen can fit a 640×480 video, while your TV set fits 720×480, if you are in the US.

- VIDEO BITRATE: Most programs carry a video bitrate of roughly 500 to 1500 kilobits per second or kbps. Video bitrate actually determines the quality of the video. 500 kbps is quite low already, for more details visit to www.viral-toolbar-builder.com but the video would consume less space. 1500 kbps, on the other hand, consumes more space but it gives you pictures of better quality.

- VIDEO FRAME RATE: Frame rate pertains to how many frames your movie goes through in a second. When conducting video software conversion, you should not touch this unless you know just what you are doing. If the video frame rate is improperly adjusted, your audio and video would not be synced properly as well.

* Enjoy the videos you have converted.

This should indeed be the last step to successful video software conversion. Once all of the conversions are completed, you can then move your files to your media device and start enjoying it!

The first Xbox was released in 2001 and ever since everyone has been on an Xbox gaming binge. So everyone that has an Xbox wants an Xbox 360 and everyone that has a PS2 wants a PS3. Well soon enough did the Xbox 360 come out and the right after the 360 came out the PS3 came out. It is always going to be that way because play station is ahead of Microsoft by a few years but that is only because Microsoft builds and sells software for computers. They are ahead by a lot if you ask me.

The Xbox is a computer itself even though many people do not know that. You can take your Xbox apart and work on it yourself if you know what you are doing. Like me and my friend took apart his Xbox and put a mod chip in it and then he could do all kinds of things with his Xbox. That is why the Xbox 360 already comes like a modded Xbox because that is the way everyone wanted their systems to be. They want them to where you can download a mass amount of songs and info. Even though you cannot play Xbox live on a regular Xbox that has been modded you can still whoop up on your friends that come over and play.

Even though at first people were not impressed by Microsoft’s games and its systems. Soon after they had heard what was going on they produced some of the most killer games ever released on a gaming system. Some of those games would be Transworld surf, tony hawk, need for speed underground 2, all of the Rainbow 6 games, all of the Call of Duty games as well as all of the Ghost Recons. All of those games were like games of year for a few years. Like the first Halo that came out for only Xbox was game of the year. So you can not tell me that Xbox isn’t a good system.

In 2002 Microsoft made a thing for Xbox called Xbox live. That is a server or servers in which you can get online and play Xbox online with a bunch of people and you could say whatever you wanted to say because you were online and nobody knew who you were. Today everyone is playing on Xbox live for 360 like for Halo 3 and for gears of war and games like that. You will never see someone playing Xbox 360 online playing golf. People want to shoot and kill they want to have fun while playing video games.

Even though the Xbox was cool the Xbox 360 would soon own and everyone would soon hate the PS3. I think the PS3 is the worst system that play station has ever come out with. Who makes a system that cannot play regular DVDs? I mean come on at least make it play both regular DVDs and blue ray disk. That is not cool at all when I first heard that the play station couldn’t play regular DVDs I went nuts.

In today’s entertainment, specifically in the movie industry, there has been a war raging since early 2006 until the present between two rival formats; Blue-ray and HD DVD. Each is supported by acknowledged heavyweights in the entertainment and technology worlds.

Supporters and Developers of the Blue-ray and HD DVD

The Blue-ray format was developed by Sony and Pioneer. As the name implies, its creation was facilitated by a Bluee laser. It stores 25 gigabytes on a single-layer DVD and 50 gigabytes on an increasingly popular double -layer DVD. It has the additional feature of processing information at a faster rate and, though the software and hardware are expensive to produce, features Java applications.

The HD-DVD format on the other hand is supported by Toshiba. It can only store 15 gigabytes on a single-layer DVD and 30 gigabytes on a double-layer DVD. Its touted advantage is that it is available free of region coding as in the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Both the Blue-ray and HD DVD formats give a screen resolution 5 times that of standard DVD to give an even greater quality to movie films. This has paved the way for giving films the moniker of blockbusters and providing a sure way for the film’s star(s) to attaining the reputation of being a superstar.

The so-called Blue-ray and HD DVD format war continues to rage and the stakes, especially in the sales front, are increasing. Toshiba has reportedly used the strategy of discounted prices to sway consumers to its side. Admittedly, Blue-ray costs more. It has countered Toshiba’s ploy by releasing the PlayStation3 whose game console allows playing Blue-ray DVDs.

Despite it being expensive compared to HD DVD, the sales of Blue-ray and HD DVD in regions outside the USA such as Australia, Japan, and Europe, has swamped its counterpart. There are even those who claim, HD DVD has lost the war.

However, there are movie productions that take sides such as Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks Animation SKG who supported HD DVD whereas Warner Brothers, Twentieth Century Fox and Disney Productions took the Blue-ray and HD DVD format. A simple explanation given by the latter producers point to the extra storage and speed that gained their nod.

Though there are those that claim DVD format war is confusing to consumers and is presenting a huge problem in the entertainment industry, for many the war is over. There are only a few pockets in the world where the “war” continues to sputter. In the final analysis, the war between Blue-ray and HD DVD is won by the former.

In the fast-paced world people feel exhausted trying to meet their daily pressures. Pressure seems to be mounting on them from all corners and it can come in the form of personal commitments or professional competitiveness. Bogged down by the enormity of work and shortage of time, human beings have been converted into machines, where little thought is given to their leisurely entertainment or spiritual upliftment. Though there are various modes and means of entertainment but watching movies with family and friends or listening to melodious music is the ideal way of reviving your spirits and getting refreshed for another hectic day in the office. One remarkable device which understands and supports your entertainment needs is the DVD player. A DVD player is perfect for movie buffs or those who are passionate about music. One can find cheap DVD players in the market, which will take care of their immediate requirements. A cheap DVD player is a gorgeous device which enables one to enjoy high sound and picture quality. One can enjoy the visual clarity and sound effects with the help of this useful device. These hi-tech gadgets have the ability to play audio discs as well as videos with the help of a reflected laser beam. Users can connect the device to their television set and experience an ideal visual output. Apart form incredible sound and image clarity, the device offers portability and t is designed to save space. Due to intense competition in the market, one can find DVD players which are cheap and affordable. The emergence of new market players has seen the prices of these devices reducing, however there is no compromise with the quality of these gadgets. One of the leading brands in the market is Philips. Philips DVD players are loaded with advanced features and fairly compatible with media formats. The company is receiving an overwhelming response form its customers and the market as well. However, all those who are contemplating of buying a cheap DVD player should keep in mind the quality and flexibility of the player. People should also satisfy themselves with regard to the performance, sound and visual clarity of the device. The prospective buyer should be fully aware of the intricateness of the product and its warranty period as well. Before purchasing the device, one should be familiar with its terms and conditions as well as its name in the market.

The 50th Anniversary of the Optical Disc.

From the “Laser Disc” to “Blu-ray”

History of the Optical Disc

In 1958, 50 years ago, David Paul Gregg invented the first optical disc using a transparent disc technology. The disc is 30 centimeters in diameter and uses an analog format and laser technology. It is therefore also called a “Laser Disc” He patented his design in 1961.
A later development of the Optical Disc were patented in 1969.
In 1967, David Paul Gregg’s company, Gaus Electrophysics, contacted Royal Philips Electronics, but was met with disinterest.
The laser disc player sold only about one million units in the United States and approximately four million in Japan and the last LD released in Japan was the “Tokyo Raiders” in 2001.

Laser Disc Museum gives some interesting history of the Laser Disc. See the link below:
http://laserdiscplanet.com/museum.html

One of the influential contributors to Audio, Video and Data recording, is Kees Immink.

Dr. Kees A. Schouhamer Immink was born on December 18, 1946 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He Joined Philips research laboratories in 1971.
His contribution to the technology of digital audio and video has enabled all of us to listen to audio and watch video on reliable, high quality media. Dr. Immink’s coding methods are essential to CD’s and DVD’s. For a full biography about Kees Immink see the website:
http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/biography/immink.html

The Compact Disc (CD)

The Optical VideoDisc, although a major development to be used in later research, was not a great success. I recently talked to a number of people about the Optical Video disc, but they had never heard of it.

The Sony/Philips team was not idle, and building on some of the laser disc technologies, they set out to develop a new digital audio disc; in contrast to the earlier OpticalDisc, which had an analog format.

In 1979, they set up a task force of engineers led by the prominent Kees Immink and in 1980, the group produced a Compact Disc (CD) Standard, called the Red Book.

Compact Disc format

The CD uses a red laser to scan the patterns of bumps on a mirrored surface which are interpreted as bits. These bits can be assembled into bytes. A CD can hold about 700 megabytes of information or about 80 minutes of music.

The Red Book gives detailed information on the design of the compact disc and was released in 1980 by Philips and Sony.
It was adopted by the Digital Audio Disc Committee and ratified as IEC 908.

The development of the CD was the combined work of a large number of scientists working as a team. The Compact Disc Story, written by Kees A. Schouhamer Immink provides a lot of background information. See the weblink below for the full story.
http://www.exp-math.uni-essen.de/~immink/pdf/cdstory.htm

The CD, available on the market since late 1982, remains the standard playback medium for commercial audio recordings to the present day. Various formats of the CD were later developed. Some of the common formats are:

1. Audio files CD
2. Data storage CD-ROM
3. Write-once audio and data storage CD-R
4. Rewritable media CD-RW

By 2007 200 billion CDs had been sold world wide.

Search for a new way to play video movies and “super density” data storage.

The time was ready for a new way to play Videos and provide a higher capacity disk to store data and programs. Cd’s were rapidly replacing the audio tapes and the VHS was coming to an end. Data often had to be stored on multiple discs.
Two teams set to work to produce a video disk to replace the VHS tape; the Philips and Sony team and Toshiba.
Philips and Sony started the Multimedia Compact Disc (MMCD) and Toshiba the Super Density Disc. Notice the emphasis on each of these, “Multi Media” and “Super Density”. Of course both of these had both the video and data capabilities in mind.
Multi Media Compact Disc (MMCD) 1990s Philips and Sony

The MMCD was designed as a single sided compact disc, with a single or dual layer. The capacity for a single layer is 3,7GB , compared with 7.4GB for the dual layer. It is backward compatible with the CD and CDROM. It did not become a standard.

Super Density Disc (SD) 1990s Toshiba

The Super Density Disc (SD) was adopted as the standard format, with an addition of to two options, proposed by the Philis/Sony team. For more information see the section on the DVD below.

DVD

With the two competing options, one offered by Sony/Philips and the other by Toshiba, we seemed to be on the brink of another format war. It looked like a repeat of the format battle of the 1980s when the Sony Betamax was battling it out with the “Video Home System” VHS standards, at the expense of the consumer. What does the consumer buy? In my opinion the Betamax was a better option, but the consumer market decided, and the victory went to VHS.

But the impeding battle did not take place Through the with mediation of Lou Gerstner, president of IBM a compromise was reached.
The Sony and Philips MMCD format was abandoned and the Toshiba SD format adopted, with these two additions:

the pit geometry which allows push-pull tracking, a proprietary technology of Philips and Sony, and the EFMPlus, created by Kees immink. The EFMPlus encoder is based on a deterministic finite state machine, having four states, which translates 8-bit input words into 16-bit codewords.

This compromise created the DVD format, which became the standard format in December 1995 and will continue as such until the majority of people will no longer be satisfied with “standard video” but demands high density video for all there movies. Than the new Blu-ray format will take over.

DVD format

The DVD uses a red laser to scan the patterns of bumps on a mirrored surface, which are interpreted as bits. These bits can be assembled into bytes jus as on a CD. However the bumps and tracks on a DVD are much smaller and can therefore hold significantly more information, up to 4.7GB.

Professional Disc for Data (PDD)

With the decision made in favor of the Toshiba, Super Density Disc and the abandonment of the Multi Media Compact Disc (MMCD) as the main technology for the DVD, Sony set out to design a disc they called Professional Disc for Data (PDD). The need for a higher capacity disc for the upcoming high density television systems was a certainty.
Sony introduced the PDD in 2003 and it became available in 2004. This new format utilized the 405nm (Nana meter), BLU-violet laser for reading and writing to the disc, allowing for a much higher data storage than the red laser used in the DVD. The capacity of the disc was 23GB compared with 4.5GB for a single layer DVD.

The PDD format was very short lived and was discontinued in 2007. This made way for the next generation of optical media for the Philips/Sony team, the Blu-ray.

Blu-Ray

Blu-ray technology was developed jointly by Sony & Philips, along with an extensive board of directors.

Apple, Inc. Dell HP Hitachi LG Mitsubishi Electric Panasonic Pioneer Philips Samsung Sharp Sony
Sun Microsystems TDK Thomson Twentieth Century Fox
Walt Disney Warner Bros.

Blu-ray uses a 405nm wavelength blue-violet laser and has a tight track pitch of 0.85
The surface layer is 0.1mm-thick, which enables the laser to focus at the 0.85 aperture.

The disc uses a hard polymer coating called Durabis, which was developed by TDK and is supposedly? extremely resilient and fingerprint resistant.
The Java platform, which is used for menus and multimedia, is mandatory. Blu-ray systems must support JVM.
Capacity

Rom Single Layer 25GB
Rom Dual Layer 50GB
RW Single Layer 27GB
RW Dual Layer 54GB
Highest Test 100GB
Theoretical Limit 200GB

HD DVD

Toshiba
Rom Single Layer 15GB
Rom Dual Layer 30GB
Highest Test 45GB
Theoretical Limit 60GB

Abandoned February 19 2008

©Copyright Jacob Romeyn

Its said that HD radio has become a hot ticket item in the technology field but there is something coming soon that should take things up up a notch ” HD DVDS ” yes you will seeon be able to watch high definition movies on dvd from the comfort of your home.

So what are High Definition DVDs? well there two HD dvd formats that are being worked on as we speak one is called HD DVD and the other is called Blu-ray both of them support High defination films.

Something that is really incredible about these dvds is that the HD DVD will be a single layer capacity disk that will allow up to 15GB and then their will be a dual layer one that is 30GB. You might think that is pretty impressive but that isn’t anything. Toshiba is in the process of developing a triple layer disk that will allow 45GB of data and then their will be a 100GB one that is four layer.. very impressive.

Basically high definition movies require more space and thats why companies are developing these high capacity disks to allow this to be possible.

What are the benefits of this?

Well this means DVD movies will have even more on them such as Directors comments, interactive features, out-takes and even a 2nd version of the dvd which will be in High Definition, I believe to fully benefit from this you would need a good tv and dvd player.

November 2004 was the start of talks saying that HD DVD would take over from regular dvds. Mind you blu-ray movies will require a Blu-ray player You should see both the HD DVD and Blu-Ray provide plent of space for high-definition movies this coming year.