Blu Ray Buyers Guide

Blu Ray HD Disc Format

Blu Ray HD disc format is the next level of DVD. But with a higher capacity to store and retrieve information. High definition movies especially those running for 90 minutes or more require up to 29 GB of memory space. A single layer of Blu Ray stores up to 15 GB of data and a double layer stores 30 GB. Blu Ray discs use a blue-violet laser operating at short wavelengths compared to the infrared laser used by a DVD. This produces far more detailed movies and pictures than any other data format. The resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels. The encoding is at 720 x 576. The level of detail is twice that of a DVD.

Blu Ray has better image quality and better sound quality. Audio quality includes Dolby True-HD and DTS-HD, similar to Studio Master. Blu Ray has built in menu features. The popup menu provides access to the menu functions as the movie is still playing. It also has picture inside picture video commentary. Two videos playing simultaneously with video commentary in one. New content can also be downloaded directly from your player without the need of any special software.

LG Blu-Ray Rewriter (BE12LU30)

The LG Blu-Ray rewriter has a capacity of 50 GB and lets users store files, photos or work documents on its dual layer high definition disc. Cyberlink BD Suite software is available for file archiving, and direct disc burning. The LightScribe technology is a laser printing technology that creates high quality labels or disc markers with a simple touch.

Blu-Ray Features

The cost of Blu-Ray’s is generally more than other writer’s and usually retail for $200 or more. Also, movies cost up to $25 per movie playing on a Blu-Ray system. Blu-Ray players can also play DVD movies and hence are a good investment. There are presently 970 Blu Ray titles available in the market place. On the other hand, there are about 90,000 DVD titles available in the open marketplace. Loading times of Blu-Ray movies had been a drawback with most discs taking about 3 minutes to load. Presently, most movies can load in 20 seconds. Movies with menu systems can take up to a minute to load. Sony’s PlayStation 3, Sony’s VAIO AR series and Asus’ G2Sc are player’s presently playing Blu-Ray discs.

Converting to Blu-Ray

The hardware for Blu-Ray movies limits the analog component video output to 960 x 540. The image constraint is 1/4rth of the 1920x1080 resolution of true high definition. Sony Pictures home entertainment has stated it won’t go ahead for down converting due to the image constraint token. This because there is still very little difference achieved after conversion, as most HDTV’s don’t produce much difference from the conversion’s. Warner Brother’s on the other hand have stated they are ready to implement the image constraint and release movies on both DVD as well as Blu-Ray. Paramount and Disney have agreed not to engage the image constraint.

Blu-Ray Soundtrack Formats

Blu-Ray has support for five sound track formats as it has more space and higher definition quality in its discs. The sound track formats are Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, DTS-HD Master Audio, and Linear PCM (LPCM). Dolby Digital Plus uses compression to reduce the size of the audio. However, it is better than standard Dolby Digital as it has a higher bit rate (6.144 Mbps vs. 40 Kbps) with more channels. Dolby TrueHD compresses the raw information to smaller file size. And, it does this by not compromising on the disc information. It has both a higher bit rate and sample rate. It is identical to DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. DTS HD high resolution is the next level of standard DTS. It has a bit rate of 6Mbps Vs 1.5 Mbps. DTD HD Master Audio is identical to Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. LPCM is the standard for almost all sound tracks. All soundtracks are eventually converted to LPCM as it is the standard for conversion to AV receiver to play back. LPCM is known to produce high audio quality and occupy high disk space.