[Snowy]

What are they? For Recent movie releases they mention Blue Ray Discs...... anyone got a clue?

[Phieta]

Blu-Ray is a new optical disc format intended to replace DVD. It probably won't. My advice? Don't bother.

[Joseph]

If DVD is still the standard for home video, why bother trying something else? That'd be like buying all casettes insted of CDs for music.

[Phieta]

Because a six-layer Blu-Ray disc can hold ~200 GB and a 2-layer DVD can only hold ~8.5 GB, allowing the Blu-Ray disc to store longer and/or better-quality video?

...oh, wait, sorry. That's why consumers want Blu-Ray discs to become the new format of choice. The movie cartel wants Blu-Ray adopted because of two fun little bits of DRM called AACS and HDCP. (Incidentally, you probably won't notice the quality difference between DVD and Blu-Ray unless you have an HDTV or you're watching on your computer -- and even then, thanks to HDCP, you'll probably be watching a downsampled version of the video anyway unless your display supports HDCP! Yay!)

HD-DVD is the main competitor to Blu-Ray... cheaper to manufacture, but lower in capacity... and mostly the same otherwise, as far as Joe Sixpack cares. :-\

[Neraphym]

The PS3 uses blu-ray, and imo, the PS2 did wonders for the DVD format.

[Raktor]

@Phi: But data backup. Plus.. I have a plasma.

[Goto]

Yeah, choosing to use the blu-ray format is a pretty big part of the mammoth price tag for the ps3.

[Elvenblader]

Like everyone said, Blu Ray is a new DVD format that is designed for the next generation of data storage, entertainment, and movie viewing. Even though you can store more than 50 gigs of information on a Blu-Ray disc, the cost of a blu ray player can go for almost $1,000+. Also jack, you think HDCP is bad now, wait till Windows Vista comes out. Vista will actually take more active control of your video card. Why is this bad? Well lets say you legally own a High Def movie of "Pirates of the Caribbean." If you try to rip that movie with your computer and video card, Vista will know that your trying to do this and will distort the video, and cause the movie to be of lesser quality when your done ripping the movie. So in other words, your movie will not be "True" high def. For now people are stuck with video cards and monitors that are HDCP compliant. One of the first HDCP monitors is supposed to come out in the next few months.

[Phieta]

Exactly. If I buy a movie and it says "POMGZ HD LOLZ" on the box, I expect that I'll be able to view said movie at full quality. If you tell me, "So what if you want to make a 100% legal (at least before the DMCA was passed) backup? You might be a pirate, so we're only going to let you play with this low-fi version," I'm going to tell you to go screw yourself.