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Major releases still coming out, and enthusiasts collecting discs:
20 years ago today, the CES in Las Vegas was buzzing with talk of Blu-ray technology, players, and media. Several years in the making, Blu-rays arrived with considerable industry backing, with "seven out of the eight major movie studios announced movie titles for the launch," reports Blu-ray.com. This successor to the DVD offered improved density and thus capacity vs earlier optical formats, largely thanks to the development of blue‑violet laser diodes – hence the name.
Blu-ray discs boosted single layer media capacity to 25GB, vs 4.7GB for DVDs, using a new 405nm blue‑violet laser combined with more advanced materials. The shorter wavelength enabled a higher numerical aperture for more pits per sq mm. This was complemented by a tighter track pitch and a thinner (but harder) protection layer to boost capacity tenfold (comparing single-layer media).
Moreover, Blu-ray's base speed was significantly boosted, with the older DVD standard offering 11 Mbps, but the new format raising the bar to 36 Mbps. Better quality video was also delivered thanks to Blu-ray's adoption of the AVC (H.264) codec. It retained MPEG-2 compatibility, but AVC facilitated more efficient HD video file playback at manageable bitrates.
Blu-ray's success wasn't inevitable, as a rival faction of electronics companies and movie studios would ignite a high‑profile format war. Much like the VHS vs Betamax videotape format war, there could only be one winner, and Sony was on the winning side this time, being one of the biggest backers of Blu-ray. Console gamers of the late noughties became well aware of this format war, as it would also divide the PlayStation and Xbox camps.
Blu-ray's superior capacity, default console integration, copy protection, and broader studio support would mean that this format war was quite brief, with Toshiba conceding in early 2008.
Since its introduction, Blu-ray has been iterated and improved with 4K Blu-ray packing HEVC, HDR and more features into the format starting about a decade ago.
Its bitrates are still considerably better than the best mainstream streaming quality available, so it remains a cherished format among home cinema enthusiasts. Thus, Blu-ray media still clings onto some relevance in 2026, with collectors and bandwidth‑limited regions keeping the format alive. It is also still available as the physical media distribution format for some modern consoles.
Its days look numbered, though, if we look at various industry trends. Console makers are pulling away from physical media, including Blu-ray distribution, for example. Also, we saw news of Sony ending recordable Blu-ray production in 2025, and LG ending production of Blu-ray players in late 2024. Changes like this put several sturdy nails in this optical disc format's coffin.
It seems like an age since PCs last came with Blu-ray (or any optical) disc apparatus built-in. That excludes Japan, for some reason, where we recently noticed optical drive demand surged (inc Blu-ray compatible) coinciding with the end of support for Windows 10.
(Score: 4, Informative) by anubi on Wednesday January 07, @05:10AM (2 children)
With all this focus on copy protection, as well as "bit-rot" enforcing end-of-life, I considered Blu-Ray too ephemeral for my use. Even if I bought in to the new tech, I was just putting my head into the noose of those wanting me to invest in non-durable tech for the benefit of the Marketing Boys who want to see me buy another when what I bought breaks.
I saw through their multi-prong plan:
Part A: Lobby Congress to pass Strong Copyright Legislation so they can use Public Dollars to enforce and penalize any that didn't confirm to the letter of their lobbied and paid-for "wish-list", codified into Law.
A1: Law obligates "Lusers" to honor "Terms and Conditions : especially disassembly, modification, and reproduction.
A2: Obligation includes both "hold harmless" and "arbitration" clauses to keep "Lusers" from using the legal system to fight back, while still having the legal system still in effect to enforce the "wish list".
Part B: Claim ownership of other's information processed by their software, with no recourse for the "lusers" to even investigate what the software is actually doing in their machine. No liability is assumed for loss of a "Lusers" data, only the "Holder of Copyright" shall be covered under this Law.
Part C: Reserve rights to change terms and conditions after the contract has been accepted.
Part C1: Including making changes to products already accepted with no guarantee of an accurate description of the change. The "Lusers" agree to remain clueless, and not verify outside authorized channels.
Part C1A: Changes may include rendering product already sold and paid for unusable by said change, no refund or loss-of-use penalties shall apply. Attempts by "Lusers" to maintain what they had shall be considered a violation of this contract.
Part C1B: Changes may include anything either we or our business partners may wish to install or read from your filesystem, at any time, for any reason, with no duty to inform you of this. Whatever happens, you did agree to the changes and hold harmless clauses, and all grievances must be resolved in our arbitration court.
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This is not all, but I am pretty sure this is a condensation of what our leadership signed us up for.
I can't be too mad at the RIAA for pushing this. They knew what they were doing, to make sure the rest of us would be legally gutted ( with what we have to tolerate today: buggy code, lack of responsibility, ability to pass and enforce one-sided wish-lists into law ) without recourse. A am far more pissed at US for our own ignorance and tolerating this. We discussed this, a LOT, on the Green Site. Ignorance and deliberate indifference reigned and now our computational infrastructure is FUBAR.
A mess is sure a lot easier to make than it is to clean up.
And we have one hell of a mess on our hands.
It is easy to give something ( including stuff that isn't yours to take ) away, than it is to get it back.
Here's to all those older guys on the Green Site that saw this coming, tried their best to warn us, we did not pay attention to their warnings, and now we have a terribly broken system, with a few getting filthy rich off our miseries.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 07, @10:55PM (1 child)
People have been whining about mythical "bit rot" since the days of CDs. I have several thousand CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, and 4K UHDs. None have succumbed to "bit rot."
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday January 08, @05:21AM
You've just been lucky I've had a few that are showing signs of it, if you're saying it's 0, it's probably because error correction is picking it up. The main reason that I know that some of my audio CDs are impacted is that I use Exact Audio Copy to do the ripping and it picks up slight issues that wouldn't be normally noticed. And I have a few DVDs that don't really read at all in places. Most of those are WB discs that are probably just defective, but it's not just them.