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What is Blu-ray?
Blu-ray discs were designed to be the next generation of the DVD format for High Definition Playback of movies and videos. The capacity of a Blu-ray is much greater that its DVD ancestor. The name “Blu-ray” came about because of the Blue Laser used to read the disc contents This blue laser has a shorter wavelength than the red laser used in DVD, allowing for a higher density of data in the same 12 cm diameter size. These Blu-ray discs typically can store more than 5 times the data of a DVD (refer to the “Different Blu-ray Formats section below for more details on Capacities). The extra memory capacity of a Blu-ray is critical to hold the large amounts of video data required to display full 1080P video. The 1080P video playback format is the crispest image format available for the consumer market today.
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How much better is a Blu-ray movie than a DVD Movie?
Answer to this question really lies in the hardware used to display the images. To make the most of a 1080P Blu-ray, the viewer must have a 1080P playback device (TV or Projector). There are many Televisons, Flat-Screens, and Projectors that are advertised as “High Definition” but don’t output at the full 1080P! This has proved to be confusing for consumers. To ensure you are seeing the full 1080P picture, your playback device must be capable of displaying full 1080P.
So, how much better is a Blu-ray movie if you do have a 1080P television or projector? Actually, this is still not a straightforward answer! With an “up-converting” DVD player, video signals can be bumped up from 480p to 1080i! “Up-converting” is basically “cheating the signal”. An upconverting DVD player (using the proper HDMI cable for connection to the TV or Projector) can fill all the rows that are missing in the picture to make the picture look crisper. The result is very good. In most cases, it would take a trained eye to notice the difference between an up-converted DVD and a Blu-ray, particularly if the television or display device is under 50 inches!
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What is 1080i, 780p, 780i, and 480p?
Before we tackle this question, we should explain what the i and p stand for in these formats. The “i” refers to INTERLACED video and the “p” refers to PROGRESSIVE Scan. Progressive means the picture is painted onto the screen in one pass for a crisper image. Interlaced means that the picture is painted onto the screen in 2 passes, so although the resolution may be the same for 1080p and 1080i, for example, the interlaced version was painted on the screen in 2 passes which produces an image that is less crisp and less clean than its progressive counterpart.
1080i, 780p, 780i, formats are all advertised as “High Definition”, but they do not take full advantage of the Blu-ray players output. True HD (sometimes referred to as ULTRA-HD or Full-HD) is the progressive 1080P format. Every pixel is painted on the screen in a single pass with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels! Note: 480p is the resolution of a standard DVD player (without upconverting)… it is not considered to be High Definition, but rather, it is referred to as Enhanced Definition.
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Table of HD Resolutions |
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1080p |
1920 x 1080 pixels |
Progressive Scan |
BEST QUALITY |
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1080i |
1920 x 1080 pixels |
Interlaced |
Very good quality |
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720p |
1,280 x 720 pixels |
Progressive Scan |
Very good quality |
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720i |
1,280 x 720 pixels |
Interlaced |
Good quality |
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480p |
480 x 640 |
Progressive Scan |
Not considered HD |
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How do I create my own Blu-ray Movie disc?
To start making your own high definition Blu-ray videos, you’ll need a Blu-ray authoring package and a blu-ray drive for your computer. We use Adobe’s Encore to create high quality blu-ray pre-masters (you can find out more about Adobe’s Encore at http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/encore/. Be sure to check that your computer’s system requirements are sufficient to handle the demands of authoring Blu-ray videos!
You can purchase blu-ray recordable media (We purchase our recordable media at www.microforum.ca. Microforum also offers duplication services and printing services to copy your discs with full colour artwork… a real time saver if you need to make print off a batch of 50 or 100 discs).
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What is the difference between a Molded Blu-Ray and a Recorded Disc?
If you are looking to mass produce you Blu-ray movie, you won’t want to be burning them one-by one on your recorder on your computer. This is not the way the entertainment companies do it! They would create a Glass Master from their Blu-ray source and use a process called injection molding to press the discs. Basically the manufacturing plant would melt polycarbonate to produce the final disc with the data imprinted on the plastic! This process is far more economical if you are looking to make 1000 Blu-ray discs, for example. We use a manufacturer based out of Toronto, Canada called Microforum ( www.microforum.ca ) for all our DVD, CD and Blu0ray manufacturing needs.
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What are the different Blu-Ray Disc Capacities?
As was the case with the DVD Recordable, the Blu-ray recordable is available in single layer and dual layer varieties. The single layer (BD-25) will hold approx 25GB of data or video and the dual layer (BD-50) will hold approx 50GB on a single standard-sized disc! Short videos (such as corporate videos or single TV episodes) should easily fit on a single layer disc. Feature films (often with lots of extras) will typically require the dual layer BD-50.
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What is AACS?
AACS stands for “Advanced Access Content System” is the digital rights management (copy protection) system used in Blu-ray manufacturing. For those who are familiar with CSS on the DVD, the principals of AACS are the same, but with some enhancements to further protect the title from unauthorized copying.
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