Blu-ray Enters the Consumer Market

Blu-ray reached consumers in 2006 as one of two competing formats for high-definition optical video. Its name came from the blue-violet laser used to read the disc. That laser operated at about 405 nanometers, compared with the longer-wavelength red laser used by DVD, allowing data to be packed more densely.

A single-layer Blu-ray disc stored 25 GB and a dual-layer disc 50 GB, far beyond the 4.7 GB of a standard single-layer DVD. That capacity made room for high-bitrate 1080p video, multiple audio tracks, and extra material. Sony also made Blu-ray a major part of the PlayStation 3, giving the format millions of drives in living rooms.

The rival HD DVD format had its own supporters, so the contest was not decided only by engineering. Studio agreements, manufacturing cost, retail support, and game-console strategy mattered as much as laser wavelength or storage capacity.