Features

What is it? It's a set of frequently asked questions, but that's not important right now.

No, you fool, what's Blu-ray? Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage format that's read and written using a blue-violet laser rather than the red laser used in DVD players.

What's the advantage over DVD? The discs hold more data, so more files will fit on one disc and full-length movies can be stored in high definition (HD) format.

Who owns Blu-ray? The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), which includes Sony, Pioneer, Matsushita (Panasonic), LG, Apple, Dell, HP, Disney, Warner Bros and many others.

Is Blu-ray definitely the right HD format to choose? It is now, yes.

Can it be used for other stuff apart from movies? You can store any kind of file on a BD-R or BD-RE disc. It's not clear whether Blu-ray will be used in future for things like software installation; at present, DVD has enough capacity for most purposes.

Don't Blu-ray discs deteriorate easily? No, they fixed that early problem.

What types of discs can I buy? Movies are supplied on BD-ROM. BD-R discs are blank recordable (write once) media, like DVD-R; BD-RE are rewritable, like DVDRW. Both are available in 25 and 50GB capacities and can only be written with a Blu-ray writer drive, though they should play back on all Blu-ray drives and most set-top boxes.

Are Blu-ray movie discs copy protected? Very much so. A number of copy protection technologies are used on each disc, including HDCP, which prevents movies being played via a digital monitor connection (DVI or HDMI) unless HDCP is supported by both the playing device - such as your PC's graphics card - and the monitor or TV.

Are Blu-ray movie discs region coded? Yes. The region coding system is different than with DVDs but along the same lines, so the US has region A discs and players while the UK is in region B. Not every movie is region coded, but it's likely to be the norm.

Can I record TV programmes to Blu-ray discs? Yes, if you buy an expensive set-top Blu-ray recorder. Using a PC with a TV tuner and a Blu-ray rewritable drive, you can capture video and burn it using software such as CyberLink PowerProducer 5 Ultra, but it's a fiddly process; you can't just record shows direct to disc in real time.

What kinds of 'extra' content are available on Blu-ray movie discs? The Java programming language is part of the Blu-ray specification, enabling more sophisticated interactive menus than with DVD. Enhancements known as Profile 1.1 (or 'Bonus View') and Profile 2.0 ('BD-Live') add the requirement for built-in disk storage and an Internet connection, enabling movie companies to include extra content either stored on the disc or automatically downloaded. Only very recent set-top Blu-ray players support these features, but the drive built into the Sony PlayStation 3 can be upgraded to support them via a downloaded firmware update. Any drive you buy now to install in your PC should enable you to access Bonus View and BD-Live content.