BLU-RAY DISCBLU-RAY DISC

INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION

Contents Introduction The technology Blu-ray vs HD-DVD Authoring on Blu-ray

4.1 HDMV mode 4.2 BD-J mode

Authoring software Conclusions

Introduction Blu-ray (BD) is a next-generation optical disc format

developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) Apple, Dell, HP, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sony

etc. Warner, Paramount, Fox, Disney, Sony, MGM and Lionsgate

The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data.

The technology The name Blu-ray is derived from the blue-violet laser it

uses to read and write to the disc.

The Blu-ray Disc system uses a laser operating at a wavelength of 405 nm to read and write data. DVDs and CDs use red and infrared lasers at 650 nm and 780 nm.

Shorter wavelength enables

larger disc capasity.

The technology

The BD standard places the data recording layer closer to the surface of the disc, making the layer easier to damage.Special hard-coating created for the Blu-ray

Disc

Blu-ray vs HD-DVD Based on the same laser technology in

slightly different ways.

Blu-ray vs HD-DVD

BD vs HD-DVD

Capasity: 50Gb 30Gb

AV transfer rate: 54Mbps 36.55Mbps

Movie studios: 7/8 3/8

Blu-ray has bigger HD-DVD is more

hardware support. cost effective (fall 2006).

Authoring on Blu-ray Video codecs:

MPEG-2MPEG-4 AVC (aka H.264)SMPTE VC-1 (based on Windows Media Video)

Audio codecs:Linear PCM - 8 channels, uncompressedDolby Digital - 5.1-channelDolby Digital Plus - increased bitrates, 7.1-channelDolby TrueHD - lossless, up to 8 channelsDTS Digital Surround - 5.1-channelDTS-HD - lossless, up to 8 channels

Authoring on Blu-ray

Two authoring modes:HDMV (High Definition Movie)

BD-J (Blu-ray Disc Java)

Both massively surpass the DVD specification in use today.

HDMV mode

HDMV has been designed to support a feature set that supersedes DVD-Video while emphasizing production continuity with existing media formats. HDMV supports all of the well known DVD-Video features.

”Out-of-mux” reading:While playing the movie the system can call up

menus, overlay graphics, pictures, button sounds, etc. at user request without stopping playback.

HDMV mode Technology:

The HDMV decoder model is equipped with two read buffers, two preloading buffers and two switches.

When you start to play a movie the main MPEG stream is sent to the primary read buffer and the Out-of-Mux stream is sent to the secondary read buffer by the switch.

The preloading buffers cache subtitles, interactive graphics and sound effects data before movie playback begins and supplies data for presentation even while the main MPEG stream is being decoded.

HDMV mode This technology enables the following:

Graphic planes Two individual HD resolution graphics planes are available

on top of the video plane. One plane is assigned to video-related graphics (like subtitles) and the other plane is assigned to interactive graphical elements such as buttons or menus.

Button graphicsMenu buttons support 256 color graphics and animation. Buttons can be called and removed during video playback and there is no need to return to a separate menu screen.

HDMV mode

Button soundsLoaded into memory of the player. When a user highlights or selects a menu option the sound can be played (a button click or a voice-over explaining the highlighted menu choice). These button sounds can even be mixed with the running audio from the movie or menu.

Multi-page menusA menu can consist of several pages and users will be able to browse through the menu pages, while the audio and video remain playing in the background.

BD-J mode BD-J, or Blu-ray Disc Java, is the interactive platform

supporting advanced content for Blu-ray Disc. BD-J mode was designed to offer the content provider almost unlimited functionality when creating interactive titles. It is based on Java 2 Micro Edition.

BD-J allows bonus content on BD titles to be far more sophisticated on DVD. Like network access, picture-in-picture and access to local storage.

Having a full programming environment available on every Blu-ray Disc player provides developers with an extremely flexible platform for creating innovative new content types.

BD-J mode Features:

Graphical User Interface The author has freedom in designing the user

interface. It can display up to 32-bit dynamically generated graphics and it supports the display of pictures in standard file formats like JPEG, PNG, etc.

Playback controlThe BD-J application can act as the sole interface to the disc's contents. The BD-J environment offers all of the playback features of HDMV mode. Video can be scaled dynamically so that it can be played in a small size in the corner of a menu and resume full screen when a selection is made.

BD-J mode

StorageA Blu-ray Disc player can contain a small amount of non-volatile system storage (flash memory). This system storage can be used to store bookmarks, favorites from a disc, training course results, etc. A Blu-ray Disc player may also be equipped with Local Storage (hard disk, to allow large amounts of data like audio/video to be stored).

Internet connectionThe BD-J system supports basic internet protocols like TCP/IP and HTTP . The player may connect to the disc publisher's web site to unlock certain content on the disc or dynamically display certain info on the screen. The disc's program may be extended with JPEG pictures or audio fragments downloaded from the Internet, or it can even stream full new audio/visual content to Local Storage.

Authoring software

”Blu-print” by SonyReleased in August 2006

$50 000 per license

”Scenarist” by Sonic$60 000 –> $100 000 per license

Conclusions

The next generation optical media battle is on going. Blu-ray seems to have the upper hand but the next two years will tell which one wins.

The Blu-ray Disc format for movie distribution offers two profiles for the creation of titles. It was designed to allow for the streamlined development of Blu-ray Disc (HD) and DVD-Video (SD) titles at the same time, if needed. Basic menus and navigation can be identical. It also offers many new functions that will benefit the author by offering flexible ways of creating disc content and the end users by offering new functionality compared to DVD-Video.