I am really out of the loop it seems! I have been hearing a lot about Blu-Ray but have no idea what it's all about. Can you all fill me in? I'm sure it will be on hubby's wishlist before I know what hits me!

If there is I could use it. I am not to sure at all what it is all about or if it is worth buying. I hear you I am sure my husband will be wanting it also.

Tech-wise, it uses a blue laser diode (~405nm) with a high lens aperture for focusing (~0.85). By comparison, DVD uses a red laser diode (~650nm wavelength) and the aperture is lower (~0.6). The smaller wavelength means that the pits (for data) can be made smaller than those for DVD so more may be packed onto a disc.

The aperture is important when comparing Blu Ray and HD DVD. HD DVD also uses blue laser diodes of the same wavelength, but the lens aperture is closer to that for DVDs (~0.65). The higher aperture number means greater resolution for even smaller distances, so once more, there are more pits that can be put onto the Blu Ray disc versus the HD DVD.

However, the higher aperture lenses are more difficult to manufacture and the distance between the disc and the lens must be made smaller . The latter is one issue with the authoring of the discs, requiring new equipment.

Software-wise, there are more ambitious plans being implemented with HD DVD to make the user-experience more interactive or.. more interesting. Blu Ray is slowly catching up on that end, but...... it'll be awhile.

Blu-Ray is ultimately a better technology allowing for higher quality movies because companies could use less compression and/or higher bit rates for encoding. At this time, the advantages are not clear for picture quality because it's expensive and tricky to get the encoding just right for HD movies. as a result, companies that support both disc formats encode the movie only once resulting in equal quality. Some blu ray movies are being encoded with the older codecs that are more well understood and quicker to encode, but don't have as high a quality.

Of course, it'll be pretty difficult to tell the difference unless you have an enormous HDTV.

Thank you for such a detailed explanation! Just to make sure I follow...in the simplest terms, a Blu-Ray allows for more data to be stored on the disc than a normal dvd and would provide a much better viewing experience if used with the appropriate television. Do I have that right?

It sounds like this might be a product that still has some bugs to be worked out? I like the concept though!

That's the gist of it, yup. :)

Yeah, at this point you'd have to be an enthusiast to pick either one of the formats. I'd suggest waiting it out for awhile to let the prices of the hardware fall as both technologies are fairly new. It's also not certain which format will prevail as there is considerable support for each one.

IMHO, we'll get a much clearer idea of where things are going by 2008, post-Holiday 2007. The prices for HD DVD players are falling and still a lot lower than Blu Ray, but at the same time you have to look at what movies are available exclusively for one format or the other.

This is the classic VHS vs. Beta shoot out. Move slowly and play the waiting game. S'AL knows his stuff and gave you great info. Maybe S'AL knows definitively however I think right now that HD-DVD has more discs being produced in their format than Blu-Ray. Hold out for a little longer and wait 'til the shakeout is more pronounced. The good news will be a better idea as to which "horse" is going to make it to the finish line and the price will more than likely come down. ;)