Blu-ray Bites Back

January 9, 2006: Continuing the battle for High Definition DVD supremacy, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) announced this week that its format specification and licensing is ready, allowing hardware vendors to finalise designs already being showcased at the show.

The announcement also means that content providers and manufacturers can now start producing single (25GB) and dual (50GB) layer Blue-ray discs for content rich consumer applications such as uncompressed digital audio and video discs, and writeable discs for storage applications.

Victor Matsuda, global chairman of the BDA promotions committee, says that the completion of the specifications is an important step in establishing the format, and expects products using the information to start appearing from April 2006.

The announcement is one of many concerning next generation DVD formats to come out of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas over the last week. With companies such as Samsung, LG and Pioneer showcasing their Blu-ray hardware, the format war with Toshiba’s HD-DVD is showing no signs of abating. Once again it will be up to consumers to decide the winner.

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