From CD to Blu-ray, the evolution of movie optical discs

 As media technology evolves, Blu-ray disc is nothing new to us. People love to buy Blu-ray version of movies for both collecting and viewing purpose. Comparing to DVD, Blu-ray has a way larger storage capability thus can keep movies in a much better quality. Not only that, more and more people even love to buy blank Blu-ray discs to burn Blu-ray movies on Mac or Windows themselves. So, how did Blu-ray became as it is nowadays? And what's the history of Blu-ray?

To talk about the history of Blu-ray, we have to start with the CD. When the CD was introduced in the early '80s, it meant an enormous leap from traditional media. Not only did it offer a significant improvement in audio quality, its primary application, but its 650 MB storage capacity also meant a giant leap in data storage and retrieval. For the first time, there was a universal standard for pre-recorded, recordable and rewritable media, offering the best quality and features consumers could wish for themselves, at very low costs.



Although the CD was a very useful medium for the recording and distribution of audio and some modest data applications, demand for a new medium offering higher storage capacities rose in the '90s. These demands lead to the evolution of the DVD specification and a 5-10 times of increase in capacity. This enabled high quality, standard definition video distribution and recording. Furthermore, the increased capacity accommodated more demanding data applications. At the same time, the DVD spec used the same form factor as the CD, allowing for seamless migration to the next generation format and offering full backwards compatibility.



Now, in the next millennium, high definition video demands a new solution. History proved that a significant 5-10 x increase in storage capacity and the ability to play previous generation formats are key elements for a new format to succeed. This new format has arrived with the advent of Blu-ray Disc, the only format that offers a considerable increase in storage capacity with its 25 to 50 GB data capacity. This allows for the next big application of optical media: the distribution and recording of high definition video in the highest possible quality. In fact, no other format can offer the data capacity of Blu-ray Disc, and no other format will allow for the same high video quality and interactive features to create the ultimate user experience. As with DVD, the Blu-ray Disc format is based on the same, bare disc physical form factor, allowing for compatibility with CD and DVD.

That is the evolution story of the Blu-ray. As we can see, it didn't take too long for CD to become Blu-ray, but the improvement it brought to us is enormous, thanks to the fast-developing technology. Now, we can watch high-quality movie on our Blu-ray player in our own house. What's better is that, with the right software, we can even play Blu-ray on our computer.


Leawo Blu-ray Player is a free multi-functional media player for both Windows and Mac system. With Leawo Blu-ray Player installed on your desktop or laptop, you can play any Blu-ray or DVD disc or ISO file or folder in one click. Leawo Blu-ray Player supports not only Blu-ray and DVD materials up to 4K quality, but also supports all kinds of video format to be played, and keep the best quality of the video when playing. What's even better is that, Leawo Blu-ray Player can play Blu-ray and DVD material ignoring the region code restriction or encryption protection, giving you full freedom to play whatever movie you want.

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