Blu-ray Disc — The Blue-Laser Disc That Won the HD DVD War

Blu-ray Disc (BD) is an optical disc read and written with a 405 nm blue-violet laser, the same 12 cm size as the CD and the DVD. Nine companies announced its basic specifications in February 2002, and in Japan Sony released the first BD recorder in April 2003. Movies and playback-only players arrived together in June 2006 in the United States. Unlike DVD, Blu-ray had to fight a format war with HD DVD, backed by Toshiba and others, after launch, and the war did not end until February 2008.

Nine companies, 2002

According to the joint announcement of 19 February 2002, published by Hitachi, nine companies (Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, Sony and Thomson) had jointly established the basic specifications of a next-generation, large-capacity optical disc video recording format called Blu-ray Disc.

The design records more densely than DVD by shrinking the laser spot with a shorter wavelength and using a thin cover layer to reduce aberration from disc tilt. The announcement promised more than two hours of digital high-definition broadcasts and set a goal of over 50 GB on a dual-layer disc. According to English Wikipedia, the group renamed itself the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) on 4 October 2004.

Japan first, with a recorder, 2003

The first product was a Japanese recorder. Sony's announcement of 3 March 2003 said the BDZ-S77, a BD recorder with a built-in BS digital tuner, would go on sale on 10 April at a suggested retail price of 450,000 yen before tax. Its single-layer 23 GB disc could record about two hours of BS digital high-definition broadcasting. Sony called it the world's first Blu-ray Disc recorder with a built-in BS digital tuner.

A playback format and players for selling movies came three years later.

The war with HD DVD

The DVD format war had ended in a merger in 1995, before launch, but the blue-laser generation went differently. According to IEEE Spectrum, Toshiba pushed a separate format, HD DVD, which won the backing of Microsoft and Intel. There were attempts to unify as late as 2005, but neither side gave way.

HD DVD reached stores first. IEEE Spectrum says Toshiba released an HD DVD player in Japan in March 2006 at a little over $900 and brought two models to the US the following month at $799 and $499. On the Blu-ray side, Samsung's BD-P1000 became the first player on the market in June 2006, after slipping from May, at an initial price of $1,000. According to English Wikipedia, the first Blu-ray movie titles were released on 20 June 2006.

Based on IEEE Spectrum and the PS3 article.

In November 2006 Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation 3 went on sale in Japan and North America. It played Blu-ray discs, and in Europe a delay in mass-producing its blue-violet laser diode pushed the launch to March 2007. English Wikipedia says PS3 helped support Blu-ray, alongside a larger Sony marketing campaign. On the HD DVD side, Microsoft released an HD DVD player that worked with its Xbox late in 2006.

2008: Warner and Toshiba

The studios tipped the balance. In an announcement of 4 January 2008, which Engadget published in full, Warner Bros. Entertainment, which had been releasing in both formats, said it would release its high-definition titles only on Blu-ray from later that year, continuing HD DVD releases until May 2008. Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer argued that the opportunity for high-definition discs could be lost if format confusion went on.

According to IEEE Spectrum, the studios came to prefer Blu-ray's copy protection, and rental companies announced they would stop carrying HD DVDs. On 19 February 2008 Toshiba announced that it would no longer develop, manufacture or market HD DVD players and recorders. It aimed to cease the businesses by the end of March 2008 while continuing to support owners of its HD DVD products. President Atsutoshi Nishida said the company had weighed the long-term impact of continuing the next-generation format war and concluded that a swift decision would best help the market develop.

Ultra HD Blu-ray in 4K

The format stretched to 4K. On 12 May 2015 the BDA announced that the Ultra HD Blu-ray specification was complete and unveiled a new logo. According to What Hi-Fi?, it supported 3840×2160 resolution, high dynamic range (HDR) and higher frame rates, manufacturers could license it from July, and players would remain compatible with existing Blu-ray discs.

The first compatible machine appeared in Japan. AV Watch reported that Panasonic would release the DMR-UBZ1 on 13 November 2015 as the world's first BD player and recorder able to play Ultra HD Blu-ray, at an expected price of about 400,000 yen. When it was announced, no release date had been set for any Ultra HD Blu-ray titles.

The end of recordable media

In the 2020s the recording side began to close down. According to PHILE WEB, Panasonic had ended production of recordable BD media in February 2023. On 23 January 2025 Sony announced that it would end production of all its Blu-ray Disc media, recordable MiniDiscs, MD Data discs and MiniDV cassettes in February 2025, with no successor products.

On 9 February 2026 Sony went further, announcing that shipments of all its Blu-ray Disc recorders would end in stages from February 2026. According to AV Watch, Sony cited a sharp fall in demand for recording as streaming services and catch-up viewing spread, and said it would keep making players.

The blue-laser disc won its format war, remains in use for movies and game consoles, and is retreating from recording. For other hardware of the period, see the hardware timeline.