Panasonic DMP-BD10PP Service Manual

95 Features5.1. What's a Blu-ray Disc?The Blu-ray Disc (BD) is a next-generation optical disc format for storing a large amount of data using a short wavelength blue laserto read and write. Like DVD, there are a number of BD standards, such as read-only BD-ROM, recordable BD-R and rewritable BD-RE. The single largest feature of BD is its high-density data storage capacity of 25 GB per layer on one side. This lets you storemany hours of content, such as movies with HD resolution and high-quality music with loss-less audio compression. BD also fea-tures a high-performance interactive function that uses Java™(*1), called BD-J, to deliver a new video experience to users notoffered by conventional video media. With many motion picture production companies and electronics, PC and gaming manufactur-ers expressing their support for BD, new hardware and software products are expected to hit the market soon.(*1): Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems5.2. Structure of the BD-Video DiscThe Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc with the same dimensions as the DVD disc: 12 cm in diameter and 1.2 mm in thickness. By usinga combination of the 405-nm-wavelength blue-violet laser, which is a shorter wavelength than the red laser used by DVD, and ahigh-density objective lens with a numerical aperture of 0.85, BD uses a laser beam spot that is only about 1/5 the size used byDVD. Thanks to these technologies, a single-layer BD-Video disc can store five times more data than a DVD disc.5.3. Benefits of the BD-Video Disc1. One Single-Layer Disc Equals Five DVDs in DataCapacityThe BD-Video disc boasts a data storage capacity of 25GB in a single layer and 50GB in dual layer, because ituses the shorter wavelength blue-violet laser and a high-density objective lens to enable higher-density datareading. When a multi-layer system is adopted in thefuture, the storage capacity can increase to 100 GB andeven 200 GB. One BD-Video disc can store a hugeamount of data so users can enjoy many hours of high-definition content and high-quality surround sound thatcould not previously be provided by other media.