LOS ANGELES (R) – A group of consumer electronics makers said on Wednesday they approved the format for a new generation of discs that can store five times the data of DVDs at the same cost — enough to put a full season of “The Sopranos” on one disc.
The group, called the Blu-ray Disc Founders, said it has approved version 1.0 of the BD-ROM format and made it available to disc manufacturers.
Blu-ray, so named because the standard requires a blue laser instead of the red one used for DVD reading and recording, is designed to store 25 gigabytes of data on a single-layered disc.
It is aimed at recording and storing high-definition video which studios, video renters and retailers see as a major growth opportunity for the home video market in coming years.
The founders’ group has 13 members comprising the leading names in consumer electronics and computing, among them Sony Corp., Philips, Thomson, Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.
The Blu-ray format those companies are backing is expected to compete with another blue-laser standard, HD DVD, backed by NEC Corp. and Toshiba Corp.
Players, computer drives and software compatible with the Blu-ray format are expected on the market by the end of 2005. Microsoft Corp. said last month the next generation of its Windows operating system would be compatible with HD DVD. At the time, it did not commit one way or another on Blu-ray.
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