Earlier this year we celebrated the 20th Anniversary of Ultra HD Blu-ray, but the state-of-the-art home media format would not have existed without its HD predecessor. Of course, Blu-ray and HD DVD were in a format war from the very beginning. But, Blu-ray succeeded by gaining support for the majority of the studios and ended up winning.
In the home entertainment space Blu-ray Disc presented a significant upgrade to its predecessor, the DVD, in that it improved image resolution to 1920×1080 from 720×480 lines. The format also more than quadrupled data transfer rates of video and audio from about 10Mbps to 48Mbps and improved storage capacity from 4.7GB to 25GB of data.
The first batch of Blu-ray Discs landed on June 20, 2006 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The titles included 50 First Dates, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, The Fifth Element, The Terminator, Underworld: Evolution, and xXx, all on BD-25s – the standard, single layer format developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association.
However, HD DVD actually released high-def movies a couple of months before Blu-ray. The format was very close in terms of performance (it even used blue laser technology like Blu-ray, as opposed to red lasers used with DVDs) but after Warner Bros. announced it would stop making HD DVDs and retailers moved towards Blu-ray the format was obsolete in just two years.
As HD television emerged with the analog-to-digital conversion of terrestrial broadcasting well into 2009, Blu-ray boasted an even higher quality image at 1080p “progressive scan” than networks that (to this day) still send 720p and 1080i “interlaced” feeds. Early adopters bought HDTVs (720p, 1080i, and 1080p models) to watch Blu-rays at home, but widescreen digital TVs also replaced 4:3 TVs on shelves as manufacturers ceased production of analog television sets.
Converted digital television stations also started broadcasting 16:9 images, the wider and more cinematic format that is widely used for TV shows and movies. Looking back, it would seem the digital transition and rise of Blu-ray Disc served each other to improve the home viewing of television and entertainment media.
Today, new Blu-ray titles along with 4k Blu-ray maintain about half of the market share, while the inferior DVD format still dominates. According to the data for the week ending June 6 from MediaPlayNews, Blu-ray accounted for 25.2%, 4k Blu-ray 24.6%, and DVD 50.2%.
While many thought disc media was dying, there has been a growing community of physical media collectors who enjoy owning their own movies rather than “renting” them from streaming services. Movies come and go on platforms like HBO Max and Netflix, but Blu-ray Discs are forever.
See our dedicated Blu-ray category for more news and reviews.
