![Blu-ray disc (BD-RE)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Blu-ray_disc_%28BD-RE%29.JPG)
Blu-ray Disc Recordable (BD-R) refers to two
direct to disc optical disc recording technologies
Optical disc authoring requires a number of different optical disc recorder technologies working in tandem, from the optical disc media to the firmware to the control electronics of the optical disc drive.
Types of recordable optical disc
The ...
that can be recorded on to a
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
-based
optical disc
In computing and optical disc recording technologies, an optical disc (OD) is a flat, usually circular disc that encodes binary data (bits) in the form of pits and lands on a special material, often aluminum, on one of its flat surfaces. ...
with an
optical disc recorder
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultravio ...
. BD-R discs can be written to once, whereas Blu-ray Disc Recordable Erasable (BD-RE) can be erased and re-recorded multiple times. Disc capacities are 25
GB for single-layer discs, 50 GB for double-layer discs,
100 GB ("XL") for triple-layer, and 128 GB for quadruple-layer (in BD-R only).
The minimum speed at which a Blu-ray Disc can be written is 36 megabits (4.5 megabytes) per second.
Version
, there are five versions of Blu-ray Disc Recordable Erasable (BD-RE) and four versions of Blu-ray Disc Recordable (BD-R). Each version includes three ''Parts'' (a.k.a. ''Books''): Basic Format Specifications, File System Specifications, Audio Visual Basic Specifications. Each part has sub-versions (e.g. R2 Format Specification includes ''Part 3: Audio Visual Basic Specifications Ver.3.02'', ''Part 2: File System Specifications Ver. 1.11'', ''Part 1: Basic Format Specifications Ver. 1.3'').
Speed
, the following speeds are seen in Blu-Ray specifications for R/RE discs:
2× speeds are mandatory for all formats, with 4× and 6× being optional for non-XL BD-R media. Since BD-RE 5.0/BD-R 4.0, a read speed of 4× is mandatory for UHD support.
Note: Add extra time for disc verification phase and time for erasing the disc in the case of BD-RE.
Pricing
(approximate pricing):
* BD-R/RE drive
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
50 and above
* 6× single-layer BD-R disc (25
GB)
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
0.42 each in quantity;
* 10× single-layer BD-R disc (25
GB)
CN¥
The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 2022. ...
2.04 each in quantity;
* 6× double-layer BD-R disc (50
GB)
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
1.64 in quantity;
* 2× single-layer BD-RE disc (25
GB)
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
0.82 in quantity;
* 2× double-layer BD-RE disc (50
GB)
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
3.15 in quantity;
*4× BD-R XL disc (100
GB)
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
5 in quantity;
* 4× BD-RE XL disc (100
GB)
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
11 in quantity;
Recording mechanisms
Instead of the pits and lands found on prepressed/prerecorded/replicated discs, BD-R and RE discs contain grooves which contain a
wobble frequency Optical discs, with the exception of DVD-RAM, have their data encoded on a single spiral, or a ''groove'', which covers the surface of the disc. In the case of recordable media, this spiral contains a slight sinusoidal deviation from a perfect spira ...
that is used to locate the position of the reading or writing laser on the disc.
BD-R has an Optimum Power Calibrations (OPC) / Test Zone, which is used to calibrate (finely adjust) the power of the writing laser before and during writing, and it also has a Drive Calibration Zone (DCZ) at the outer edge of the disc, for optional high speed calibration. The calibration is necessary to allow for slight manufacturing defects, greatly reducing or completely eliminating rejected discs and drives, reducing costs and eliminating potential waste.
The information below describes the different types of recording layers that may be used on BD-R and BD-RE discs.
HTL (high to low)
"Normal" BD-R discs use a composite (or, in the case of BD-RE, a phase-changing alloy) that decreases its reflectivity on recording, i.e. "High To Low".
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
, for example, uses an inorganic composite that splits into two
laminar
Laminar means "flat". Laminar may refer to:
Terms in science and engineering:
* Laminar electronics or organic electronics, a branch of material sciences dealing with electrically conductive polymers and small molecules
* Laminar armour or "band ...
components with low reflectivity. Composites used may include
BiN,
Ge3N4, and
Pd-doped
tellurium suboxide
The diatomic molecule tellurium monoxide has been found as a transient species. Previous work that claimed the existence of TeO solid has not been substantiated. The coating on DVDs called tellurium suboxide may be a mixture of tellurium dioxide a ...
. A pair of layers with copper alloy and silicon that combines on recording may alternatively be used.
Similar to
CD-RW
CD-RW (Compact Disc-Rewritable) is a digital media, digital optical disc data storage device, storage format introduced in 1997. A CD-RW compact disc (CD-RWs) can be written, read, erased, and re-written.
CD-RWs, as opposed to CDs, require ...
and
DVD-RW
DVD recordable and DVD rewritable are optical disc recording technologies. Both terms describe DVD optical discs that can be written to by a DVD recorder, whereas only 'rewritable' discs are able to erase and rewrite data. Data is written ('burne ...
, a
phase transition
In chemistry, thermodynamics, and other related fields, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic states of ...
alloy (often
GeSbTe
GeSbTe (germanium-antimony-tellurium or GST) is a phase-change material from the group of chalcogenide glasses used in rewritable optical discs and phase-change memory applications. Its recrystallization time is 20 nanoseconds, allowing bitrates of ...
or
InAgTeSb;
copper silicate Copper silicate may refer to any silicate of copper generally; more specifically:
;Minerals
* Apachite, a copper silicate mineral with a general formula of Cu9Si10O29·11H2O
*Dioptase, a cyclosilicate mineral - CuSiO3·H2O
* Gilalite, a copper sil ...
(CuSi) or other alloys can also be used, like Verbatim's proprietary MABL)
is used for BD-RE discs. Melting the material with a very high power beam turns it into an
amorphous
In condensed matter physics and materials science, an amorphous solid (or non-crystalline solid, glassy solid) is a solid that lacks the long-range order that is characteristic of a crystal.
Etymology
The term comes from the Greek ''a'' ("wi ...
state with low reflectivity, while heating at a lower power erases it back to a crystalline state with high reflectivity.
In BD-RE discs, the data layers are surrounded by a pair of dielectric Zinc Sulfur-Silicon Dioxide layers.
An adhesive spacer layer and a semi-reflective layer are used for multi-layer discs.
[ The recording and dielectric layers are all deposited using ]Sputtering
In physics, sputtering is a phenomenon in which microscopic particles of a solid material are ejected from its surface, after the material is itself bombarded by energetic particles of a plasma or gas. It occurs naturally in outer space, and can ...
. On multi-layer BD-RE discs, each GeSbTe recording layer is progressively thinner. So the first layer (L0) is 10 nm thick, L1 is 7.5 nm thick, L2 is 6 nm thick, and so on. The silver alloy reflective layers that are behind each recording layer also become progressively thinner, so the L0 silver layer is 10 nm thick, the L1 layer is 9 nm thick, the L2 layer is 7 nm thick, and so on. The separation layers that separate the recording layers from one another also progressively become thinner.
BD-R LTH (low to high)
BD-R LTH is a write-once Blu-ray Disc format that features an organic dye recording layer. "Low To High" refers to the reflectivity changing from low to high during the burning process, which is the opposite of normal Blu-rays, whose reflectivity changes from high to low during writing. The advantage of BD-R LTH is it can protect a manufacturer's investment in DVD-R
DVD recordable and DVD rewritable are optical disc recording technologies. Both terms describe DVD optical discs that can be written to by a DVD recorder, whereas only 'rewritable' discs are able to erase and rewrite data. Data is written ('burne ...
/CD-R
CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital optical disc storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can be written once and read arbitrarily many times.
CD-R discs (CD-Rs) are readable by most CD readers manufactured prior to the in ...
manufacturing equipment because it does not require investing in new production lines and manufacturing equipment. Instead, the manufacturer only needs to modify current equipment. This is expected to lower the cost of disc manufacturing.
Old Blu-ray players and recorders cannot utilize BD-R LTH; however, a firmware upgrade can enable devices to access BD-R LTH. Panasonic
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...
released such a firmware update in November 2007 for its DMR-BW200, DMR-BR100 and MR-BW900/BW800/BW700 models. Pioneer was expected to ship the first LTH BD drives in Spring 2008. Sony upgraded the PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
firmware enabling BD-R LTH reading in March, 2008.
In 2011, France's Ministry of Culture and Communication conducted a study on the suitability of data archival of LTH (low to high) discs compared to HTL (high to low) discs. The data they collected indicated that the overall quality of LTH discs is worse than HTL discs.Qualite des Disques Blu-Ray Enregistrables pour L’Archivage des Donnees Numeriques
. Ministère de la Culture et de la Communica. Retrieved on 2013-06-14.
See also
*
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
*
Optical disc authoring
Optical disc authoring, including DVD and Blu-ray Disc authoring, is the process of assembling source material—video, audio or other data—into the proper logical volume format to then be recorded ("burned") onto an optical disc (typ ...
*
List of optical disc manufacturers
*
CD-R
CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital optical disc storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can be written once and read arbitrarily many times.
CD-R discs (CD-Rs) are readable by most CD readers manufactured prior to the in ...
,
DVD±R DVD±R (also DVD+/-R, or "DVD plus/dash R") is not a separate DVD format, but rather is a shorthand term for a DVD drive that can accept both of the common recordable DVD formats (i.e. DVD-R and DVD+R). Likewise, DVD±RW (also written as DVD±R/W, D ...
Notes
References
External links
Blu-ray Player BD-R Compatibility Chart
{{High definition media
Audio storage
Audiovisual introductions in 2002
Blu-ray Disc
Consumer electronics
Rotating disc computer storage media
Optical computer storage media