HowStuffWorks: Blu-Ray Discs

Blu-ray also has a higher data transfer rate -- 36 Mbps (megabits per second) -- than today's DVDs, which transfer at 10 Mbps. A Blu-ray disc can record 25 GB of material in just over an hour and a half.

[gaffyh]

People need to read this, it's very good

[ShinMaster]

Blu-ray doesn't have to spin as fast as DVD to read the same content.
(same in less work)

[RememberThe357]

But the fanboys will find(as they already have) something wrong with it. If your not a moron, give it a read, if you are a moron, just stop now and save yourself the headache.

[dj_funky]

transformers on blu-ray is the best so far.. can't wait for iron man tuesday and then dark knight and incredible hulk.

[Gothdom]

those and more, I just pre-ordered Futurama Bender's Game. Also, if you're a fan, Baraka is coming out on blu-ray at the end of october.

[n4gzz]

I can't wait for Dark Knight. Got Transformer and wow with my kdl v4100 and bose sound hehe, that's the way you watch movies.

[Shaka2K6]

For being the only company that thinks ahead and puts nothing but the best technology in my goddly console Sony PS3.

[Lord Shuhei Yoshida]

Sure happy to help

:)

[Freezingduck]

OH god!!! that was the sweetest movie experience EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[tehReaper]

Going to pick up Transformers before the week is up.

But, Cloverfield on Blu-ray wasn't bad either.

[Raoh]

LOL i'm going to bookmark that link and use it as a reference to crush the blu ray haters dreams, lies and misinformation

[xg-ei8ht]

As ace ventura would say - Good Call

[Blademask]

lol wow this is good.
"Buh buh..buh.."

[SaiyanFury]

I guess this debunks the argument that the Blu-ray drive in the PS3 as being slower than the standard DVD drive in the Xbox 360.

[Bladestar]

it will take more than one article written by a blu-ray fan to debunk the fact that lots of game on the PS3 have mandatory loading... and multiplatform games currently available on the PS3 and the xbox 360 in many instances load faster on the xbox 360 or do not show any loading advantage on the PS3...

So, bottom line is..

PS3 = Mandatory intalls (10-20 minutes); sometime between levels ala metal gear...
Xbox 360 = Multi-disc (30 seconds).

[Max Power]

would rather get off the couch to turn your system on and off, instead of using the feature that is built in the controller? i just figure, if you enjoy changing discs, then i am sure you'd enjoy doing that, but thankfully i don't have to do either.

on topic: i did find this article useful and it reminded me of an optics class i took in college.

[Gothdom]

" and multiplatform games currently available on the PS3 and the xbox 360 in many instances load faster on the xbox 360 or do not show any loading advantage on the PS3... "

Welcome to last year. You really are misinformed. No, really, look up some info, this is a thing of the past, and that was, mostly, due to the devs not being used to the PS3 programming architecture, not Blu-Ray.

[RememberThe357]

But your shut down, move on to another gripe of yours. This was not a blu-ray fanboy, they wrote articles about almost every format.
DVD - http://electronics.howstuff...
HD-DVD - http://electronics.howstuff...
CD - http://electronics.howstuff...

If you would have read the article you would have gotten to this page: http://electronics.howstuff... it has links to a number of articles on various technologies.

[tehReaper]

I'm not against Blu-ray or anything, but in all honesty Blu-ray IS slower than DVD(gaming wise). Installations aren't just because developers haven't figured the Cell out.

Blu-ray(on the PS3) reads at a constant rate, DVD(on 360) reads at a higher but inconsistant rate.

Disagree if you want, but that is the truth.

[DJ]

2x Blu-ray vs 12x DVD (single layer, 4GB) comes out to DVD having a faster average data read speed.

2x Blu-ray vs 12x DVD (dual layer, 8GB) comes out to Blu-ray having a faster average data read speed.

The reason for this is that the second layer on a DVD isn't read at full speed. It's the big downside of both CDs and DVDs. Luckily, they fixed this issue when designing Blu-ray.

[Bladestar]

yeah.. meanwhile blu-ray market share dropped to 8% and DVD to 92%... Toshiba who is one of the biggest blu-ray manufacturer and part of the blu-ray board believes will be dead in a few years... ohh and games on the PS3 require mandatory installs to be playable...

I do agree with the article which is based on "movies"; there is big benefit for HD movies... specially because movies play at a constant speed.. and blu-ray was made for movies...

blu-ray in general is great... blu-ray on the PS3 (2X) sucks for games...

If blu-ray survives... I think a 6X-8X blu-ray player that will not require mandatory installs will be worth adding to a console.

[n4gzz]

dvd was made for game only ?? Okay got your point.

[I Make Stuff Up]

Good answer.

@Blade
That was Samsung that said that, not Toshiba....get HD-DVD off your mind!

[n4gzz]

ahh,,, i forgot
according to MS, CD's are the best. haha

Man is living in past. Future is blue dude.

[tehReaper]

Wow, you guys are really one-sided. Now come on, open your closed minds for a second.

He is saying Blu-ray(on PS3) is great for movies, which it is. Games, on the other hand, not as much. The only advantage for games would be the 25GB and 50GB space. That extra space allows games to be what they are meant to be, uncompressed and true. More content, which is great.

But just think about how amazing it would be without installs. If only Sony released a faster drive, then there would be no installs. See what I mean?

[Irving]

I swear if HDDVDead was still around, these guys would've been praising it and saying how it is superior to blu-ray. I can't believe these idiots are actually praising last-gen DVD over blu-ray.

[SL1M DADDY]

BD does not make the PS3 require mandatory installs, that would be developement teams that do not know how to use the tech. Take a look at Uncharted, no install yet it runs smoothly and is still one of the best looking titles to ever hit a console.

[DJ]

Sony couldn't land 4x Blu-ray drives as they didn't exist yet; the technology was just too new. It sucks that developers have to use the same read speeds as the 360's DVD drive, but the system was simply released too early.

Luckily the hard drive helps remedy this issue by letting developers stream/install data to improve load times. I'm hoping that PS4 will have something crazy, like a 24x Blu-ray drive.

[tehReaper]

Data is data, guys. I don't see how loading off a disk would confuse developers. It's either read from disk c(hard drive) or load off of disk b(blu-ray). Theres data transfer code in between, but nothing too complicated.

Kojima and his team couldn't even prevent installations. Naughty Dog used a very unique engine, that didn't have to read off the disk all the time. Kind of like background loading.

Yeah, when more developers learn how to do this, installations will be gone. But see, developers are used to DVD loading, and didn't have to do anything to speed up loading. With Blu-ray, they do.

In developer eyes, Sony is forcing them to not only learn how to use the Cell, but also learn even more techniques to speed up loading because of the 2x drive.

And what the heck? I have never even touched HD-DVD. Never supported it, never even thought about buying the add-on. Quit assuming that just because I don't always praise Blu-ray that I'm a HD-DVD fanboy. It's a movie format for crying out loud. You guys get so heated about a round circle with a hole in it. -_-;

[TheTimeDoctor]

do you ride the short bus?

[MAGNUM-RAM]

great for Games & Movies.
mgs4 was made for in 4 years. Kojima did his thing & got rid of the codec conversations being
the longest part of the story. He made it in game graphic cinemas. He added a open network to
the konami store. He added MGO. He gave us 1080p graphics for our HDTVs. He tuned up the gameplay
into a multi-genre game with 3rd person & first person shooting & action adventure/stealth game with increasingly
difficult a.I. The best boss battles & the incredible story. Plus so much more thanks to his crack at bluray. With
uncharted, ratchet & clank & gran turismo & more we know bluray can pretty games up dramatically. In the near future we will have our typical games become more for what you bargained for. With the exclusives coming its undeniable that these games cannot be done on any other console.

Bluray is also great for movies if ya didnt know. Its the hd format the movie industry has backed. High definition
is big this holiday season & it makes the perfect gift with its option to go online for even further interactivity. I love my high definition playstation 3. Its a glorious marvel of a hybrid all in one entertainment media hub. At 29 years old
I know great technolgy at a affordable price when I see one.

This is my last post for a while. So I'm gonna let this one just sink in & enjoy watching ps3 sales rise & rise
& look for you guys online. There are so many more new gamers online that its killing season time again.
So its time for me to level up faster on all of them.

My main account is PSN: MAGNUM-RAM
& I'm going dark for a little while.
Send me a friend request & check out what I'm playing at the moment.

P.s. Installs don't bother me at all. With the stuff that's happening & the power behind
these games a install in the begining is fine by me. As long as I can save my saved games
I have no problemos. Mgs4 installs between acts don't bother me. Its a 2 & half minute install
every 5 hours. That's about the same time as a mass effect loading screen. Not to mention
some long a$$ elevator rides. So haters get lost & critique the RROD or something.

Peace out players.
We are the champions of gaming.
Sony stands supreme for a decade & for eternity.

Good luck xbots. You're gonna need it. Enjoy those LOL avatars.

[tehReaper]

Kid, seriously, leave. You keep spouting crap and that you're going to leave. So just do it.

[MAGNUM-RAM]

do you remember your first DVD? How about your first DVD game?
were you even born before DVD?

You just can't face the fact that DVDs are being phased out huh?
well there's good news for you. Its not like VHS tapes & DVD players dude.
you don't have to burn that DVD collection you got because ps3 plays DVD too.

Also, cellphones have this touchpad technology. You should look into it. Its called a iPhone.
I know its a bit scary how far we've come so quickly.

My name is magnum ram & I aint nobodies PC.

[LoydX-mas]

DVD is being "phased out"..... when it has 90% market share?

Blu-ray is a better format, but don't lie to yourself and think that studios will get rid of DVD anytime soon. The main reason is because of the fact that you already stated.....all Blu-ray players also play DVD.

[RememberThe357]

It's nice to have some thing outside gaming journalists to just tell facts. No bias, no bull.

[KiddyBrownTurd]

what a garbage tech. HD DVD was more advanced. a shame Sony paid out all those movie houses.

[Lord Shuhei Yoshida]

Your 360 has not returned from the repair shop?
Here,my gift to you
http://www.slashgear.com/ga...

[Narutone66]

You're starting to smell like your name.

[violentbydezign]

Enjoyed reading the article.

[dcbronco]

And a 2x Blu has a 72mb transfer rate. A DVD has a transfer rate of 10mbs. I wonder what transfer rate a 12x DVD would have. I bet it's higher than 72mbs.

[Marty8370]

The 360 DVD drive reads Single layer DVD's at 12x. And reads Dual Layer DVD at 8x. Since the majority of 360 games are nearly maxing out Dual layer DVD's games are read at 8x which is comparable to PS3 Blu-ray which reads at 2x.

[dcbronco]

There may be a few, but I would bet most have a few gigs left. The PSN download of Burnout was 3.3gbs with the extra content. Don't believe the Blu-ray hype.

[jerethdagryphon]

is 72 megabits per second
not mega bytes

16x dvd does read faster then 2x brd but if it goes to 4-6x brd then its clearly in brds favor

[killalot100]

load times dont bother me a bit in most next gen games. most load times are less then a minute and some ps3 games only load for about 5 seconds to 10. installs do kinda bother me because of harddrive size but that can be fixed. is dvd really that much faster or are they both about the same.

[Legend20x]

i sell both in an electronics store, and blu ray does take a bit longer to load, but possible a minute or so with the newer blu ray players

[Kushan]

This article is about Blu-ray as a format. It has -NOTHING- to do with the 360 or the PS3, with the exception that the PS3 happens to read Blu-ray disks. The article in no way, shape or form says anything that can be applicable to the console wars. It's like saying "Oh CD's are better than DVDs because my 32x CD-Rom drive is faster than my 2x DVD-ROM drive". Everyone knows that's rubbish.
But it amuses me when certain people just can't get it into their head that the format itself isn't a problem, it's the bloody drives that read them. You have to accept it, as an early-generation BD-ROM drive, the PS3's is a bit slow. It sucks, but it's the truth and all the facts and figures in the world aren't going to change that. DVD has been around for a decade, it's one of those technologies that isn't really going to improve, it's already at it's peak, so of course you can expect it to be pretty fast. In a couple of years time, you'll have 8x and 12x BD-ROM drives that'll have phenomenal read speeds, but right now it's a new format and still has a lot to be developed.
And who came up with that gem of an excuse, that "It's not the drive being slower, it's the developers not knowing how to utilise the PS3's architecture just yet!". That's brilliant, that is, that's why we had people like Bethesda saying they had to duplicate data on the disk in order to get it to read faster, right? Because they didn't know how to use the CELL properly, right? Yeah, because the CELL is responsible for reading data off of the disk, of course....oh wait, it's not, you pulled THAT excuse right out of your arse. Yes, it's true developers are still working on using the CELL to it's "full potential" (Which isn't as easy to do in a game as you might think), but that's a different matter ENTIRELY.
And of course, Uncharted ALWAYS comes out as an example that it's possible to make a game without installations. That. One. Game.
Didn't anyone think for a second that maybe the techniques used in Uncharted might not necessarily apply to other games? You know, an exploration-running-around-a-f orest game where you often have to stop to climb walls and stuff? It's not like in say...GTA, where you can jump into a car at ANY time and speed off in any direction, Uncharted is a bit more linear than that and has a much slower pace, which works well for streaming. Or how about that because Naughty-dog built the engine from the ground up JUST for the PS3, that they might have employed some special threading techniques that you can't just plug into an existing engine? Did nobody think of that?

Oh and guess what - I'm a PS3 owner and I think it's a great console, so before you think I'm just a 360 fanboy, have a little perspective. Oh and I make games for a living, for whatever that's worth.

[Marty8370]

The 360 DVD drive reads Single layer DVD's at 12x. And reads Dual Layer DVD at 8x. Since the majority of 360 games are nearly maxing out Dual layer DVD's games are read at 8x which is comparable to PS3 Blu-ray which reads at 2x.