Product Code Database
Blu-ray ( Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-definition video (HDTV 720p and 1080p). The main application of Blu-ray is as a medium for video material such as and for the physical distribution of video games for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The name refers to the blue laser used to read the disc, which allows information to be stored at a greater density than is possible with the longer-wavelength red laser used for DVDs, resulting in an increased capacity.
The polycarbonate disc is in diameter and thick, the same size as DVDs and Compact disc. Conventional (or "pre-BDXL") Blu-ray discs contain 25gigabyte per layer, with dual-layer discs (50GB) being the industry standard for feature-length video discs. Triple-layer discs (100GB) and quadruple-layer discs (128GB) are available for BDXL re-writer drives.
While the DVD-Video specification has a maximum resolution of 480p (NTSC, pixels) or 576p (PAL, pixels), the initial specification for storing movies on Blu-ray discs defined a maximum resolution of 1080p ( pixels) at up to 24 Progressive scan or 29.97 interlaced frames per second. Revisions to the specification allowed newer Blu-ray players to support videos with a resolution of pixels, with Ultra HD Blu-ray players extending the maximum resolution to 4K ( pixels) and progressive frame rates up to 60 frames per second. Aside from an 8K resolution ( pixels) Blu-ray format exclusive to Japan, videos with non-standard resolutions must use letterboxing to conform to a resolution supported by the Blu-ray specification. Besides these hardware specifications, Blu-ray is associated with a set of multimedia formats. Given that Blu-ray discs can contain ordinary , there is no fixed limit as to which resolution of video can be stored when not conforming to the official specifications.
The BD format was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, a group representing makers of consumer electronics, computer hardware, and motion pictures. Sony unveiled the first Blu-ray Disc prototypes in October 2000, and the first prototype player was released in Japan in April 2003. Afterward, it continued to be developed until its official worldwide release on June 20, 2006, beginning the high-definition optical disc format war, where Blu-ray Disc competed with the HD DVD format. Toshiba, the main company supporting HD DVD, conceded in February 2008, and later released its own Blu-ray Disc player in late 2009.Yomiuri Shimbun. Page 1. July 19, 2009. Ver. 13S. According to Media Research, high-definition software sales in the United States were slower in the first two years than DVD software sales. Blu-ray's competition includes video on demand (VOD) and DVD. In January 2016, 44% of American broadband households had a Blu-ray player.
The first consumer device arrived in stores on April 10, 2003: the Sony BDZ-S77, a US$3,800 BD-RE recorder that was made available only in Japan. However, there was no standard for pre-recorded video, and no movies were released for this player. Hollywood studios insisted that players be equipped with digital rights management before they would release movies for the new format, and they wanted a new DRM system that would protect more against unauthorized copying than the failed Content Scramble System (CSS) used on DVDs. On October 4, 2004, the name Blu-ray Disc Founders was officially changed to the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), and 20th Century Fox joined the BDA's Board of Directors. The Blu-ray Disc physical specifications were completed in 2004.
The recording layer on which the data is stored lies under a protective layer and on top of a substrate made of polycarbonate plastic, compared to on either side on DVDs. Sony also announced in April 2004 a version using paper as the substrate developed with Toppan Printing, with up to 25GB storage..
In January 2005, TDK announced that it had developed an ultra-hard yet very thin polymer coating called Durabis for Blu-ray Discs; this was a significant technical advance because a far tougher protection was desired in the consumer market to protect bare discs against scratching and damage compared to DVD, given that Blu-ray Discs technically required a much thinner layer for the denser and higher-frequency blue laser. Cartridges, originally used for scratch protection, were no longer necessary and were scrapped. The BD-ROM specifications were finalized in early 2006.
Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator (AACS LA), a consortium founded in 2004, had been developing the DRM platform that could be used to distribute movies to consumers while preventing copying. However, the final AACS standard was delayed, and then delayed again when an important member of the Blu-ray Disc group voiced concerns. At the request of the initial hardware manufacturers, including Toshiba, Pioneer, and Samsung, an interim standard was published that did not include some features, such as managed copy, which would have let end users create copies limited to personal use.
By June 2008, over 2,500 Blu-ray Disc titles were available in Australia and the United Kingdom, with 3,500 in the United States and Canada. In Japan, over 3,300 titles had been released as of July 2010.
HD DVD had a head start in the high-definition video market, as Blu-ray Disc sales were slow to gain market share. The first Blu-ray Disc player was perceived as expensive and buggy, and there were few titles available.
The Sony PlayStation 3, which contained a Blu-ray Disc player for primary storage, helped support Blu-ray. Sony also ran a more thorough and influential marketing campaign for the format. AVCHD camcorders were also introduced in 2006. These recordings can be played back on many Blu-ray Disc players without re-encoding but are not compatible with HD DVD players. By January 2007, Blu-ray Discs had outsold HD DVDs, and during the first three quarters of 2007, BD outsold HD DVD by about two to one. At CES 2007, Warner proposed Total Hi Def—a hybrid disc containing Blu-ray on one side and HD DVD on the other, but it was never released.
On June 28, 2007, 20th Century Fox cited Blu-ray Discs' adoption of the BD+ anticopying system as key to their decision to support the Blu-ray Disc format.
On January 4, 2008, a day before CES 2008, Warner Bros., the only major studio still releasing movies in both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc format, announced that it would release only in Blu-ray after May 2008. This effectively included other studios that came under the Warner umbrella, such as New Line Cinema and HBO—though in Europe, HBO's distribution partner, the BBC, announced it would continue to release product on both formats while keeping an eye on market forces. This led to a chain reaction in the industry, with major American retailers such as Best Buy, Walmart, and Circuit City and Canadian chains such as Future Shop dropping HD DVD in their stores. Woolworths, then a major European retailer, dropped HD DVD from its inventory. Major DVD rental companies Netflix and Blockbuster said they would no longer carry HD DVD.
Following these new developments, on February 19, 2008, Toshiba announced it would end production of HD DVD devices, allowing Blu-ray Disc to become the industry standard for high-density optical discs. Universal Studios, the sole major studio to back HD DVD since its inception, said shortly after Toshiba's announcement: "While Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray Disc." Paramount Pictures, which started releasing movies only in HD DVD format during late 2007, also said it would start releasing on Blu-ray Disc. Both studios announced initial Blu-ray lineups in May 2008. With this, all major Hollywood studios supported Blu-ray.
Behind closed doors at CES 2007, Ritek revealed that it had successfully developed a high-definition optical disc process that extended the disc capacity to ten layers, increasing the capacity of the discs to 250GB. However, it noted the major obstacle was that current read/write technology did not allow additional layers. JVC developed a three-layer technology that allows putting both standard-definition DVD data and HD data on a BD/(standard) DVD combination. This would have enabled the consumer to purchase a disc that can be played on DVD players and can also reveal its HD version when played on a BD player. Japanese optical disc manufacturer Infinity announced the first "hybrid" Blu-ray Disc/(standard) DVD combo, to be released on February 18, 2009. This disc set of the TV series Code Blue featured four hybrid discs containing a single Blu-ray Disc layer (25GB) and two DVD layers (9GB) on the same side of the disc.
In January 2007, Hitachi showcased a 100GB Blu-ray Disc, consisting of four layers containing 25GB each. It claimed that, unlike TDK's and Panasonic's 100GB discs, this disc would be readable on standard Blu-ray Disc drives that were currently in circulation, and it was believed that a firmware update was the only requirement to make it readable by then-current players and drives. In October 2007, they revealed a 100GB Blu-ray Disc drive. In December 2008, Pioneer unveiled a 400GB Blu-ray Disc (containing 16 data layers, 25GB each) compatible with current players after a firmware update. Its planned launch was in the 2009–10 time frame for ROM and 2010–13 for rewritable discs. Ongoing development was underway to create a 1Terabyte Blu-ray Disc. In October 2009, TDK demonstrated a 10-layer 320GB Blu-ray Disc.
At CES 2009, Panasonic unveiled the DMP-B15, the first portable Blu-ray Disc player, and Sharp introduced the LC-BD60U and LC-BD80U series, the first LCD HDTVs with integrated Blu-ray Disc players. Sharp also announced that it would sell HDTVs with integrated Blu-ray Disc recorders in the United States by the end of 2009. Set-top box recorders were not being sold in the U.S. for fear of unauthorized copying. However, personal computers with Blu-ray recorder drives were available.
On January 1, 2010, Sony, in association with Panasonic, announced plans to increase the storage capacity on their Blu-ray Discs from 25GB to 33.4GB via a technology called i-MLSE (maximum likelihood sequence estimation). The higher-capacity discs, according to Sony, would be readable on existing Blu-ray Disc players with a firmware upgrade. This technology was later used on BDXL discs.
On July 20, 2010, the research team of Sony and Japanese Tohoku University announced the joint development of a blue-violet laser, to help create Blu-ray Discs with a capacity of 1TB using only two layers (and potentially more than 1TB with additional layering). By comparison, the first blue laser was invented in 1996, with the first prototype discs coming four years later.
On August 5, 2015, the BDA announced it would commence licensing the Ultra HD Blu-ray video format starting on August 24, 2015. The Ultra HD Blu-ray format delivered support for high dynamic range video that significantly expanded the range between the brightest and darkest elements, an expanded color range, a high frame rate of up to 60 frames per second for a smoother motion appearance, an increase of the supported resolution to for a more detailed picture, object-based sound formats, and an optional "digital bridge" feature. New players were required to play this format, and they became able to play all three of DVDs, traditional Blu-rays, and the new format. New Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs hold up to 66GB and 100GB of data on dual- and triple-layer discs, respectively.
Blu-ray's physical and file system specifications are publicly available on the BDA's website.
Shortly after the "format war" ended, Blu-ray Disc sales began to increase. A study by the NPD Group found that awareness of Blu-ray Disc had reached 60% of households in the United States. Nielsen VideoScan sales numbers showed that for some titles, such as 20th Century Fox's Hitman, up to 14% of total disc sales were from Blu-ray, although the average Blu-ray sales for the first half of the year were only around 5%. In December 2008, the Blu-ray Disc version of Warner Bros.' The Dark Knight sold 600,000 copies on the first day of its launch in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. A week after the launch, The Dark Knight BD had sold over 1.7 million copies worldwide, making it the first Blu-ray Disc title to sell over a million copies in the first week of release.
| + Blu-ray Disc sales in United States and Canada |
| 1.2 |
| 19.2 |
| 82.9 |
| 177.2 |
| 350 |
According to Singulus Technologies AG, Blu-ray was adopted faster than the DVD format was at a similar period in its development. This conclusion was based on the fact that Singulus Technologies received orders for 21 Blu-ray dual-layer replication machines during the first quarter of 2008, while 17 DVD replication machines of this type were made in the same period in 1997. According to GfK Retail and Technology, in the first week of November 2008, sales of Blu-ray recorders surpassed DVD recorders in Japan. According to the Digital Entertainment Group, the number of Blu-ray Disc playback devices (both set-top box and game console) sold in the United States had reached 28.5 million by the end of 2010.
Blu-ray faces competition from video on demand and from new technologies that allow access to movies on any format or device, such as Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem or Disney's Keychest.Ryan Nakashima. Hollywood hopes an ensemble cast boosts Blu-ray . Associated Press. December 14, 2009. Retrieved December 14, 2009. Some commentators suggested that renting Blu-ray would play a vital part in keeping the technology affordable while allowing it to move forward. In an effort to increase sales, studios began releasing films in combo packs with Blu-ray Discs and DVDs, as well as digital copies that can be played on computers and mobile devices. Some are released on "flipper" discs with Blu-ray on one side and DVD on the other. Other strategies are to release movies with the special features only on Blu-ray Discs and none on DVDs.
Blu-ray Discs cost no more to produce than DVD discs. However, reading and writing mechanisms are more complicated, making Blu-ray recorders, drives and players more expensive than their DVD counterparts. Adoption is also limited due to the widespread use of streaming media. Blu-ray Discs are used to distribute PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X games, and the aforementioned game consoles can play back regular Blu-ray Discs.
In the mid-2010s, the Ultra HD Blu-ray format was released which is an enhanced variant of Blu-ray compatible with the 4K resolution. Ultra HD Blu-ray discs and players became available in the first quarter of 2016, having a storage capacity of up to 100GB.
By December 2017, the specification for an 8K Blu-ray format was also completed. However, this specification was for Japan only so that it could be used by Japanese public broadcasters like NHK to broadcast in 8K resolution for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan.
Boutique Blu-ray labels, which are popular among collectors and enthusiasts of film and physical media, have been credited as a factor in a "Blu-ray renaissance" dating back to at least 2018, with some consumers choosing to purchase films on physical formats in an age of digital streaming. Reasons some consumers prefer Blu-rays to streaming include higher video quality, the tactile nature of owning a film physically, elaborate packaging, bonus features, and the desire to own or watch films that are not available in streaming services' libraries.
| 25,025,314,816 |
| 50,050,629,632 |
| 100,103,356,416 |
| 128,001,769,472 |
| 7,791,181,824 |
| 15,582,363,648 |
The minimum "spot size" on which a laser can be focused is limited by diffraction and depends on the wavelength of the light and the numerical aperture of the lens used to focus it. By decreasing the wavelength, increasing the numerical aperture from 0.60 to 0.85, and making the cover layer thinner to avoid unwanted optical effects, designers can cause the laser beam to focus on a smaller spot, which effectively allows more information to be stored in the same area. For a Blu-ray Disc, the spot size is 580nm. This allows a reduction of the pit size from 400nm for DVD to 150nm for Blu-ray Disc, and of the track pitch from 740nm to 320nm. See compact disc for information on optical discs' physical structure. In addition to the optical improvements, Blu-ray Discs feature improvements in data encoding that further increase the amount of content that can be stored.
The Blu-ray Disc specification requires the testing of resistance to scratches by mechanical abrasion. In contrast, DVD media are not required to be scratch-resistant, but since development of the technology, some companies, such as Verbatim, implemented hard-coating for more expensive lines of recordable DVDs.
The table shows the speeds available. Even the lowest speed (1×) is sufficient to play and record real-time 1080p video; the higher speeds are relevant for general data storage and more sophisticated handling of video. BD discs are designed to cope with at least 5,000 rpm of rotational speed.
The usable data rate of a Blu-ray Disc drive can be limited by the capacity of the drive's data interface. With a USB 2.0 interface, the maximum exploitable drive speed is or (also called 8× speed). A USB 3.0 interface (with proper cabling) does not have this limitation, nor do even the oldest version of Serial ATA (SATA, ) nor the latest Parallel ATA () standards. Internal Blu-ray drives that are integrated into a computer (as opposed to physically separate and connected via a cable) typically have a SATA interface.
More recent half-height Blu-Ray writers have reached writing speeds of up to 16× (constant angular velocity) on single-layer BD-R media, while the highest reading speeds are 12×, presumably to prevent repeated physical stress on the disc. Slim type drives are limited to 6× speeds (constant angular velocity) due to spacial and power limitations.
The Blu-ray format has a write verification feature, similar to that of DVD-RAM, but brings this feature to a write-once disc for the first time. If activated, the correctness of the written data is verified immediately after being written so unreadable data can be written again. In this case, the writing speed is halved because half of the disc rotations are for writing only. "Write verification" is not an official term for the feature, only a description for what it does. The feature may be activated by default, as is the case in the disc writing utility growisofs. Deactivating write verification may be desirable to save time when mass-producing physical copies of data, since errors are unlikely to occur on physically undamaged media. Blu-ray Disc notes for dvd+rw-tools – Defect management comes with a performance penalty: most units will typically record at about 1/2 of the advertised media speed. This is because such units will spend every second revolution verifying the newly recorded data for defects.
growisofs allows for SRM recordings without spare area through "undocumented" -use-the-force-luke=spare:none option
xorriso - man pages section 1: User Commands – "Formatting activates Defect Management which tries to the expense of half speed even with flawless media."
Errors on Blu-Ray media are measured using the so-called LDC ( Long Distance Codes) and BIS ( Burst Indication Subcodes) error parameters, of which rates below 13 and 15 respectively can be considered healthy.
Not all vendors and models of optical drives have error scanning functionality implemented.
On September 18, 2007, Pioneer and Mitsubishi codeveloped BD-R LTH ("Low to High" in groove recording), which features an organic compound dye recording layer that can be manufactured by modifying existing CD-R and DVD-R production equipment, significantly reducing manufacturing costs. In February 2008, Taiyo Yuden, Mitsubishi, and Maxell released the first BD-R LTH Discs, Taiyo Yuden, Mitsubishi and Maxell Release First LTH BD-R Discs cdrinfo.com and in March 2008, Sony's PlayStation 3 officially gained the ability to use BD-R LTH Discs with the 2.20 firmware update. PS3 firmware update v2.20 availableadded support for LTH BD-R afterdawn.com In May 2009 Verbatim/Mitsubishi announced the industry's first 6X BD-R LTH media, which allows recording a 25GB disc in about 16 minutes. Verbatim/MKM certified BD-R LTH type media makes performance leap to 6X reuters.com Unlike with the previous releases of 120mm (i.e. CDs and standard DVDs), Blu-ray recorders hit the market almost simultaneously with Blu-ray's debut.
Usage of BD9 for releasing content on "pressed" discs never caught on. With the end of the format war, manufacturers ramped production of Blu-ray Discs and lowered prices to compete with DVDs. On the other hand, the idea of using inexpensive DVD media became popular among individual users. A lower-capacity version of this format that uses single-layer 4.7GB DVDs has been unofficially called BD5. Both formats are being used by individuals for recording high-definition content in Blu-ray format onto recordable DVD media. Despite the fact that the BD9 format has been adopted as part of the BD-ROM basic format, none of the existing Blu-ray player models explicitly claim to be able to read it. Consequently, the discs recorded in BD9 and BD5 formats are not guaranteed to play on standard Blu-ray Disc players. AVCHD and AVCREC also use inexpensive media like DVDs, but unlike BD9 and BD5 these formats have limited interactivity, codec types, and data rates. As of March 2011, BD9 was removed as an official BD-ROM disc.
Although the 66GB and 100GB BD-ROM discs used for Ultra HD Blu-ray use the same linear density as BDXL, the two formats are not compatible with each other, therefore it is not possible to use a triple layer BDXL disc to burn an Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc playable in an Ultra HD Blu-ray player, although standard 50GB BD-R dual-layer discs can be burned in the Ultra HD Blu-ray format.
The Blu-ray Disc application for recording of digital broadcasting has been developed as System Description Blu-ray Rewritable Disc Format Part 3 Audio Visual Basic Specifications (BDAV). The requirements related to the computer file system have been specified in System Description Blu-ray Rewritable Disc Format part 2 File System Specifications version 1.0 (BDFS). Initially, the BD-RE version 1.0 (BDFS) was specifically developed for recording of digital broadcasts using the Blu-ray Disc application (BDAV application). But these requirements are superseded by the Blu-ray Rewritable Disc File System Specifications version 2.0 (UDF) (a.k.a. RE 2.0) and Blu-ray Recordable Disc File System Specifications version 1.0 (UDF) (a.k.a. R 1.0). Additionally, a new application format, BDMV ( System Description Blu-ray Disc Prerecorded Format part 3 Audio Visual Basic Specifications) for High Definition Content Distribution was developed for BD-ROM. The only file system developed for BDMV is the System Description Blu-ray Read-Only Disc Format part 2 File System Specifications version 1.0 (UDF) which defines the requirements for UDF 2.50. All BDMV application files are stored under a "BDMV" directory.
Blu-ray Disc employs the MPEG transport stream recording method. That enables transport streams of digital broadcasts to be recorded as they are broadcast, without altering the format.Blu-ray Disc Association (March 2008) BD-RE – Audiovisual Application Format Specification for BD-RE 2.1 (PDF), Technical White Papers – BD RE , Retrieved on July 28, 2009. It also enables flexible editing of a digital broadcast that is recorded as is and where the data can be edited just by rewriting the playback stream. Although it is quite natural, a function for high-speed and easy-to-use retrieval is built in. Blu-ray Disc Video use MPEG transport streams, compared to DVD's MPEG program streams. An MPEG transport stream contains one or more MPEG program streams, so this allows multiple video programs to be stored in the same file so they can be played back simultaneously (e.g., with the "picture-in-picture" effect).
| + Supported video formats | |
| 4K UHD | 16:9 |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| HD | 16:9 |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| HD | 16:9 |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| 16:9 | |
| SD | 4:3 or 16:9 |
| 4:3 or 16:9 |
For video, all players are required to process H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2, , and SMPTE VC-1. BD-ROM titles with video must store video using one of the three mandatory formats; multiple formats on a single title are allowed. Blu-ray Disc allows video with a color depth of 8-bits per color YCbCr with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling. The choice of formats affects the producer's licensing/royalty costs as well as the title's maximum run time, due to differences in compression efficiency. Discs encoded in MPEG-2 video typically limit content producers to around two hours of high-definition content on a single-layer (25GB) BD-ROM. The more-advanced video formats (VC-1 and MPEG-4 AVC) typically achieve a video run time twice that of MPEG-2, with comparable quality. MPEG-2, however, does have the advantage that it is available without licensing costs, as all MPEG-2 patents have expired.
MPEG-2 was used by many studios (including Paramount Pictures, which initially used the VC-1 format for HD DVD releases) for the first series of Blu-ray Discs, which were launched throughout 2006. Statistics Page . Blu-rayStats.com. Retrieved on December 22, 2010. Modern releases are now often encoded in either MPEG-4 AVC or VC-1, allowing film studios to place all content on one disc, reducing costs and improving ease of use. Using these formats also frees a lot of space for storage of bonus content in HD (1080i/p), as opposed to the SD (480i/p) typically used for most titles. Some studios, such as Warner Bros., have released bonus content on discs encoded in a different format than the main feature title. For example, the Blu-ray Disc release of Superman Returns uses VC-1 for the feature film and MPEG-2 for some of its bonus content. Today, Warner and other studios typically provide bonus content in the video format that matches the feature.
| + Specification of BD-ROM Primary audio streams |
| 7.1 |
| 16 |
| 48kHz, 96kHz |
This Java version is called BD-J and is built on a profile of the Globally Executable MHP (GEM) standard; GEM is the worldwide version of the Multimedia Home Platform standard.
| Grace Period | Bonus View | BD-Live | Blu-ray 3D | ||
| Profile 3.0 | Profile 1.0 | Profile 1.1 | Profile 2.0 | Profile 5.0 | |
| Built-in persistent memory | Unneeded | 64 KB | 64 KB | 64 KB | 64 KB? |
| Local storage capability | Unneeded | Optional | 256 MB | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Secondary video decoder (PiP) | No video | Optional | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory |
| Secondary audio decoder | Optional | Optional | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory |
| Virtual file system | Unneeded | Optional | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory |
| Internet connection capability | No | No | No | Mandatory | Mandatory |
On November 2, 2007, the Grace Period Profile was superseded by Bonus View as the minimum profile for new BD-Video players released to the market. When Blu-ray Disc software not authored with interactive features dependent on Bonus View or BD-Live hardware capabilities is played on Profile 1.0 players, it is able to play the main feature of the disc, but some extra features may not be available or will have limited capability.
Profile 1.0 players are not eligible for Bonus View or BD-Live compliant upgrades and do not have the function or capability to access these upgrades, with the exception of the latest players and the PlayStation 3. Internet is required to use. Profile 1.1 , afterdawn.com, December 22, 2010.
As with the implementation of region codes for DVDs, Blu-ray disc players sold in a specific geographical region are designed to play only discs authorized by the content provider for that region. This is intended to permit content providers (motion picture studios, television production companies, etc.) to enact regional price discrimination and/or exclusive Copyright. According to the Blu-ray Disc Association, all Blu-ray disc players and Blu-ray disc-equipped computer systems are required to enforce regional coding. However, content providers need not use region playback codes. "How does regional coding work in the computer space?" us.blu-raydisc.com FAQ Retrieved October 24, 2009. Some current estimates suggest 70% of available movie Blu-ray discs from the major studios are region-free and can therefore be played on any Blu-ray disc player in any region. "Latest Confirmed Region Free Blu-rays" . Retrieved October 24, 2009.
Movie distributors have different region-coding policies. Among major American studios, Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, and Sony Pictures have released most of their titles free of region-coding. Universal and Warner Bros. nearly always make their Blu-rays region free while Universal's STXfilms Blu-rays are more often region locked as well as a few European Blu-rays. Paramount, though more occasionally region locking their Blu-rays, never uses Region A, B and C logos on their domestic releases. Fox and Sony more frequently region lock their Blu-rays and use A, B and C logos unlike Paramount, WB and Universal; domestic releases from both Fox and Sony are Region A locked while international releases of the same titles would be region free. MGM and Lionsgate have released a mix of region-free and region-coded titles. While 20th Century Fox initially released most of their titles region-coded, most of their post-Disney merger content is region-free. Vintage film restoration and distribution company The Criterion Collection uses US region-coding in all Blu-ray releases, with their releases in the UK market using UK region-coding.
The Blu-ray Disc region-coding scheme divides the world into three regions, labeled A, B, and C.
| Americas, Hong Kong, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand), Southeast Asia. | |
| Africa, Middle East, Southwest Asia, most of Europe (excluding Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova), Australia, New Zealand. | |
| Central Asia, China, Mongolia, Indian subcontinent, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova. | |
| Informal term meaning "worldwide". Region free is not an official setting; discs that bear the region FREE symbol either have no flags set or have all three flags set. Discs with no flags set may not play in some non-compliant players. | |
| A/B/C |
A new form of Blu-ray region-coding tests not only the region of the player/player software, but also its country code, repurposing a user setting intended for localization (PSR19) as a new form of regional lockout. This means, for example, while both the US and Japan are Region A, some American discs will not play on devices/software configured for Japan or vice versa, since the two countries have different country codes. (For example, the United States is "US" (21843 or Hexadecimal 0x5553), Japan is "JP" (19024 or hex 0x4a50), and Canada is "CA" (17217 or hex 0x4341).) Although there are only three Blu-ray regions, the country code allows much more precise control of the regional distribution of Blu-ray discs than the six (or eight) DVD regions. With Blu-ray discs, there are no "special regions" such as the regions 7 and 8 for DVDs.
In circumvention of region-coding restrictions, stand-alone Blu-ray disc players are sometimes modified by third parties to allow for playback of Blu-ray discs (and DVDs) with any region code. "First Region Free Blu-ray Players Available" engadgethd.com. Retrieved October 24, 2009. Instructions ("hacks") describing how to reset the Blu-ray region counter of computer player applications to make them multi-region indefinitely are also regularly posted to video enthusiast websites and forums. Unlike DVD region codes, Blu-ray region codes are verified only by the player software, not by the optical drive's firmware.
the latest types of Blu-ray players, suitable for Ultra HD Blu-ray content, are not region-free, but Ultra HD Blu-ray disc manufacturers have not yet locked the discs to any region and they work worldwide.
If a playback device manufacturer finds that its devices have been hacked, it can potentially release BD+ code that detects and circumvents the vulnerability. These programs can then be included in all new content releases. The specifications of the BD+ virtual machine are available only to licensed device manufacturers. A list of licensed commercial adopters is available from the
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> BD+ website.
The first titles using BD+ were released in October 2007. Since November 2007, versions of BD+ protection have been circumvented by various versions of the AnyDVD HD program. Other programs known to be capable of circumventing BD+ protection are DumpHD (versions 0.6 and above, along with some supporting software), MakeMKV, and two applications from DVDFab (Passkey and HD Decrypter).
Sony added Blu-ray 3D support to its PlayStation 3 console via a firmware upgrade on September 21, 2010. The console had previously gained 3D gaming capability via an update on April 21, 2010. Since the version 3.70 software update on August 9, 2011, the PlayStation 3 can play DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio while playing 3D Blu-ray. Dolby TrueHD is used on a small minority of Blu-ray 3D releases, and Bitstream format implemented in slim PlayStation 3 models only (original "fat" PS3 models decode internally and send audio as LPCM). The PlayStation VR can also be used to watch these movies in 3D on a PlayStation 4. most major home entertainment studios, such as Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures, MGM, and Universal Pictures had discontinued the Blu-ray 3D format in North America, but continued to produce and sell them in other regions such as South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Paramount Pictures has ceased sales and productions of 3D Blu-ray Discs all over the world, its last 3D releases being Ghost in the Shell and , while Warner Bros. continued to sell and produce 3D Blu-ray Discs in North America until 2022 with their last film released on the format being Dune.
The specification for an 8K Blu-ray format was also completed by the Blu-ray Disc Association for use in Japan. More than two hours of 8K content can be recorded on BDXL discs.
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