For those who are into movies, you may have noticed there is a new format for home viewing called "Blu-ray." Compared to prior video formats, Blu-Ray is quite advanced. Just like DVDs, a Blu-ray disc uses a laser to receive the information it contains. However, a Blu-ray disc is better than a normal DVD. The reason for this is because the Blu-ray disc, as its name implies, uses a blue optical ray instead of a red one; the blue ray has a shorter wavelength, which means that you can store five times the data in a Blu-ray disc than you can in a DVD.

When comparing Blu-ray to DVD, you may notice a few differences between the two. For one, a BD can hold up to 27 GB of data, which means you can have up to 13 hours of standard-definition video on only one disc. If you buy a double sided Blu-ray disc, you can store up to 54 GB of data, or more than 25 hours of standard video. A DVD only has 4.7 GB of storage space, meaning you can only record a little over 2 hours of video.

As you can see, blu-ray discs have an advantage over DVDs when it comes to space; a ten hour advantage, to be precise. Many TV sets and movie studios have opted to make their movies and shows in high definition, and companies like Netflix have reported that they will provide many Blu-ray discs to their customers. The question is, are you ready to move to the high definition world?