Blu-ray discs have widely replaced CDs and DVDs, though they are based on similar technology. They are superior to CDs and DVDs because they allow the user to store much more information, encode high definition audio and video, and provide support for a wide variety of codecs. Blu-Ray discs also allow users to do everything that they could with a CD or DVD, including reading, writing, and re-writing. The Blu-Ray Disc Association introduced Blu-Ray discs, which over 200 leading consumer electronics companies worldwide currently support.

How Blu-Ray Discs Work

Blu-Ray discs are written to and read in a similar way that CDs and DVDs are, but instead of using a red laser, Blu-Ray discs require a blue violet laser. Because blue violet has a shorter wavelength of light than red, the laser itself is much more narrow and can mark the disc with a greater level of precision than a red laser can. This allows blue violet lasers to write more information to a Blu-Ray disc, even though they are the same physical size as a CD or DVD. In fact, Blu-Ray discs can hold up to 25 GB on a single layer disc and 50 GB on a dual layer disc. A Pioneer Blu-Ray disc uses 20 layers on a single disc and holds an incredible 500 GB.

How to Burn a Blu-Ray Disc

Burning a Blu-Ray disc is essentially the same process as burning a CD or DVD, but there are several things that the user needs to gather first.

1) Install a Blu-Ray burner in the computer if it isn’t already. A Blu-Ray burner is a hardware component much like a DVD burner, and is typically found only on the most modern computers. If you don’t have one you can get it from a local computer store, and install yourself or have the computer specialist do it.

2) Install the burning software, such as Nero 7 and later, on the computer that will support Blu-Ray discs. You will also need to purchase a blank Blu-Ray disc to burn files to.

3) Burn the Blu-Ray disc in the same manner as you would a CD or DVD, using Nero 7 or another Blu-Ray disc burning software. Select what type of content you wish to burn (audio, movie or data files), put a blank Blu-Ray disk into the burner, select which files you want to burn, and confirm to start burning. It may take a while to finish depending on how much data you are burning.

Upon completion of the burning, remove the Blu-ray from the burner and throw it into the Blu-ray player to see if it works. If it does, you’re done. If not, put it into the computer to see if it can read the Blu-ray disc. Sometimes, Blu-ray players can’t play burned Blu-rays, especially if they are the older models.