The Age of Blu-Ray

Do you remember how awesome it was when you upgraded from you old VHS tapes to DVDs? The picture was way clearer and the sound was amazing, right? Well another technology shift of even greater proportions is on the horizon in the home entertainment industry.

A standard dvd or dvd-R disc has about 4.7 GB of storage, but the new Blu-Ray discs have over 25 GB of storage on a single-layer disc and 50 GB on a dual-layer disc! And all that extra space, over 10 times more than a regular dvd, does not go to waste. Movies in Blu-Ray format will have crystal clear, life-like High Definition picture and superb digital sound. This unprecedented high quality combined with a 1080p High-Definition TV will be like nothing you have ever seen before. Are you salivating yet?

The only thing that will stop you from running to your nearest Circuit City, best Buy or Sony Style to pick up a Blu-Ray player and a couple movies to go with it (and if youre really ambitious, you can buy a Blu-Ray disc burner too) is the large and almost unwieldy price tag.

Today, a stand-alone Blu-Ray player will cost you around $1000, with each movie at about $50, meaning it would take a sizable chunk out of that portion of your bank account you allocate towards home entertainment. Now if you have a phone number annual salary that wont be a problem, but what about for the rest of us?

Well, just as with any new and emerging technology, the price will be very high at the outset, meaning that mostly techies and people who dont mind dishing out a few thousand bucks will buy it. But with time (maybe even in time for the 2006 holiday season), the price will drop until it becomes affordable. And for those of you who absolutely can not wait to get one of these awesome pieces of technology in your living room, you will be glad to hear that the new Sony Playstation 3 coming in November 2006 will come equipped with a Blu-Ray player. This next-gen console will cost around $600, a bargain for just the Blu-ray player.

The Playstation 3 will be the most powerful gaming machine ever released in terms of raw computing power. It features a new technology called a Cell chip, which works like 9 CPU microchips in one. This allows for blazing speeds and spectacular graphics, especially when it comes to running lots of programs simultaneously.

So, how do you obtain this tantalizing cinematic machine without overdrawing your checking account? My advice is to wait until the holiday season. The mainstream will have caught wind of the new Blu-Ray technology and it will become a holiday must-have. The price will inevitably be lower, and it will be your choice whether you want to go with a stand-alone player or a ps3.

If you wish to find out more about Blu-Ray players and what movies are available, check out http://blu-ray-site.com for more information. This is a technology that will awe and inspire, and it will forever change the home theater experience.

Richard Weber

Yoga Teacher Program Florida