Sony's 50GB Blu-ray discs hitting market shelves tomorrow

Sony, the Japanese multinational corporation and one of the world's largest media conglomerates, announced that its 50GB Blu-ray Disc is all set to hit the market shelves from tomorrow.

It is all geared up to release three titles, including comedy flick ‘Click’, starring Adam Sandler, Christopher Walken, and Kate Beckinsale, which will be available in stores from tomorrow, October 10, 2006.

‘Black Hawk Down’, the action movie starring Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, and Eric Bana, will be available from November 14, 2006.

The third is the side-splitting box office hit, ‘Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby’ starring writer/ producer Will Ferrell and John C Reilly. This will be available on December 12, 2006.

The Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc format designed for high-density storage of high-definition video and data.

Because of the shorter wavelength (405 nm) of the blue-violet laser, it can store considerably more data than a DVD, allowing more information to be stored digitally in the same amount of space.

In comparison to HD DVD, which also uses a blue laser, Blu-ray Disc has more information capacity per layer.

All three titles by Sony have been authored by the Sony Pictures Digital Authoring Center (DAC), and manufactured by Sony DADC.

President of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, David Bishop said in a statement that as the consumers make a bounce to Blu-ray's far-fetched high-definition picture and theatre quality audio, they will wish for a diverse content, packed with added value features.

The Blu-ray Disc standard was jointly developed by a group of consumer electronics and PC companies called the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), spearheaded by Sony.

The Blu-ray Disc Association unveiled their plans for a May 23, 2006 release date at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2006. Since then, Blu-ray Disc was delayed, but eventually shipped in the U.S. on June 20, 2006.

Currently, a Blu-ray Disc can hold a maximum of 50 gigabytes.

The first 25GB Blu-ray Disc titles released on June 20, 2006 were ‘Hitch’, ‘The Fifth Element’, ‘House of Flying Daggers’, ‘Underworld: Evolution’, ‘50 First Dates’, ‘XXX’ by Sony; and ‘The Terminator’ by MGM.

Till date, 55 titles have been released and a further 53 have been given release dates for 2006. All these titles released were on 25 GB single-layer Blu-ray Discs.

Besides Sony, there are three other studios which have announced their plans to unveil a 50GB disc. On November 14, 2006 Fox will be releasing their first 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray Disc title, ‘Kingdom of Heaven’. Lionsgate is preparing a dual-layer Blu-ray Disc of ‘The Descent’ for a December release. On November 28, 2006 Warner will release their first 50GB title, ‘Superman Returns’.

David Bishop said that they are proud of the fact that Sony is the first studio to deliver a 50GB Blu-ray Disc title to the marketplace, which boasts of added features only a 50GB disc can provide.