Blu-ray

Blu-ray is an optical storage medium technology similar to that of DVD, except that it uses a blue-violet laser to read the disc rather than a standard red laser. Blu-ray discs at the consumer level can currently hold up to 50 GiB of storage memory (25 GiB for single-layer, 50 GiB for dual-layer, with up to six layers possible), while commercially-available applications using the BDXL standard can hold up to 300 GiB. First used for gaming applications with the PlayStation 3, Blu-ray discs are now also used for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and will also be used in the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

The first Blu-ray Disc prototypes were unveiled in October 2000, and the first prototype player was released in April 2003 in Japan. After that, it continued to be developed until its official release in June 2006.

The name Blu-ray Disc 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.