Blu-ray Disc

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
"Blue ray" redirects here. For the fish, see Neoraja caerulea.

Blu-ray Disc

Media type High-density optical disc

Encoding MPEG-2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and

VC-1

Capacity 25 GB (single-layer)

50 GB (dual-layer)
100/128 GB (BDXL)

Block size 64 kb ECC

Read mechanism 405 nm laser:

1× @ 36 Mbit/s (4.5 MByte/s)

Developed by Blu-ray Disc Association[1]

Data storage
Usage
 1080p High-definition video High-
definition audio
stereoscopic 3D

Future possibility:
Quad HD
2160p
Ultra HD

Blu-ray Disc (official abbreviation BD) is an optical disc storage medium designed to
supersede the standard DVD format. Its main uses are for storing high-definition video,
PlayStation 3 video games, and other data, with up to 25 GB per single-layered, and 50 GB
per dual-layered disc. Although these numbers represent the standard storage for Blu-ray
Disc drives, the specification is open-ended, with the upper theoretical storage limit left
unclear. The discs have the same physical dimensions as standard DVDs and CDs.

The name Blu-ray Disc derives from the "blue laser" used to read the disc. While a standard
DVD uses a 650 nanometer red laser, Blu-ray Disc uses a shorter wavelength 405 nm laser,
and allows for over five times more data storage on single-layer and over ten times on
double-layer Blu-ray Disc than a standard DVD. The laser color is called "blue," but is violet
to the eye, and is very close to ultraviolet ("blacklight").

During the high definition optical disc format war, Blu-ray Disc competed with the HD DVD
format. Toshiba, the main company that supported HD DVD, conceded in February 2008,
and the format war came to an end.[2] In late 2009, Toshiba released its own Blu-ray Disc
player.[3]

Blu-ray Disc was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, a group representing makers of
consumer electronics, computer hardware, and motion pictures. As of June 2009, more than
1,500 Blu-ray Disc titles were available in Australia and the United Kingdom, with 2,500 in
the United States and Canada,[4]. In Japan as of July 2010 more than 3,300 titles were
released.[5]

Blu-Ray Discs can be clustered together in systems such as optical jukeboxes to increase data
storage. This increase of storage can span multiple terabytes and utilize hundreds of Blu-Ray
Discs. These systems are currently the largest storage units using Blu-Ray technology.
History

Optical discs

 Optical disc
 Optical disc drive
 Optical disc authoring
 Authoring software
 Recording technologies
o Recording modes
o Packet writing

Optical media types

 Blu-ray Disc (BD): BD-R, BD-RE

 DVD: DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-R DL, DVD+R DL, DVD-R
DS, DVD+R DS, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-
D, HVD, EcoDisc
 Compact Disc (CD): Red Book, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-
RW, 5.1 Music Disc, SACD, PhotoCD, CD Video
(CDV), Video CD (VCD), SVCD, CD+G, CD-Text, CD-
ROM XA, CD-i
 Universal Media Disc (UMD)
 Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD)
 Forward Versatile Disc (FVD)
 Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD)
 China Blue High-definition Disc (CBHD)
 HD DVD: HD DVD-R, HD DVD-RW, HD DVD-RAM
 High definition Versatile Multilayer Disc (HD VMD)
 VCDHD
 GD-ROM
 MiniDisc (MD) (Hi-MD)
 Laserdisc (LD)
 Video Single Disc (VSD)
 Ultra Density Optical (UDO)
 Stacked Volumetric Optical Disk (SVOD)
 Five dimensional discs (5D DVD)
 Nintendo optical disc (NOD)
 Standards

 Rainbow Books
 File systems
o ISO 9660
 Joliet
 Rock Ridge / SUSP
 El Torito
 Apple ISO 9660 Extensions
o Universal Disk Format (UDF)
 Mount Rainier

See also

 History of optical storage media

 High definition optical disc format war

This box: view • talk • edit

A blank rewritable Blu-ray Disc (BD-RE).

Commercial HDTV sets began to appear in the consumer market around 1998, but there was
no commonly accepted, inexpensive way to record or play HD content. In fact, there was no
medium with the storage required to accommodate HD codecs, except for JVC's Digital VHS
and Sony's HDCAM.[6] Nevertheless, it was well known that using lasers with shorter
wavelengths would enable optical storage with higher density. Shuji Nakamura invented the
practical blue laser diode; it was a sensation among the computer storage-medium
community, although a lengthy patent lawsuit delayed commercial introduction.[7]
[edit] Origins

Sony/Philips started two projects applying the new diodes: UDO (Ultra Density Optical), and
DVR Blue (together with Pioneer), a format of rewritable discs that would eventually become
Blu-ray Disc (more specifically, BD-RE).[8] The core technologies of the formats are
essentially similar.

The first DVR Blue prototypes were unveiled at the CEATEC exhibition in October 2000.[9]
On February 19, 2002, the project was officially announced as Blu-ray Disc,[10][11] and Blu-ray
Disc Founders was founded by the nine initial members.

The first consumer device was in stores on April 10, 2003. This device was the Sony BDZ-
S77, a BD-RE recorder that was made available only in Japan. The recommended price was
US$3800;[12] however, there was no standard for prerecorded video, and no movies were
released for this player. The Blu-ray Disc standard was still years away, as a newer, more
secure Digital Rights Management (DRM) system was needed before Hollywood studios
would accept it—not wanting to repeat the failure of the Content Scramble System used on
standard DVDs. On October 4, 2004, the Blu-ray Disc Founders was officially changed to the
Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), and 20th Century Fox joined the BDA's Board of Directors.
[13]

[edit] Technical problems with Blu-ray laser

Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a semiconductor that is necessary to meet with a red laser
requirements. It can be produced by methods similar to those developed previously for
silicon. Tiles made from this material are the ideal substrate on which, with great precision,
atoms can be placed to form the active part of the laser that generates light (from quantum
wells) with a thickness of over a dozen layers of atoms. It is important that the substrate does
not have defects, called dislocations, and that the distance between atoms making up the
ground and those of the quantum wells are the same.

These conditions are relatively easy to produce in case of red lasers. In the case of blue
semiconductor lasers the best ground is another semiconductor - gallium nitride (GaN). The
process of producing single crystals of GaN is much harder than GaAs. It is similar to the
process of manufacturing synthetic diamonds, since both diamonds and GaN are formed at
very high pressures and temperatures. Many technical challenges make it difficult to
manufacture GaN, one of which is the need to use high-pressure nitrogen gas.

The process of high-pressure crystallization of GaN seemed to be impractical and since the
1960s attempts to replace the surface of the GaN substrates with readily available sapphire
have not worked. Mismatch between sapphires structure and Gallium Nitride created a large
number of structural defects (dislocation), which prevented the implementation of efficient
blue light-generating devices.

In 1992, the Japanese inventor Shuji Nakamura invented the first efficient blue LED, and four
years later, the first blue laser. Nakamura used the material deposited on the sapphire
substrate, although the number of defects remained high (106-1010/cm2). The presence of
defects in the structure of the laser made it difficult to build a high-power laser.
In the early 90s the Institute of High Pressure Physics at the Polish Academy of Sciences in
Warsaw (Poland), under the leadership of Dr. Sylwester Porowski was developing
technology to create gallium nitride crystals.[5] Those crystals had very high structural
quality and the number of defects did not exceed 100/cm2. It was at least 10 000 times less
than in the case of the best material deposit on sapphire.

In 1999, Shuji Nakamura tried to use Polish crystals to see how defects in this crystal affected
the properties of lasers. Laser built on Polish crystal have proved repeatedly to be better than
previously constructed, both in terms of lifetime and efficiency. The lifetime at a power of
30 mW has increased 10-fold (from 300 to 3 000 hours), and the yield more than twice.

A further development of the technology has led to the launch of the first mass production of
the device. Today - blue lasers utilize sapphire surface covered with layer of gallium nitride
(this technology is used by Japanese company Nichia, which has an agreement with Sony),
and blue semiconductor lasers utilize a gallium nitride mono-crystal surface (Polish company
TopGaN [14]).

After 10 years in Japan it was possible to master the production of a blue laser with 60 mW
of power, making them applicable in reading a dense high-speed stream of data from Blu-ray,
BD-R, and BD-RE. Polish technology is cheaper than Japanese but has a smaller share of the
market. There is one more Polish high-tech company which creates gallium nitride crystal -
Ammono[15][16], but this company does not produce blue lasers.

Nakamura's technological success, which created the basis for a new field of blue-laser
utilization in the electronics industry, has been honored with the Millennium Technology
Prize awarded in 2006 year. [6]

[edit] Blu-ray Disc format finalized

The Blu-ray Disc physical specifications were completed in 2004.[17] In January 2005, TDK
announced that they had developed a hard coating polymer for Blu-ray Discs.[18] Cartridges,
originally used for scratch protection, were no longer necessary and were scrapped. The BD-
ROM specifications were finalized in early 2006.[19] AACS LA, a consortium founded in
2004,[20] had been developing the DRM platform that could be used to securely distribute
movies to consumers. However, the final AACS standard was delayed,[21] and then delayed
again when an important member of the Blu-ray Disc group voiced concerns.[22] At the
request of the initial hardware manufacturers, including Toshiba, Pioneer, and Samsung, an
interim standard was published that did not include some features, such as managed copy.[23]

[edit] Launch and sales developments

The first BD-ROM players were shipped in mid-June 2006, though HD DVD players beat
them to market by a few months.[24][25]

The first Blu-ray Disc titles were released on June 20, 2006: 50 First Dates, The Fifth
Element, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, Underworld: Evolution, xXx (all Sony), and
MGM's The Terminator.[26] The earliest releases used MPEG-2 video compression, the same
method used on standard DVDs. The first releases using the newer VC-1 and AVC codecs
were introduced in September 2006.[27] The first movies using 50 GB dual-layer discs were
introduced in October 2006.[28] The first audio-only release was made in March 2008.[29]
The first mass-market Blu-ray Disc rewritable drive for the PC was the BWU-100A, released
by Sony on July 18, 2006.[30] It recorded both single and dual-layer BD-Rs as well as BD-REs
and had a suggested retail price of US $699.

[edit] Competition from HD DVD

Main article: High definition optical disc format war

The DVD Forum, chaired by Toshiba, was deeply split over whether to develop the more
expensive blue laser technology or not. In March 2002, the forum voted to approve a
proposal endorsed by Warner Bros. and other motion picture studios that involved
compressing HD content onto dual-layer standard DVD-9 discs.[31][32] In spite of this decision,
however, the DVD Forum's Steering Committee announced in April that it was pursuing its
own blue-laser high-definition solution. In August, Toshiba and NEC announced their
competing standard, Advanced Optical Disc.[33] It was finally adopted by the DVD Forum and
renamed HD DVD the next year,[34] after being voted down twice by DVD Forum members
who were also Blu-ray Disc Association members—prompting the U.S. Department of
Justice to make preliminary investigations into the situation.[35][36]

HD DVD had a head start in the high definition video market, as Blu-ray Disc sales were
slow to gain market share. The first Blu-ray Disc player was perceived as expensive and
"buggy", and there were few titles available.[37] This changed when the PlayStation 3 was
launched, since every PS3 unit also functioned as a Blu-ray Disc player. At CES 2007,
Warner proposed Total Hi Def—a hybrid disc containing Blu-ray on one side and HD DVD
on the other—but it was never released. By January 2007, Blu-ray Discs had outsold HD
DVDs,[38] and during the first three quarters of 2007, BD outsold HD DVDs by about two to
one. In a June 28, 2007 press release, Twentieth Century Fox cited Blu-ray Disc's adoption of
the BD+ anticopying system as a key factor in their decision to support the Blu-ray Disc
format.[39][40] In February 2008, Toshiba withdrew its support for the HD DVD format, leaving
Blu-ray Disc as the victor.[41]

Some analysts believe that Sony's PlayStation 3 video game console played an important role
in the format war, believing that it acted as a catalyst for Blu-ray Disc, as the PlayStation 3
used a Blu-ray Disc drive as its primary information storage medium.[42] They also credited
Sony's more thorough and influential marketing campaign.[43] It is also worth noting that
AVCHD camcorders, first appeared in 2006, produce recordings that can be played back on
many Blu-ray Disc players without re-encoding, but not on HD DVD players.

Technical specifications
Physical
Type Single layer capacity Dual layer capacity
size

Standard disc 25 GB / 23866 MiB / 50 GB / 47732 MiB / 50050629632

12 cm
size 25025314816 B B

7.8 GB / 7430 MiB / 7791181824 15.6 GB / 14860 MiB /

Mini disc size  8 cm
B 15582363648 B

High-definition video may be stored on BD-ROMs with up to 1920×1080 pixel resolution at

up to 59.94 fields per second, if interlaced. Alternatively, progressive scan can go up to
1920×1080 pixel resolution at 24 frames per second, or up to 1280x720 at up to 59.94 frames
per second:[59]

Resolution Frame rate1 Aspect ratio Video format restrictions

1920×1080 59.94-i 16:9   2D encodes only

1920×1080 50-i 16:9   2D encodes only

1920×1080 24-p 16:9  

1920×1080 23.976-p 16:9  

1440×1080 59.94-i 16:9 (anamorphic) MPEG-4 AVC / SMPTE VC-1 only

1440×1080 50-i 16:9 (anamorphic) MPEG-4 AVC / SMPTE VC-1 only

1440×1080 24-p 16:9 (anamorphic) MPEG-4 AVC / SMPTE VC-1 only

1440×1080 23.976-p 16:9 (anamorphic) MPEG-4 AVC / SMPTE VC-1 only

1280×720 59.94-p 16:9  

1280×720 50-p 16:9  

1280×720 24-p 16:9  

1280×720 23.976-p 16:9  

720×480 59.94-i 4:3/16:9 (anamorphic)  

720×576 50-i 4:3/16:9 (anamorphic)  

Laser and optics

Blu-ray Disc uses a "blue" laser, operating at a wavelength of 405 nm, to read and write data.
The diodes are GaN (gallium nitride) lasers that produce 405 nm photons directly, that is,
without frequency doubling or other nonlinear optical mechanisms.[60] Conventional DVDs
and CDs use red and near-infrared lasers, at 650 nm and 780 nm, respectively.
Panasonic Internal Blu-ray ROM notebook drive

The blue-violet laser's shorter wavelength makes it possible to store more information on a
12 cm CD/DVD-size disc. The minimum "spot size" on which a laser can be focused is
limited by diffraction, and depends on the wavelength of the light and the numerical aperture
of the lens used to focus it. By decreasing the wavelength, increasing the numerical aperture
from 0.60 to 0.85, and making the cover layer thinner to avoid unwanted optical effects, the
laser beam can be focused to a smaller spot. This allows more information to be stored in the
same area. For Blu-ray Disc, the spot size is 580 nm. In addition to the optical improvements,
Blu-ray Discs feature improvements in data encoding that further increase the capacity[citation
needed]
. (See Compact Disc for information on optical discs' physical structure.)

[edit] Hard-coating technology

Since the Blu-ray Disc data layer is closer to the surface of the disc compared to the DVD
standard, it was at first more vulnerable to scratches.[61] The first discs were housed in
cartridges for protection, resembling Professional Discs introduced by Sony in 2003.

Using a cartridge would increase the price of an already expensive medium, so hard-coating
of the pickup surface was chosen instead. TDK was the first company to develop a working
scratch-protection coating for Blu-ray Discs. It was named Durabis. In addition, both Sony
and Panasonic's replication methods include proprietary hard-coat technologies. Sony's
rewritable media are spin-coated, using a scratch-resistant and antistatic coating. Verbatim's
recordable and rewritable Blu-ray Discs use their own proprietary hard-coat technology,
called ScratchGuard.

Blu-ray Disc specification allows the use of such a layer to meet the required scratch
resistance.[62] DVD media are not required to be scratch-resistant, but since development of
the technology, some companies, such as Verbatim, implemented hard-coating for more
expensive lineups of recordable DVDs.

[edit] Recording speed

Data rate Theoretical Write time for Blu-ray Disc (minutes)
Drive speed
Mbit/s MB/s Single-Layer Dual-Layer

1× 36 4.5 90 180

2× 72 9 45 90

4× 144 18 22.5 45

6× 216 27 15 30

8× 288 36 11.25 22.5

10× 360 45 9 18

12×[63] 432 54 7.5 15

Software standards
[edit] Codecs

The BD-ROM specification mandates certain codec compatibilities for both hardware
decoders (players) and movie software (content).[64][65]

[edit] Video

For video, all players are required to support MPEG-2 Part 2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and
SMPTE VC-1.[66] MPEG-2 is the codec used on regular DVDs, which allows backwards
compatibility. MPEG-4 AVC was developed by MPEG, Sony, and VCEG. VC-1 is a codec
that was mainly developed by Microsoft. BD-ROM titles with video must store video using
one of the three mandatory codecs; multiple codecs on a single title are allowed.

The choice of codecs affects the producer's licensing/royalty costs as well as the title's
maximum run time, due to differences in compression efficiency. Discs encoded in MPEG-2
video typically limit content producers to around two hours of high-definition content on a
single-layer (25 GB) BD-ROM. The more-advanced video codecs (VC-1 and MPEG-4 AVC)
typically achieve a video run time twice that of MPEG-2, with comparable quality.

MPEG-2 was used by many studios (including Paramount Pictures, which initially used the
VC-1 codec for HD DVD releases) for the first series of Blu-ray Discs, which were launched
throughout 2006.[67] Modern releases are now often encoded in either MPEG-4 AVC or VC-1,
allowing film studios to place all content on one disc, reducing costs and improving ease of
use. Using these codecs also frees a lot of space for storage of bonus content in HD (1080i/p),
as opposed to the SD (480i/p) typically used for most titles. Some studios, such as Warner
Bros., have released bonus content on discs encoded in a different codec than the main
feature title. For example, the Blu-ray Disc release of Superman Returns uses VC-1 for the
feature film and MPEG-2 for bonus content.[citation needed] Today, Warner and other studios
typically provide bonus content in the video codec that matches the feature.

[edit] Audio

For audio, BD-ROM players are required to support Dolby Digital (AC-3), DTS, and linear
PCM. Players may optionally support Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD High Resolution
Audio as well as lossless formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.[68] BD-ROM
titles must use one of the mandatory schemes for the primary soundtrack. A secondary
audiotrack, if present, may use any of the mandatory or optional codecs.

Specification of BD-ROM Primary audio streams:[69]

Dolby
Dolby Dolby DTS digital DTS-HD DRA
LPCM TrueHD DRA
Digital Digital Plus surround (Lossless) Extension
(Lossless)

Max.
27.648Mbps 640kbps 4.736Mbps 18.64Mbps 1.524Mbps 24.5Mbps 1.5Mbps 3.0Mbps
Bitrate

Max. 8(48 kHz, 5.1 7.1 8(48 kHz, 5.1 8(48 kHz, 5.1 7.1

 96 kHz), 96 kHz), 96 kHz),
Channel
6(192 kHz) 6(192 kHz) 6(192 kHz)

Bits/sample 16, 20, 24 16-24 16-24 16-24 16, 20, 24 16-24 16 16

48 kHz, 48 kHz, 48 kHz,

Sample 48 kHz,
96 kHz, 48 kHz 48 kHz 96 kHz, 48 kHz 96 kHz, 48 kHz
frequency 96 kHz
192 kHz 192 kHz 192 kHz

[edit] Bit rate

For users recording digital television programming, the recordable Blu-ray Disc standard's
initial data rate of 36 Mbit/s is more than adequate to record high-definition broadcasts from
any source (IPTV, cable/satellite, or terrestrial). BD Video movies have a maximum data
transfer rate of 54 Mbit/s, a maximum AV bitrate of 48 Mbit/s (for both audio and video
data), and a maximum video bit rate of 40 Mbit/s. This compares to HD DVD movies, which
have a maximum data transfer rate of 36 Mbit/s, a maximum AV bitrate of 30.24 Mbit/s, and
a maximum video bitrate of 29.4 Mbit/s.[70]

[edit] Container format

Audio, video and other streams are multiplexed and stored on Blu-ray Discs in a container
format based on the MPEG transport stream. It is also known as BDAV MPEG-2 transport
stream and can use filename extension .m2ts.[64][71] Blu-ray Disc titles authored with menu
support are in the BDMV (Blu-ray Disc Movie) format and contain audio, video, and other
streams in BDAV container.[72][73] There is also the BDAV (Blu-ray Disc Audio/Visual)
format, the consumer oriented alternative to the BDMV format used for movie releases. The
BDAV format is used on BD-REs and BD-Rs for audio/video recording.[73] BDMV format
was later defined also for BD-RE and BD-R (in September 2006, in the third revision of BD-
RE specification and second revision of BD-R specification).[74][75] Blu-ray Disc employs the
MPEG transport stream recording method. That enables transport streams of digital
broadcasts to be recorded as they are without altering the format.[76] It also enables flexible
editing of a digital broadcast that is recorded as is and where the data can be edited just by
rewriting the playback stream. Although it is quite natural, a function for high-speed and
easy-to use retrieval is built in.[76][77] Blu-ray Disc Video use MPEG transport streams,
compared to DVD's MPEG program streams. This allows multiple video programs to be
stored in the same file so they can be played back simultaneously (e.g., with "Picture in
picture" effect).

[edit] Application format

 BDAV or BD-AV (Blu-ray Disc Audio/Visual) [78][79][80][81] - a consumer-oriented Blu-ray video

format used for audio/video recording (defined in 2002)
 BDMV or BD-MV (Blu-ray Disc Movie)[74][75][79][80][81][82] - a Blu-ray video format with menu
support commonly used for movie releases
o BDMV Recording specification - (defined in September 2006 for BD-RE and BD-R). [75]
[83]

 RREF - (Realtime Recording and Editing Format) - a subset of BDMV designed

for realtime recording and editing applications [83]
Directory and file structure

[edit] BD-ROM

All BD-ROM application files are stored under a “BDMV” directory.[71][84][85][86]

Filesystem

Blu-ray Disc specifies the use of Universal Disk Format (UDF) 2.5 as a convergent friendly
format for both PC and consumer electronics environments.[79] It is used in latest
specifications of BD-ROM, BD-RE and BD-R.[74][75][80]

BD-ROM Mark

BD-ROM Mark is a small amount of cryptographic data that is stored separately from normal
Blu-ray Disc data. Bit-by-bit copies that do not replicate the BD-ROM Mark have no known
decoding method.[citation needed] A specially licensed piece of hardware is required to insert the
ROM-mark into the media during replication. Through licensing of the special hardware
element, the BDA believes that it can eliminate the possibility of mass producing BD-ROMs
without authorization.[citation needed]

[edit] Player profiles

The BD-ROM specification defines four Blu-ray Disc player profiles, including an audio-
only player profile (BD-Audio) that does not require video decoding or BD-J. All three of the
video-based player profiles (BD-Video) are required to have a full implementation of BD-J,
with varying levels of hardware support.

BD-Video
BD-Audio
Feature Grace Period [d] Bonus View BD-Live[e]

Profile 3.0 [c] Profile 1.0 Profile 1.1 Profile 2.0

Built-in
persistent No 64 KB 64 KB 64 KB
memory

Local
storage No Optional 256 MB 1 GB
capability[a]

Secondary
video
No Optional Mandatory Mandatory
decoder
(PiP)

Secondary No Optional Mandatory Mandatory

audio
 decoder[b]

Virtual file
No Optional Mandatory Mandatory
system

Internet
connection No No No Mandatory
capability

3D Blu-ray Disc

Blu-ray 3D logo.

The Blu-ray Disc Association created a task force made up of executives from the film
industry and the consumer electronics and IT sectors to help define standards for putting 3D
film and 3D television content on a Blu-ray Disc.[140] On Dec. 17, 2009 the BDA officially
announced 3D specs for Blu-ray Disc, allowing backward compatibility with current 2D Blu-
ray players.[141] "The Blu-ray 3D specification calls for encoding 3D video using the "Stereo
High" profile defined by Multiview Video Coding (MVC), an extension to the ITU-T H.264
Advanced Video Coding (AVC) codec currently supported by all Blu-ray Disc players.
MPEG4-MVC compresses both left and right eye views with a typical 50% overhead
compared to equivalent 2D content, and can provide full 1080p resolution backward
compatibility with current 2D Blu-ray Disc players."[142] This means the MVC (3D) stream is
backward compatible with H.264/AVC (2D) stream, allowing older 2D devices and software
to decode stereoscopic video streams, ignoring additional information for the second view.
Also, Sony has stated that they will release a firmware upgrade for PlayStation 3 consoles to
enable 3D Blu-ray Disc playback before the end of 2010 [143], having already released support
for 3D gaming content on April 21, 2010 [144] (followed by availability of 3D games).