BluRay, HD-DVD and DVD Formats Explained

This article took a look at the more common formats of DVD drives in order to shed some light on all the choices available. The differences between them all may be subtle, but the compatibility issues can be quite frustrating. The simple answer to anyone considering a drive is to forget about + and – by themselves, and shoot for universal compatibility with a good DVD±RW with DVD+R DL support.

	Disc Blu-ray Disc HD-DVD ROM 3X DVD ROM DVD ROM Laser wavelength 405 Nanometers 405 Nanometers 650 Nanometers 650 Nanometers Numerical aperture 0.85 0.65 0.6 0.6 Storage capacity single layer 25 GB 15 GB 4.7 GB 4.7 GB Storage capacity dual layer 50 GB 30 GB 8.5 GB 8.5 GB Video codecs MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) / VC-1 / MPEG-2 MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) / VC-1 / MPEG-2 MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) / VC-1 / MPEG-2 MPEG-2 Audio codecs lossless (mandatory) Linear PCM/MLP(TRUE HD)[2-ch] Linear PCM/MLP(TRUE HD)[2-ch] Linear PCM/MLP(TRUE HD)[2-ch] Linear PCM[2ch] Audio codecs lossless (optional) DTS HD (lossless) DTS HD (lossless) DTS HD (lossless) N/A Audio codecs lossy (mandatory) Dolby Digital Plus/DTS/Dolby Digital/MPEG Audio Dolby Digital Plus/DTS/Dolby Digital/MPEG Audio Dolby Digital Plus/DTS/Dolby Digital/MPEG Audio Dolby Digital/MPEG Audio (Europe) Maximum data transfer rate 54.0 Mbit/s 36.55 Mbit/s 36.55 Mbit/s 11.08 Mbit/s Content protection system Advanced Access Content System (AACS-128bit) Advanced Access Content System (AACS-128bit) Advanced Access Content System (AACS-128bit) CSS 40-bit Video systems (maximum) 1920×1080 50/60 Progressive HDTV 1920×1080 50/60 Progressive HDTV 1920×1080 50/60 Progressive HDTV 720×480 and 720×576 50/60 Progressive SDTV