It's actually Blu-ray and is the name of a "next-generation optical disc format" jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA)" (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). It's a High Definition format of dvd video which allows for nearly five times the storage capacity of a standard dvd format (thus allowing more info to be stored which ultimately leads to ability to provide a higher format quality).
While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. The benefit of using a blue-violet laser (405nm) is that it has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm), which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly and stored in less space, so it's possible to fit more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD.
Aren't you sorry you asked?
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