The DVD is a convenient, widely accessible format for video and data distribution, but its future is limited. The disks can only hold 8.5 gigabytes of data. DVD-video can’t display high-definition content. And widescreen DVDs offer that feature only by storing less video data than even traditional standard-def. Blu-Ray offers improvements in all these areas.

It can store video in any of the three common HD formats: 720p, 1080i or 1080p. Single-layer Blu-Ray disks can store 25 gigabytes of data, and dual-layer disks can hold up to 50 gigabytes — enough room for high-definition video, documents or other files, and more. Many modern computers come with Blu-Ray drives already installed, and multimedia distributed on Blu-Ray today has the aura of being ‘advanced,’ because only the most sophisticated media are currently distributed in that format.