Blu-Ray, also known as blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), A group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including  Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Shark, Sony, TDK and Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combine with the use of advanced video and audio ports will offer consumers and unprecedented HD experience.

Blu-ray Disc is an optional disc storage media format. It's main uses are high-definition video and data storage. The disc has the same dimensions as a standard DVD or cd. While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM rely on a red leaser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. Despite the different type of lasers used, blu-ray products can easily be made backwards compatible with cds and dvds through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pick up unit. The benifits 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 I'll n the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 is what enables Blu-ray Diacs to hold 25GB/50GB, almost six times the capacity of a dual layer DVD.

Blu-ray is currently supported by more than 180 of the world’s leading consumer electronics, personal computer recording media, video game and music companies.

Blu-ray discs are capable of storing upto 128 GB of data; triple layer disc can store upto 100 GB and quadruple layer discs are capable of storing upto 128 GB of data.