The name Blu-ray Disc is derived from the blue-violet laser used to read and write this type of disc. Because of its shorter wavelength (405 nm), substantially more data can be stored on a Blu-ray Disc than on the DVD format, which uses a red, 650 nm laser. A Blu-ray Disc can store 25 GB on each layer, as opposed to a DVD's 4.7 GB.

Blu-ray Disc is similar to PDD, another optical disc format developed by Sony (which has been available since 2004) but offering higher data transfer speeds. PDD was not intended for home video use and was aimed at business data archiving and backup.

Blu-ray Disc is currently in a "format war" with rival format HD DVD.

The HD DVD disc is designed to be the successor to the standard DVD format. It can store about three times as much data as its predecessor (15 GB per layer instead of 4.7 GB). The HD DVD standard was jointly developed by Toshiba and NEC.[2] On 19 November 2003, the DVD Forum voted to support HD DVD as the high definition successor of the standard DVD. At this meeting, they also renamed it HD DVD. The format had previously been called the "Advanced Optical Disc" (AOD).

On 31 March 2006, Toshiba released their first HD DVD player in Japan at ¥110,000 ($934).[2] HD DVD was released in United States on 18 April 2006,[3] with players priced at $499 and $799.

HD DVD is currently in a format war with rival format Blu-ray Disc.