In the first two parts of this ongoing series I explored a few of the ways Blu-ray has been implemented into computers. The first installment discussed Blu-ray readers that would allow you to view Blu-ray movies and also (probably) read DVDs and CDs. The ‘combo’ drive also let you record DVDs and CDs, in addition to just reading Blu-ray discs.

In Part Two of this series, I wrote about recordable Blu-ray – the rather remarkable technologies that let you store as much as 50 GIGABYTES of data onto a single disc. I discussed how single layer Blu-ray discs (BD-R) can store as much as 25 GB of data, while their dual layer (BD-RDL) siblings can store up to twice as much data. It’s not clear whether all recorders (or even Blu-ray readers) can read the second layer of a dual layer disc; or whether a recorder that can write to BD-R media can also write to BD-RDL.

There’s another twist to the Blu-ray story – Blu-ray rewritable (RE – Recordable/Erasable). Rewritable media has been around for more than a decade – with CD-RW, DVD-RW, and now Blu-ray RE. RW technologies, in the past, don’t seem to have been particularly successful – except with those Read the rest of this entry »