Last week, I went to my friend’s home, Zainal, the owner of Play-Beyond.NET, together with Irwandean, my another close friend. All three of us are quite fanatic with the multimedia, graphic, game and movies things. Since Zainal invited us to his house for a brief demo on the current technology of multimedia, we can’t wait to ‘terjah‘(’ambush’) his house.

Finally, I can see what is the Blu-Ray is all about. He showed us some scenes from the movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. Gosh!! It is so detail on the 32 inches Aquos Sharp that we can see the little-gritty-detail of the Davy Jones texture and we also can see the tiny fur of the rope waiving to us. I bet we cannot notice that in cinema. During the movie, we can also see the file size per screen. For normal DVD, the size might be around 1MB or 2 MB per frame. But here, it shows that the frame is around 30MB to 40MB per frame for the HD. So, more data can be store, more display can be show, more make me feel I wanna have all these as soon as possible.

When we try out the game titled ‘Call of Duty 4′ for PlayStation 3 (PS3), it is so immersive that we feel that we are in the war ourself. The demo of the game ‘Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune’ really impressive as it is not a 3D game anymore, but it is a 4D game (4D is for four-dimensional, not for the gambling brand) as it involves time-line dimension. For example, is the hero goes in inside the water, when he comes up, his shirt will become wet. But, after a while, the t-shirt will becomes dry along with time. Cool, huh?

Now, what exactly is the relationship between the High-Definition (HD), Blu-ray Disc (BD) and the PlayStation 3 (PS3). Well, simply said, HD is the format, while Blu-Ray is the storage device that store the HD, and PS3 is a device that can play the Blu-Ray disc. To be exact, High-definition (HD) video is the video system that has much, much more higher resolution than the standard-definition (SD) video. Most of the free TV channnel that you get is the SD video. If you try to watch it on the 32 inches TV, the pictures will looks ‘ugly’. But if you watch HD video on it, the pictures will be like ‘heaven’. Another thing about the HD is, its resolution is 1280×720 or 1920×1080, just like cinema.

Meanwhile, Blu-ray Disc (BD) is a high-density optical disc format that is used to store the digital information especially the High-Definition video. The size of the data stored can be between five or six times bigger than the DVD. For example, if the single layer DVD can store 4.7 GB, the single layer Blu-ray can store up to 25 GB. What an obvious winner!! Why the name Blu-ray? Sounds a little bit naughty isn’t it? Well, it is derived from the colour of the laser which is used to read and write  the disc which is blue-violet. Company that has invested so much with Blu-ray is Sony. So that’s why it can be play in PS3. The price of the Blu-ray movie is quite expensive which is around RM100++ but it is really worth the money especially for the movie that you want to watch many times such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Ring, The Matrix, Spider-Man, Phantom of the Opera etc.

About the PlayStation 3(Ps3), it is the third video game console from Sony and it is currently fighting head-to-head with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii. It is the first console that can play Blu-ray at the maximum bit rate defined in Blu-ray Disc format which is 48Mbps. Actually, the main reason I interested in PS3 is the game ‘Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots’. But since my friend has show me the wonderful world of Blu-ray, my main reason has shift to watch many Blu-ray movies.

After I watched the ‘technology update’, the DVD is now for me, nearly become the thing of the past. After I had see this technology in front of my eyes, I think that there will be a time where people will not go to the cinema anymore as the truly immersive cinema is already in their home.

If your adrenaline has become excited and you want more info, you can visit these websites:
PlayStation 3 Official Website
Blu-ray Disc Association
Play-Beyond.NET
Wikipedia: High-Definition Video, Blu-ray, PlayStation 3