Blu-ray Disc Association

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The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is the industry consortium that develops and licenses Blu-ray Disc technology and is responsible for establishing format standards and promoting business opportunities for Blu-ray Disc. The BDA is divided into three levels of membership: the Board of Directors, Contributors, and General Members.[1]

The "Blu-ray Disc founder group" was started on May 20, 2002 by MIT and nine leading electronic companies: Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Thomson, LG Electronics, Hitachi, Sharp, and Samsung Electronics.[2] In order to enable more companies to participate, it announced in May 2004 that it would form the Blu-ray Disc Association, which was inaugurated on October 4, 2004.

Members

Board of Directors

The Blu-ray Disc Association website describes the role of the Board of Directors as follows:[3]

"Companies participating in the Board of Directors are active participants in the format creation and key BDA activities. They are selected from the Contributors by-election. The board sets an overall strategy and approves key issues. A board member can participate in all activities and attend all meetings. The Blu-ray Disc Founder companies will make up the initial Board of Directors. Annual fee: $ 50,000"

The current 20 board members (as of April 2015) are:[4]

Contributors

The role of contributors as described by the Blu-ray Disc Association website:[3]

"Contributors are active participants in the format creation and other key BDA activities. They can be elected to become a member of the Board of Directors. A contributor can attend general meetings and seminars, and can participate in Technical Expert Groups (TEGs), regional Promotion Team activities and most of the Compliance Committee (CC) activities. Membership requires execution of Contribution Agreement and must be approved by the Board of Directors. Annual fee: $ 20,000"

The contributors as of June 2009 are:[4]

Timeline of major changes to membership

Timeline of major events and announcements involving members

  • On June 30, 2004 Panasonic, a founder member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, became the second manufacturer after Sony to launch a Blu-ray Disc consumer product into the Japanese market. The DMR-E700BD recorder supported writing to existing DVD formats, and became the first unit to read and write to dual-layer Blu-ray Discs with a maximum capacity of 50 gigabytes. The launch price of the recorder was $2780 USD.[8][9]
  • On December 8, 2004 The Walt Disney Company (and its home video division, Buena Vista Home Entertainment) announced its exclusive support for Blu-ray Disc.
  • On January 7, 2005 Vivendi Games and Electronic Arts announced their support for the Blu-ray Disc format.
  • On July 28, 2005 Verbatim Corporation, part of Mitsubishi Chemical Media, announced its support for Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD storage format development.[10]
  • On August 17, 2005 Lions Gate Home Entertainment announced it would release its content using the Blu-ray Disc format.
  • On September 7, 2005 Samsung confirmed their next generation of optical drives will support Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD discs.
  • On October 2, 2005 Both Paramount and The Weinstein Company announced they would endorse Blu-ray Disc, while still supplying content on the rival HD DVD — in order to give consumers a choice.
  • On October 20, 2005 Warner Bros. announced they would release titles on the Blu-ray Disc format, in addition to HD DVD Video.[11][12]
  • On November 1, 2005 20th Century Fox announced it would release its content using the Blu-ray Disc format.
  • On November 9, 2005 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer announced it would support Blu-ray Disc, and plans to have titles available when Blu-ray Disc is launched.[13]
  • On November 19, 2005, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that they finished editing the first Blu-ray Disc, a full-length movie, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. The disc uses MPEG-2 compression at a resolution of 1920×1080 (it was not announced whether it will be 1080p or 1080i) and claims to use a menu interface that would succeed current DVD-Video interfaces.[14]
  • On January 4, 2006, at the Consumer Electronics Show Samsung and Philips announced their first Blu-ray Disc players for the U.S. market. Samsung announced the BD-P1000, retailing for $1000 USD and sporting HDMI output with backward support for DVD formats (DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+RW, and DVD+R), while Philips announced the BDP-9000. Philips also announced their all-in-one PC TripleWriter Blu-ray Disc drive and range of Blu-ray Disc media would arrive in 2nd quarter of 2006.[15][16]
  • On March 7, 2006 Sony announced it would be shipping rewritable single-layer 25 GB 2x speed Blu-ray Discs to Europe, with dual-layer discs arriving later in the year.[17]
  • On March 16, 2006 Sony announced a Blu-ray Disc player, the first VAIO desktop PC with a Blu-ray Disc recorder, and a Blu-ray Disc internal PC drive would be released in the summer of 2006. The VAIO PC would be shipped with a free 25 GB Blank BD-RE (rewritable) Blu-ray Disc worth $25 USD.[18]
  • On April 10, 2006 TDK announced in a press release that it began shipping 25 GB BD-R and BD-RE media (at prices of $19.99 USD and $24.99 USD respectively). TDK also announced that it would be releasing 50 GB BD-R and BD-RE media later this year (at prices of $47.99 USD and $59.99 respectively).[19]
  • On May 16, 2006 Sony announced its first VAIO notebook computer that will include a built-in Blu-ray Disc recorder with a 17" WUXGA display capable of displaying 1080p (at a price of $3499.99 USD). The VAIO shipped in June including software to play Blu-ray Disc movies and an HDMI-A input for other HD devices.[20]
  • On May 17, 2006 Pioneer shipped BDR-101A, a PC-based Blu-ray Disc recorder drive.[21]
  • On June 15, 2006, Samsung announced the industry's first BD-P1000 player had begun shipping to U.S. retail stores for availability on June 25, 2006.[22]
  • On July 18, 2006 Verbatim Corporation announced that it was shipping its ScratchGuard coated BD-R and BD-RE Blu-ray Disc recordable and rewritable discs to stores in Europe, with discs priced between £20 and £24 (GBP).[23]
  • On August 16, 2006 Sony announced shipment of 50 GB dual-layer Blu-ray Disc recordable discs with a suggested retail price of $48.[24]
  • On January 4, 2008, Warner Bros. announces that it would abandon HD-DVD support by the end of May.
  • On January 5, 2008, New Line Cinema announced it would be following Warner's lead, backing Blu-ray exclusively.
  • On February 11, 2008, Netflix announced to phase out HD DVDs and begin to carry only Blu-ray Discs.`[25]
  • On February 19, 2008, Universal Studios announced it would be releasing movies on Blu-ray Disc format making it the last ever Hollywood major motion picture studio to release titles on the Blu-ray disc format.
  • On February 20, 2008, The Weinstein Company announced it would be releasing movies on Blu-ray Disc format.
  • On February 21, 2008, Paramount Pictures announced it would be releasing movies on Blu-ray Disc format.

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Blu-ray Disc Association Membership Levels
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Blu-ray Disc Association Supporting Companies
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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