LIST OF CORPORATIONS SUPPORTING BLU-RAY

A Blu-ray Disc is a high-density optical disc format for the storage of digital media, including high-definition video. This article is a 'List of corporations supporting Blu-ray'. Blu-ray Disc was started by Hitachi, LG, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Thomson in February 19, 2002^[1]. Blu-ray Disc Founders was established in May, 2002. It shifted to Blu-ray Disc Association on May 18, 2004.

Contents

The Blu-ray Disc Association

Board of Directors

Contributors

Members

Timeline of major changes to membership

References

The Blu-ray Disc Association

The Blu-ray Disc Association is the industry consortium that develops and licenses Blu-ray Disc technology. This group has three levels of membership: the Board of Directors, the Contributors and the General Members. ^[2]

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 of 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 18 board members (as of 09/12/2006) are:^[4]

★ Apple

★ Dell

★ Hewlett-Packard

★ Hitachi

★ LG

★ Mitsubishi Electric

★ Panasonic

★ Pioneer

★ Philips

★ Samsung

★ Sharp

★ Sony

★ Sun Microsystems

★ TDK

★ Thomson

★ Twentieth Century Fox

★ Walt Disney Company

★ Warner Bros.

Contributors

The role of contibutors as described by the Blu-ray Disc Association Website[1]:

"Contributors are active participants of 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 65 Contributors as of December 2006 are [2]:

★ Adobe Systems

★ Almedio Inc.

★ Alticast

★ Aplix Corporation

★ ArcSoft, Inc.

★ ATI Technologies Inc.

★ Atmel Corporation

★ AudioDev AB

★ Broadcom Corporation

★ Canon Inc.

★ CMC Magnetics Corporation

★ Coding Technologies GmbH

★ Cryptography Research Inc.

★ CyberLink Corp.

★ DATARIUS Technologies GmbH

★ DCA Inc.

★ Deluxe Media Services Inc.

★ Dolby Laboratories Inc.

★ DTS, Inc.

★ Electronic Arts Inc.

★ Esmertec

★ Fuji Photo Film Co. Ltd.

★ Fujitsu Ltd.

★ Gibson Guitar Corp.

★ Horizon Semiconductors

★ Imation Corp.

★ InterVideo Inc.

★ Kenwood Corporation

★ Lionsgate Entertainment

★ LITE-ON IT Corporation

★ LSI Logic

★ MediaTek Inc.

★ Meridian Audio Ltd.

★ Metta Technology

★ Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co.Ltd.

★ Mitsui Chemicals Inc.

★ Moser Baer India Limited

★ NEC Electronics Corporation

★ Nero

★ Optodisc Technology Corporation

★ Paramount Pictures/Viacom (exclusively supporting HD-DVD as of August 20th, 2007)

★ Pixela Corporation

★ Prodisc Technology Inc.

★ Pulstec Industrial Co., Ltd.

★ Ricoh Co., Ltd.

★ Ritek Corporation

★ ShibaSoku Co. Ltd.

★ Sigma Designs Inc.

★ Sonic Solutions

★ Sonopress

★ Sony BMG Music Entertainment

★ ST Microelectronics

★ Sunext

★ Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd.,

★ Texas Instruments, Inc.

★ Universal Music Group

★ Victor Company of Japan, Ltd.

★ Visionare Corporation

★ Zentek Technology Japan, Inc.

★ ZOOtech Ltd.

★ Zoran Corporation

Members

The Blu-ray Disc Association Website[3] describes Members as follows:

"General membership provides access to specific information from Committee discussions. A general member can attend general meetings and seminars. They can participate in specific Regional Promotion Team activities and specific CC activities.
Annual fee: $3,000"

There are currently 94 members:

★ Alpine Electronics Inc.

★ Asahi Kasei Microsystems Co., Ltd.

★ ashampoo GmbH & Co. KG

★ Bandai Visual Co. Ltd.

★ BASF AG

★ Basler Vision Technologies

★ BenQ Corporation

★ B.H.A. Corporation

★ Bose Corporation

★ B&W Group

★ The Cannery

★ Cheertek Inc.

★ Cinram Manufacturing Inc.

★ D&M holdings, Inc.

★ Daewoo Electronics Corporation

★ Daikin Industries, Ltd.

★ Daxon Technology Inc.

★ Degussa

★ Eclipse Data Technologies

★ Elpida Memory, Inc.

★ ESS Technology Inc.

★ Expert Magnetics Corp.

★ Fujitsu Ten Ltd.

★ Funai Electric Co., Ltd.

★ GalleryPlayer Media Networks

★ Gear Software

★ Hie Electronics, Inc.

★ Hoei Sangyo Co., Ltd.

★ IMAGICA Corp.

★ INFODISC Technology Co., Ltd.

★ Infomedia Inc.

★ Intersil Corporation

★ Kadokawa Holdings Inc.

★ Kaleidescape, Inc.

★ Kitano Co., Ltd.

★ Konica Minolta Opto Inc.

★ Laser Pacific Media Corp.

★ Lauda Co. Ltd.

★ Lead Data Inc.

★ LEADER ELECTRONICS CORP

★ Lenovo

★ Linn Products Ltd.

★ LINTEC Corporation

★ M2 Engineering AB

★ MainConcept AG

★ Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd.

★ Must Technology Co., Ltd.

★ MX Entertainment

★ Netflix Inc.

★ Newtech Infosystems Inc.

★ NEXAPM Systems Technology Inc.

★ Nichia Corporation

★ Nikkatsu Corporation

★ NTT Electronics Corporation

★ nVidia Corporation

★ OC Oerlikon Balzers AG

★ Omnibus Japan Inc.

★ Onkyo Corporation

★ Online Media Technologies Ltd.

★ Ono Sokki Co., Ltd.

★ OPT Corporation

★ Orbit Corp.

★ Origin Electric Co., Ltd.

★ Osmosys SA

★ Pinnacle Systems

★ PoINT Software & Systems GmbH

★ Pony Canyon Enterprise

★ PowerFile

★ Primera Technology, Inc.

★ Quanta Storage Inc.

★ Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

★ Rimage Corporation

★ Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

★ Dr. Schwab Inspection Technology GmbH

★ Shinano Kenshi Co. Ltd.

★ Singulus Technologies

★ STEAG ETA-OPTIK GmbH

★ Sumitomo Bakelite

★ Tao Group Limited

★ Targray Technology International Inc.

★ TEAC Corporation

★ Teijin Chemicals Ltd.

★ THX Ltd.

★ Toei Video Company Ltd.

★ Toho Company, Ltd.

★ Toppan Printing Co., Ltd.

★ TOPTICA Photonics AG

★ Trailer Park

★ UmeDisc Ltd.

★ Vivendi Universal Games

★ Yamaha Corporation

★ Yokogawa Electric Corporation

★ 1K Studios, LLC

Timeline of major changes to membership

★ On June 30, 2004 Panasonic, part of Matsushita Electric, 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 one of the first units 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.^[5][6]

★ On October 3, 2004 20th Century Fox announced that it was joining the BDA, and on July 29, 2005 the studio officially announced its support for Blu-ray Disc.

★ 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 Universal Games (VU Games) and Electronic Arts (EA Games) announced their support for the Blu-ray Disc format.

★ On March 10, 2005 Apple Computer announced its support for Blu-ray Disc and joined the BDA.

★ On July 28, 2005 Verbatim Corporation, part of Mitsubishi Chemical Media, announced its support for Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD storage format development.^[7]

★ 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 Paramount 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.^[8][9] Of the six largest Hollywood studios, this leaves only Universal Studios supporting HD DVD exclusively.

★ 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.^[10]

★ On November 19, 2005, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that they finished editing the first Blu-ray Disc, a full-length movie, ''. 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.^[11]

★ 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.^[12][13]

★ On January 5, 2006, the Consumer Electronics Show displayed Blu-ray Disc movie titles with the 1080p logo on the case.^[14]

★ On January 12, 2006 Digital Playground, a prominent pornographic movie studio, announced it would release its content using the Blu-ray Disc format.^[15]

★ 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.^[16]

★ 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.^[17]

★ On April 3, 2006 Blueray, an Italian videoproduction company, announced it would release its content using the Blu-ray Disc format.^[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 June 29, 2006, Plextor announced their first internal Blu-ray Disc drive PX-B900A would be released in 3rd quarter of 2006.^[23]

★ On July 11, 2006 Human Computing announced that it is shipping the first Blu-ray Disc PC software.^[24]

★ 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).^[25]

★ On August 16, 2006 Sony announced shipment of 50 GB dual-layer Blu-ray Disc recordable discs with a suggested retail price of $48.^[26]

★ On August 31, 2006 Sun Microsystems joined the BDA.

★ On August 20 2007, Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures and DreamWorks Animation, abandoned Blu-ray and announced their exclusive support for the HD DVD format citing cost benefits and superior features. Paramount and DreamWorks are the 2007 box office leaders and produce top selling franchises like Star Trek and Indiana Jones. Having previously released movies in both formats, Blu-ray's loss of two major movie studios will continue to fuel the format war and hurts Blu-ray's perception of inevitability.^[27]
The BDA has over 170 members. Its Board of Directors consists of representatives from Apple Computer Inc.; Dell, Inc.; Hewlett-Packard Company; Hitachi, Ltd.; LG Electronics Inc.; Mitsubishi Electric Corporation; Panasonic (Matsushita Electric); Pioneer Corporation; Royal Philips Electronics; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; Sharp Corporation; Sony Corporation; Sun Microsystems; TDK Corporation; Thomson; Twentieth Century Fox; Walt Disney Pictures and Television; Warner Bros. Entertainment.

References

1. Large Capacity Optical Disc Video Recording Format "Blu-ray Disc" Established
2. Membership Levels (About Us, Blu Ray Association)
3. http://www.blu-raydisc.com/top/About_us/about/Section-13546/Index.html
4. http://www.blu-raydisc.com/general_information/Section-14009/Index.html
5. Matsushita unveils DVD recorder adopting Blu-ray Disc format+
6. Panasonic Unveils Blu-ray Recorder
7. Verbatim Announces Development Plans for both BluRay and HD-DVD
8. Another Victory for Blu-ray Camp
9. Warner joins Blu-ray cabal, Toshiba reacts
10. MGM to Support Blu-ray Disc Format
11. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Completes First Full-Length Blu-ray Disc
12. Samsung's BD-P1000: first U.S. Blu-Ray player
13. Philips introduces new Blu-ray Disc™ products and media – the ultimate consumer storage platform for high definition entertainment
14. CES 2006 - Day 2: Blu-ray/HD-DVD, PureVideo H.264, Viiv, Centrino Duo and a lot more
15. Digital Playground Chooses Blu-ray Format
16. Sony to ship blank Blu-ray Discs this month
17. Sony unveils Blu-ray player, Vaio PC
18. Blueray
19. TDK Begins Shipping Its Highly Anticipated Blu-ray Disc 25 GB Recordable And Rewritable Media; Exclusive Material Formulations and Manufacturing Processes Deliver Bit-Perfect Recording and Playback
20. Sony announces first VAIO notebook computer to include built-in blu-ray burner.
21. Pioneer Ships PC-Based Blu-ray Disc Drives
22. SAMSUNG Launches Industry's First Blu-ray Disc Player To The U.S. Market
23. Plextor's Blu-ray burner, the PX-B900A
24. Blu-ray ships on PC.
25. Verbatim to release BD-R, BD-RE media
26. SONY NOW SHIPPING 50 GB DUAL LAYER BLU-RAY DISC MEDIA IN THE U.S.
27. Paramount to drop Blu-ray high-def DVDs