Comparison of high definition optical disc formats Blu-ray disc players since the end of the format war. Blu-ray Disc has a higher maximum disc capacity than HD DVD (50 GB vs. 30 GB for a double layered disc). In September 2007 the DVD Forum approved a preliminary specification for the triple-layer 51GB HD DVD (ROM only) disc though Toshiba never stated whether it was compatible with existing HD DVD players. In September 2006 TDK announced a prototype Blu-ray Disc with a capacity of 200GB. TDK was also the first to develop a Blu-ray prototype with a capacity of 100GB in May 2005. In October 2007 Hitachi developed
Optical medium Optical medium An optical medium is material through which electromagnetic waves propagate. It is a form of transmission medium. The permittivity and permeability of the medium define how electromagnetic waves propagate in it. The medium has an "intrinsic impedance", given by where formula_2 and formula_3 are the electric field and magnetic field, respectively. In a region with no electrical conductivity, the expression simplifies to: For example, in free space the intrinsic impedance is called the characteristic impedance of vacuum, denoted "Z", and Waves propagate through a medium with velocity formula_6, where formula_7 is the frequency and formula_8 is the wavelength