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Blu-Ray is the new standard for optical recording. Offering capacities up to 50GB on a single, CD-sized disk, Blu-Ray holds the promise of HD-quality movies in the familiar CD/DVD-sized format. While it will be some time before off-the-shelf HD movies are available on disc, we may see Blu-Ray recorders as soon as the 2nd half of the year. No word yet on when Blu-Ray drives for PCs may be available.
The initial 1.0 spec calls for rewritable disks to require an insertable cartridge, while ROM discs can simply be inserted. Note that the actual format on disc is different, with ROM discs using the familiar burn pits used in CDs, while the rewritable disks use a track-based format.