Sony VAIO Blu-ray Disc Player User Manual

Blu-ray Disc

Guide

VAIO® Blu-ray Disc™ Disclaimers, Notes, Warnings

NOTICE

© 2006 Sony Electronics Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. All rights reserved. This manual and the software described herein, in whole or in part, may not be reproduced, translated, or reduced to any machine readable form without prior written approval.

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This manual references software owned by Sony and licensed by third parties. Use of such software is subject to the terms and conditions of license agreements enclosed with the product that accompanies such software. Some of the software may not be transported or used outside the United States. Software specifications are subject to change without notice and may not necessarily be identical to current retail versions.

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Blu-ray Disc and Blu-ray Disc logo are trademarks of Blu-ray Disc Association. Microsoft, Windows, and the Windows logo are trademarks or registered trade-

marks of the Microsoft Corporation.

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Contents

What is Blu-ray Disc™ Media? .......................................................1

Benefits of Blu-ray Technology ..................................... ..................1

Simplicity .................................................................................... 2

Storage Capacity ........................................................................2

Compatibility ............................................................................... 3

Flexibility and Interactivity ...........................................................3

What do I need to experience Blu-ray technology? ........................4

TV / Monitor ................................................................................4

Audio ..........................................................................................4

Notes ..................................... ................................. ..............5

Blu-ray Disc Compatible Programs .................................................6

Roxio

Ulead

InterVideo

Frequently asked Questions ...... ... ... .... ... ......................................22

Footnotes ...................................................................................... 26

Easy Media Creator ............................................................ 7

Creating a Data Disc .......... ... ... ... ...............................................8

Easy Archive .............................................................................10

BD DiscRecorder for VAIO® ....................................... ...... 12

Before you begin ......................................................................13

Preferences ..................................... ................................ ...13

Project Settings ......................... .........................................14

Creating a new project ........................... ...................................14

Editing Video Files ....................................................................16

Burning to a BD disc .................................................................17

Appending an existing project .................................................. 17

Straight to Disc .........................................................................18

WinDVD® BD for VAIO® ...................................... ...... 20

Additional Information ........................ ................................21

Blu-ray Disc™ Guide

What is Blu-ray Disc™ Media?

Blu-ray Disc™ media (BD), is a revolutionary new media format developed by a group of the world’s leading consumer electron ics, personal computer, and media manufacturers.

The Blu-ray format was developed to meet the entertainment and storage demands of the “High Definition” er a that th e en tir e wor ld is rapidly moving to embrace. Blu-ray technology brings to market a new high definition media, which can not only store high definition video, but also high definition audio. In addition, Blu-ray Disc media have the storage capacity for enormous amounts of data.

Benefits of Blu-ray Technology

The benefits of Blu-ray technology include:

Simplicity Storage Capacity

Compatibility Flexibility / Interactivity

Simplicity

Blu-ray technology makes the task of choosing which basic media type to use easy with only three different formats to choose from. They include:

• BD-R (Blu-ray Disc Recordable) - Recordable format for HD

video recording and PC data storage.

• BD-RE (Blu-ray Disc Re-writable) - Rewritable format for HD

video recording and PC data storage.

• BD-ROM (Blu ray Disc Read Only Memory) - Read only format

for HD movies, music, software, games, etc.

These discs are available with a storage capacity of 25 GB1 (single layer) and 50 GB

(dual layer).

Note: Blu-ray Disc™ storage capacity totals are for high-de finition

content.

Storage Capacity

The chart below clearly demonstrates the enormous storage capacity of a Blu-ray Disc when compared to CDs and DVDs.

Media

BD Dual Layer 50 GB BD 25 GB DVD Dual Layer 8.5 GB DVD 4.7 GB CD 700 MB

Storage Capacity

Blu-ray Disc offers five times the capacity of DVDs without compromising quality.

What does this mean for me?

The limited capacity of DVDs results in video and audio files being compressed to fit on a disc. This causes a quality reduction in the picture and/or sound. The greater capacity of BD discs allows for pristine picture quality and virtually full spectrum audio.

Compatibility

Blu-ray Disc™ offers a convergence of technology and compatibility among a new generation of high definition movies, video players, video recorders, personal computers, and gaming systems.

And what about your current library of DVDs and CDs? The Blu-ray Disc generation of home entertainment products will be backward-compatible with your CDs, DVDs, and other optical disc formats.

Flexibility and Interactivity

The technology built into each Blu-ray disc gives you, and industry professionals creating high definition content, the tools to create a viewing experience that up until now has not been possible for home entertainment. For example:

• Multiple video layers can now be on the screen at the same

time. A presentation layer, customizable by a studio, allows the content creator to place graphics on the screen on top of the video or alongside it. Sitting on top of that layer is the Blu-ray navigation layer that will allow you to interact with the menu while the video is playing.

• Support for Java applications allows the video layer to be

re-sizable providing even greater flexibility. Imagine the possibility of watching a movie and playing an interactive game related to the movie—all at the same time.

What do I need to experience Blu-ray technology?

To fully appreciate Blu-ray’s video and audio output capabilities2, you would need the following:

Note: Your VAIO® computer comes equipped with a HDMI™ or

DVI-D HDCP connection, depending on the model you purchased.

TV / Monitor

For the best experience and output to a HD TV or monitor (HDCP monitor), do the following:

• Output to a high definition television/monitor using HDMI or

DVI-D3 connection.

• Use a Blu-ray Disc player. (See the program “InterVideo®

WinDVD

Audio

For the best experience and output to an audio system, do the following:

• Use a high-quality A/V receiver or sound decoder device with a

quality set of 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound speakers.

BD for VAIO®” included with your computer.)

Note: If your computer has HDMI output, use HDMI to your TV/

monitor as the sound source. Otherwise, use the S/PDIF output.

Notes

• The content of certain Blu-ray Disc™ movies may require a

HDCP compliant monitor. If your TV/monitor has a HDMI™ connection, it should support the HDCP content protection functionality.

• If you connect to your TV/monitor using DVI, check your

display’s user manual to see if it is HDCP compliant.

• Analog connections such as Composite an d S-Video are able

to output BD content, but only at standard definition resolutions.

• Higher capacity analog connections, such as VGA, are able to

output BD content, but may be limited to a lower quality if the disc manufacturer limits the video resolution for non-HDCP compliant displays.

• To maximize picture quality of Blu-ray Disc recorded content on

compatible external displays, Sony recommends setting the display resolution to 1080p or 720p and disabling dual display mode.

• When powering your VAIO notebook computer with a battery,

the power management features of the system can limit CPU and video functions, interrupt tasks with warning messages, or may cause the system to suspend or hibernate before tasks ar e completed. Therefore, Sony recommends that you use your AC adapter for demanding tasks like burning data to DVD or Bluray Disc media, playback of Blu-ray Disc recorded content, and high end graphic functions such as 3D rendering to maximize display quality and to avoid possible disruption of operations.

Blu-ray Disc Compatible Programs

Sony has included three Blu-ray Disc compatible sof tware programs to the VAIO

select VAIO personal computers. They are provided to give you the tools you need to experience Blu-ray Disc techno log y. The included programs are:

•Roxio® Easy Media Creator — Backup up large amounts of

data to recordable optical discs.

• Ulead® BD DiscRecorder for VAIO — Capture, edit, and save

videos in BDAV format

• InterVideo® WinDVD® BD for V AIO — Software BD player

combining all of the features of a standard BD player with advanced functionality

Note: Sony supports the lawful use of technology and does not

endorse or encourage the use of our products for purposes other than those permitted by copyright laws.

package of factory-installed software for

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