The Blu-ray Disc Association and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) 
have agreed to include the VC-1 advanced compression video codec, the proposed SMPTE standard based on Windows Media 9, as a mandatory codec in Blu-ray Disc's BD-ROM specification for video playback equipment.
Video codecs are used to compress video images for storage 
to a disc and then decompress them for viewing.
A critical piece to Blu-ray Disc was making sure that any advanced compression codecs included in the specification accomplish the compression and decompression with little or no visible loss of image quality.
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc format being developed for high-definition video and high-capacity software applications.
A single-layer Blu-ray Disc will hold up to 25 gigabytes of data and a double-layer Blu-ray Disc will hold up to 50 gigabytes of data.
"We've been committed to adding advanced codecs to enrich the Blu-ray Disc format," said Blu-ray Disc spokesperson Maureen Weber, general manager of HP's (NYSE: HPQ) Optical Storage Solutions Business.
"We want to offer content providers a variety of compression codecs to suit their various needs. With the addition of Microsoft's VC-1, we extend that option in a package that makes Blu-ray Disc's capacity advantage even more substantial while still delivering the picture quality that consumers demand from high-definition technology."
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