Diff between a DVD and a Blu-Ray

Other than the laser, what differences are there between a DVD drive and a Blu-Ray drive? Why do they cost so much more? Is it simply because they don’t make as many?

Thanks,
Rob

R&D. DVD players were pretty expensive when they first hit the market, simply because the manufacturers need to earn they money spent on developing the technology. Blu-Ray drives and writers will become significantly cheaper over the next few years.

So the price difference is just amortization of the cost of the laser R&D? I didn’t think that was invented at Sony.

Thanks,
Rob

Source: Blu-ray - Wikipedia

Source: What is Blu-ray? (Blu-ray, Blu-ray Disc, not Blue-ray or Blu-ray DVD)

It wasn’t invented by Sony alone; Blu-Ray was developed by a group of companies known as the Blu-Ray Disk Association, of which Sony was a founding member. The association holds patents and grants licenses to companies which wish to use the Blu-Ray technology and logo.