The recent headline in Variety says it all: Blu-ray wins high-def war. Today's "format war" is over and Blu-ray has beaten HD DVD, just as VHS beat Betamax back in the distant past. Blu-ray Disc is the next-generation optical disc format that supports bonus content far more sophisticated than that offered by legacy DVDs, making it possible to add features such as secondary video (for display of detailed production notes, director/cast commentary, and technical effects), in-movie gaming, downloading supplemental audio/video content, and user preferences and bookmarks. Of course it's built on standards – what isn't? In this case the standards are defined and managed by the Blu-ray Disk Association. In addition to supporting the best available high definition video and audio quality, Blu-ray Disc supports Blu-ray Disk Java (BD-J), an advanced content platform based on Java ME technology and largely compatible with the OpenCable Platform (OCAP) standard.

In TV as well as movies Java is playing an important role. The North American cable industry is making a  fundamental transition from set-top boxes based on proprietary technologies to set-tops, digital televisions, and related devices that support the OCAP standard. With Java ME technology as its foundation, OPAC enables new interactive TV-based applications and services such as viewer participation, interactive advertising, customized news and sports tickers, audience polling, and e-learning. Time Warner Cable (TWC) has been actively promoting Java technologies in the cable industry, both through their technical contributions and via their ambitious rollout of OpenCable Platform set-top boxes and applications (anticipated to be available to their full subscriber base within the next 18 months). TWC won a seat on the JCP's Java EE/SE Executive Committee in last year's elections, and we're looking forward to their contributions in the coming years. Cox Communications, another major player in the TV industry recently led JSR 242: Digital Set Top Box Profile - "On Ramp to OCAP" to its final release

Java is everywhere...