Disney announced its decision to support Blu-Ray DVD disc format for its movie library in the future.

Disney, along with Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Disney’s home-video division, stated that they will support Blu-Ray disc format and will ship out movies immediately to North American and Japanese markets as soon as the supported players and DVDs, on the designated format, become available in wide quantities.

Other studios will also choose the Blu-Ray format over its competitor, HD DVD, which is developed by other key industry leaders such as NEC. Studios supporting the Blu-Ray disc format include Walt Disney Home Entertainment, Hollywood Pictures Home Video, Touchstone Home Entertainment, Miramax Home Entertainment, Dimension Home Video and Disney DVD.

Disney will also become a member in the Board of Directors for Blu-Ray disc format, along with Dell, HP and Sony who are already key members in the board.

HD DVD format, which is developed by Toshiba, NEC and others have gained approval from Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema. These studios will roll out their movie libraries as soon as the consumer DVD players, with support for newer formats, enter the market.

Twentieth Century Fox is also on the Board of Directors for HD DVD and has helped the association with copy protection and interactive features, but they have not made a decision for their movie libraries.

Blu-Ray is blue-laser format that will support 50GB of data on a single disc.