The DVD player just went the way of the VCR.

Nine electronics firms on Tuesday unveiled the Blu-ray Disc, a new digital optical disc player/recorder that will eventually replace today's replacement for video.

The format uses blue-violet laser beams to read and record. A disk, the same size as a DVD, can store 27 gigabytes of data on one side. That's roughly six times the video and sound data capacity of a conventional DVD, the companies said in a news release.

The companies include five from Japan: Sony Corp. Hitachi Ltd., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Sharp Corp. and Pioneer Corp. The others are South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., the Netherlands' Royal Philips Electronics and France's Thomson Multimedia.

Due to its mammoth recording capacity, the Blu-ray Disc can record more than 13 hours of standard TV broadcasts with a picture quality of 3.8 megabits per second, two hours of high-definition images.

There are currently three DVD recording specifications, a circumstance that has inconvenienced consumers by making it impossible to play a DVD recorded on a Matsushita recorder on a Sony player.

Toshiba and Matsushita have advocated the DVD-RAM format, while Pioneer and Sharp have teamed up to push the DVD-RW. Sony and Philips have a DVD recordable format of their own.

The nine have agreed to unify the recording format for the next-generation DVD to promote its use and cash in on possible lucrative sales, industry analysts said.