Not even Blu-ray's board of directors know how to spell Blu-Ray

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Jun 23rd 2009 at 9:16AM

We've seen this so many times we're not sure why we even care anymore, but this one struck a chord. You see it's one thing when some website capitalizes the R in Blu-ray, because you know, they don't know any better. And it's another thing when a PR person for one of the members of the board of directors of the association does it in a slide at a press event. But it's a totally different animal all together when one of the members of the board of directors builds the incorrect spelling into the auto-correct feature of its flagship mobile phone. We knew Apple thinks Blu-ray support in OS X was a bag of hurt, but does that mean is has to go and spell it wrong? Hit the read link on Blu-raydisc.com for the correct spelling.

Filed under: Blu-ray

Tags: Blu-ray, iPhone

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Highest Ranked

steedums @ Jun 23rd 2009 9:27AM

They forgot the 'e'?

Neutral

LiqwidZero @ Jun 23rd 2009 9:37AM

It's not really the "founder's" fault. It's a spelling fault. The emdash between "Blu" and "ray" makes the "R" in "ray" want to be capitalized, since the first word is.

At least, this is what I think, since I don't have my iPhone anymore.

Neutral

Alex @ Jun 23rd 2009 10:07AM

Not to be nitpicky, but "–" is an em dash. A "-" is an en dash.

Neutral

DrXym @ Jun 23rd 2009 10:26AM

Somebody on holiday gave me a pirate disc with Blue-Ray emblazoned on the top. Needless to say it was just a crappy DVD, not even a BD-9.

Highest Ranked

Vanillacide @ Jun 23rd 2009 10:44AM

Not to be nitpicky, but "—" is an em dash, a "–" is an en dash, and "-" is a figure dash (or hyphen).

An em dash is the width of an "M" and and en dash is the width of an "N" -- see the names are the clue.

If you are going to correct someone, try to ensure that you are right. ;)

Neutral

LiqwidZero @ Jun 23rd 2009 10:58AM

Well, thanks for correcting me on that, Alex.

Neutral

EatingPie @ Jun 23rd 2009 11:23AM

Is it weird that I thought the Em/En/Figure Dash discussion was more interesting than the capital R issue?

We need an Engadget Grammar site!

-Pie

Highest Ranked

TVGenius @ Jun 23rd 2009 11:25AM

But if I'm reading the Wikipedia article on the use of dashes right, it should be an endash and not an emdash in Blu-ray.

Then again, two minutes ago I had no idea there were three different types of dashes.

Neutral

Beanie @ Jun 23rd 2009 10:11AM

You do know that every iPhone's dictionary is different, right? Contacts and previous typed words affect the dictionary. Also, it's hard to adhere to proprietary formatting, because, technically Blu-Ray is correctly formatted. It's totally spelled right though.

Neutral

Ben @ Jun 23rd 2009 10:12AM

Yes I know, that is why I asked another iPhone owner to check it as well.

The iPhone corrects iphone as iPhone so no reason for it to mis-correct Blu-ray.

Neutral

EatingPie @ Jun 23rd 2009 11:47AM

Solved.

I went on the image showing that it's not correcting "Blu-Ray," it's correcting "Ray." With that in mind, try the term ** "X-ray" ** which is properly spelled with the "r" in lower case. You get the exact same thing!

Okay, okay none of us believe any of this. It's really just Steve Jobs imposing his grammatical will upon his minions.

-Pie

Neutral

Galley @ Jun 23rd 2009 10:16AM

Common Blu-ray Disc misspellings:

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=74777

Neutral

Mike @ Jun 23rd 2009 10:27AM

I believe it's capitalizing Ray because it's a person's name

Neutral

HSOL @ Jun 23rd 2009 10:36AM

For some reason seeing Blu-Ray makes my eyes hurt.

Neutral

TWilly @ Jun 23rd 2009 10:41AM

Pot, meet Kettle.

Highest Ranked

Matthew @ Jun 23rd 2009 10:45AM

How does this qualify as news?

Highest Ranked

Matt @ Jun 23rd 2009 10:48AM

Agreed...file this under who gives a shit

Neutral

SimbaDogg @ Jun 23rd 2009 11:56AM

i was thinking the same thing, and was going to reply to someone above you guys....but i was like, i can't believe no one has said this yet. a quick scroll down made me feel a lot better

Neutral

squiggleslash @ Jun 23rd 2009 5:35PM

Fourthed.

Mind you, suppose the format war had worked out the other way, imagine the fun Ben would have had posting about companies putting dashes between "HD" and "DVD"! ;-)

Neutral

kenn walker @ Jun 23rd 2009 11:21AM

and let's not forget that Apple isn't really a Blu-ray founder (they came very late to the party), so it's even less news...

Highly Ranked

hey hey @ Jun 23rd 2009 11:37AM

This is a dumb posting.

Neutral

EatingPie @ Jun 23rd 2009 11:37AM

Apple is on the (ahem!) Bag of Hurt Board of Directors not even just a regular member (and they're even listed first, by virtue of their name).

AFAIK they did not contribute to the media technology, but joined about a year or so after the BDA was formed.

-Pie

Neutral

Randall Lind @ Jun 23rd 2009 12:12PM

My Pansonic BD60 says Blu-Ray Disc. I have people say Blue Ray or bluray.

I think Bluray would have been better myself. The another thing that confuses people is whhen they are called Blu-Ray DVD.

Neutral

3dpenguin @ Jun 23rd 2009 1:10PM

Well the name was chosen for legal purposes. The formatting naming was chosen because it's descriptive and can be copyrighted and trademarked, where as Blue-ray and Blue Ray cannot, because of the lack of spelling differences of two words commonly used in the English language, the US and international trade marking offices will not grant trademarks or copyrights on titles or names which could potentially occur in common type or conversation, this avoids allowing a company from calling themselves something commonly said and then suing for infringement when someone uses it in a public manner.

Whereas the term Blu is not a word at all, though its pronounced Blue, but this isn't a term which would accidently be used and could be infringed upon, by the wording of copyright and trademark law just typing the term Blu-ray could constitute infringement of BDA's trademark and could receive legal action, this doesn't happen because in most cases its not worth their time and in many cases if BDA did file infringement charges they would be viewed as the bad guy in the matter and it would be more of a PR blunder than property protection.

Blu-ray DVD is technically not a legitimate term and is even frowned upon by BDA in some cases. DVD Forum has made it clear that any attempt to associate Blu-ray as being an upgrade to the standard DVD format will be handled in a manner which would affect BDA members who are all members of DVD Forum. When DVD Forum backed the format which became HD DVD (which is a format name not a description) Blu-ray became Blu-ray Disc which is the acceptable term adopted by BDA. This term is thrown around by people who don't know the format and are just trying to sell it.

Bluray is not acceptable in any standard, it is confusing and nearly unpronounceable and the pronunciation would come out sounding like blurry more than Blu-ray, that term comes about because people are just too lazy to type a "-" where needed.

Blu-ray vs Blu-Ray is a minor error and is less likely to cause problems than the above do, but still would fall under the trade mark even though it’s not Blu-Ray, but its close enough to infringe.

Neutral

Garst @ Jun 23rd 2009 1:17PM

It's blu-ray. There is no reason for it to be capitalized, so I don't. I actually paid some attention in English class. If we're not going to follow the set rules for capitalization, why don't we go back to spelling words phonologically. That way we can't be wrong on the spelling, but make it impossible to look up words we don't know what they mean. Does ankneeone have anknee objeckshunes to that?

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/capitals.htm

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