MacRumors.com

The Blu-ray Disc Association announced today that Apple has become a member of the consortium's Board of Directors.

"Apple is pleased to join the Blu-ray Disc Association board as part of our efforts to drive consumer adoption of HD," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. "Consumers are already creating stunning HD content with Apple’s leading video editing applications like iMovie HD and are anxiously awaiting a way to burn their own high def DVDs."

Blu-ray is a next-generation optical disc format being developed for High Definition video and high-capacity software applications. A Blu-ray disc will be able to hold up to 50GB of data (double layer).

During the MacWorld Expo SF Keynote speech Steve Jobs described 2005 as "the year of High Definition Video" and introduced HD video support into iMovie and Final Cut Express. Sony also demonstrated a HD Video camera at the keynote speech. The missing link has been the consumer's ability to export HD video off their Mac. It appears Blu-ray will be the technology and we can expect iDVD and burning support in the future.