f13.net

Article, links to a gallery of pictures (http://pixelatedgeek.com/2009/07/a-peek-inside-a-blu-ray-factory/)

Pretty cool stuff, I never realised that the manufacture of Blu-ray discs required such a complex process, I always assumed it was akin to CDs.

Pretty sure that instead of assuming the processes are greatly different you should just start imagining the CD making process as being more complex.  Other than the multi-layer step, a few of the materials and possibly how the data layer is applied I would say the 2 processes are still pretty close to each other.

Well, when I think of CDs I picture myself popping one into a CD to burn. The multi-layer step involved in Blu-Rays adds some complexity that isn't present in CDs; although I imagine a decade or so ago you would need a similar setup to do CDs.

Either way, I find production lines rather cool.

You know you can buy Blu-Rays to burn at home, right?

The inside of your blu-ray drive does NOT look like this.

I was half expecting one of those pics of a naked fat guy in front of a computer.

Correct. From the pictures and brief descriptions, that doesn't look terribly different from the processes used today in major CD pressing plants. Admittedly I only have first hand experience of EMI's plants in Swindon and Uden. Gets very hot working inside those suits, even when you're just sitting down doing the IT stuff.

Commercial CDs are different than the writable CDs. Commercial ones are pretty much the same process as this. Writable CDs use a layer of dye instead of metal for the actual data.