Who designed BD??

[gandley]

Okay so this kinda comes up alot and noone seems to have a definate answer. but who actually created the blu ray format. some automaticly say Sony, but others say Panasonic had a bigger part to play, while TDK and sony developed the media. I really would like to know who actually designed the format at base level up.

or was it just a joint venture between the nine founding members of the BDA?

advice links would be great.