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HD DVD is a blue laser disc format but the manufacturing techniques are similar to those for red-laser discs.

As explained the main difference is that BluRay places the recording layer 0.1 mm below the surface of the media to maximize data capacity at around 27gb for single and 54 gb for dual layer. This will require disc manufacturers to build new factories because this is completely different from DVD and CD specifications. Because of this the layer of protective plastic will be very thin which some have speculated will initially require either a special layer of protective plastic which has been reported to decrease reliability or it will require the discs to be contained in a cartridge (think magneto-optical). Carts would, of course, increase production costs and REALLY increase end user costs.

HD DVD places the recording layer at 0.6mm below the surface which is currently the standard used by DVD so that DVD manufacturing plants can make either format discs on the same assembly lines. This is at a cost, though, with a reduced capacity at 15gb for single layer and 30 gb for dual layer. And, of course, the existing protective layer will be sufficient as it is the same as the standard DVD.

The actual codecs supported will be the same for both formats. Both will support MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and (probably) Microsoft's WM9 codecs. As part of Microsoft's deal to get WM9 included in the HD DVD spec it was forced to open the specification to allow competitors to make products for encoding and decoding. Their benefit will be a share of the royalties for products that encode or decode HD-DVD content and sales of encoding/decoding software that they produce, but the deal does not include in any way a monopoly on encoder/decoder software.

The main difference, as stated, is the distance for the recording layer from the surface of the media which changes the maximal capacity because of the effect on the intensity of the laser as it passes through the media.

You're obviously an idiot so sit back and learn. It's not a CD-R or DVD-R, it's a magneto optical drive, they were hot shit in the early 90's but cost a bundle. The difference is that WORM drives are single session and use a magneto-optical process. Click the links and learn:

Click here to get a clue ...
Click here to buy one ...

You're claiming 30GB/sec sustained with Super-AIT, but Sony's announcement of Super-AIT only claims 78Mbps (around 10MB/sec).

Show me the announcement. Every press release and data sheet I've read (including this one, this one, and this one) states 30 MBps uncompressed, not 30 Mbps.

That'll easily outpace your IDE setup, since, again, that discounts the onboard (read: no CPU impact) compression.

Even a 300GB IDE drive is larger than 2 or 3 tapes, which have more capacity. And that isn't even counting the insulation and padding you'll need to provide for transport of the drive.

Nope... tape isn't dead yet.

"with the resulting disks playable in a to-be-released portable player. I wonder what kind of DRM features the companies will use to cripple each system."

From the product page (http://www.storagebysony.com/cd-rw/product.asp?id =185)

Compatible Media:
CD-ReWritable (CD-RW)
CD-Recordable (CD-R)
CD-ROM
DVD-ROM

Note the absence of DVD-R

Geez, how difficult is it to make links clickable by adding some_text tags to them???

Sony press release

Product page

From the Sony info page:

"High performance software bundle included
The MPD-AP20U comes with everything needed to start recording your own CDs, including a suite of high performance software for Windows® systems:...Cyberlink PowerDVD(TM) DVD-Video decoder software"

Now, they might just be including the software for the hell of it, but including that software makes me think it also plays DVD videos..

Sony product page
Sony's cool new Digital Relay(TM) portable battery operated CD-RW/DVD-ROM/Memory Stick® drive burns CDs when attached to a PC or Macintosh® computer using the USB 2.0/1.1 port. Detach the drive from the computer, and you now have a portable CD player that also plays MP3 and WAV files on CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, or Memory Stick media.

It plays DVD-ROMs, not DVD-Video discs. This basically is a MP3 player that can use DVDs. So you can get 4.7GB on a MP3 disc instead of 650-700 MB. I still think it's worth a link on /., but for pete's sake, RTFA before you submit, and editors, RTFA before you post!

Try tape autoloaders using Sony's rather expensive AIT-2 format: 50GB (uncompressed) raw capacity per tape. Small format, so a smaller capacity autoloader cartridge can be easily couriered off-site.

Some AIT-2 library links for more info:

• Sony's autoloaders (4 tapes per cartridge, 1 drive).
• Tapelibrary.com's offerings (12 to 360 tape libraries, up to 12 drives).
• Of course, for true storage freaks in all formats, nothing can beat ADIC libraries, and while their higher capacity AIT libraries (up to 46,656 tapes, 256 drives) are not exactly portable, they do have more reasonably sized machines as well (11 tapes, up to 2 drives).

Anyway, the point is that solutions do exist for those people worrying about the expanding MP3 collections on their drives and all that money in their bank accounts...