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Blue-Laser DVD Formats Wars
killmore notes a story running on ZDNet talking about incompatible blue laser formats of Blue-Laser DVDs which can store 36GB of data. The new format is from Toshiba & NEC and boasts backwards compatibility with the current standards for DVDs.
Toshiba, NEC see blue in DVD future
By Richard Shim
CNET News.com
May 12, 2003, 11:39 AM PT
URL: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-1001033.html
Toshiba and NEC are demonstrating a new DVD recording technology that promises a significantly higher storage capacity without a major investment in new production facilities.
The Japanese companies will present details of their blue-laser format, called Advanced Optical Disc, this week at the Optical Data Storage 2003 conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. AOD is based on short-wavelength blue-violet lasers--instead of the red lasers that are now in DVD drives--to read data off of discs.
Toshiba said in a release that it has stored up to 36GB on a single-sided disc and that the technology can be applied to consumer electronics and computer products. Current Digital Video Discs hold about 4.7 GB of data.
The technology, however, is drawing a mixed response from some analysts.
"The appetite for new investments in new production lines is small right now," said Wolfgang Schlichting, research director of removable storage at research firm IDC. As a result, the claim that the blue-laser technology requires only a modest investment could resonate with manufacturers.
On the other hand, "the technology may be running too fast for end-user demand," he said. "For many, DVD is good enough."
Nevertheless, electronics companies are positioning their technologies to be leaders when (and if) consumers are ready to upgrade. Because the prices of DVD products are falling rapidly, manufacturers are looking for new technologies that could spark another round of upgrades, with higher profit margins for the hardware and media. The price of DVD drives paid by manufacturers dropped 33 percent in 2002, according to IDC.
Nine companies, including Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial, Pioneer, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, Sony and Thomson, are working on their own DVD recordable format, known as Blu-ray.
Sony previously announced a DVD recorder based on Blu-ray technology for the Japanese market, but has not commented on U.S. availability.
Toshiba and NEC are working with an industry group called the DVD Forum to gain the support of its 215 member companies.
The emergence of two blue-laser DVD recording technologies could lead to a replay of the competition surrounding red-laser DVD recordable formats--DVD+R versus DVD-R--which has caused some consumer confusion and slowed sales.
Toshiba and NEC said that their technology allows for backward compatibility with current DVD formats.
Representatives from Toshiba did not immediately return calls for comment. In previous interviews, they have said the recorders would be available next year.
And the NEC/Toshiba thing (AOD, or Advanced Optical Disc using 0.6nm) isn't new, it's been under discussion for some time. Frankly, they have the better system as it applies to DVD-Video, since it fits well in the current fabrication process. It admittedly has a lower storage capacity than Blu-Ray, but it's not significant and with a recent dual layer announcement from NEC/Toshiba, there should be no reason an HD movie would not fit on a single AOD platter.
So for now, unless the 0.1nm group (Blu-Ray) gets going, they're going to get shut out of the DVD-Video NG spec (not that they have a significant chance anyhow, due to startup costs.)
-David
* As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
This is one of the reasons the Sony DRU500 drive is doing so well that they can barely keep it in stock. It reads and writes all four major recording standards (only DVD-RAM is not supported for writing, not sure about reading), so for $300, it's not a bad deal.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
An empty disk allready has tracks on it which are followed by the laser when writing. Those track are different for different media, so you cannot write a cd-r format to a dvd-r.
The lasers in these machines are 405nM which is not "blue" but a deep violet. Close to the edge of your sight. Deep blue is more like 450nM and the typical bright blue LEDs are 470nM.
Therefore they will appear much dimmer than they really are. I do not know what the wattage they are but the current red DVD recorders are using 50mW red lasers which are EXTREMELY bright and a definate threat to your eye sight (5mW in the eye is pretty painful).
In short the "blue" laser will proabbly not be all that great too look at either from an aesthetic or a health risk point of view.
Contrary to popular belief, coding is not all free blow-jobs and beer. Those things cost MONEY!
Really, it's just Sony vs. Not-Sony for the formats.
Witness:
MD vs. DAT/Casette
Beta vs. VHS
MemoryStick vs. CF/SmartMedia/SD
PlayStation vs. Everyone Else (although this is the norm for consoles)
I'm sure there are many more failed Sony-only ideas. I really wish Sony would give up on their BS formats. Some of their products look interesting, but the only one I've ever bought was the PS2, the rest are simply too incompatible with my life. Heck, I only bought the PS2 because at the time the benefits (being, at the time, the only new console able to back up games with a ModChip) outweighed the minuses (that being it is Sony crap).
BTW: I'm not sure, but I have a feeling Sony was originally backing DVD+R (am I right? I'd love to know, I want to be sure that my DVD-R purchase will have the longetivity normally associated with non-Sony formats).
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
Well, that's not strictly true. SACD seems to be winning over DVD-Audio in the high-end audio realm, although SACD is jointly developed by Sony and Philips.
The CD itself was jointly developed by Sony and Philips, and is doing just fine.
The MiniDisc never really took off, but it never died out either. Its major competitor, DCC (Digital Compact Cassette), boasted backwards compatibility with standard analog cassette tapes, but it died a horrible death. MiniDisc is still widely sold and supported, and seems to be popular in portable recorders and as a cheaper alternative to portable players of compressed digital audio (e.g., MP3 players) that rely on expensive solid-state media or hard disks. MiniDisc also is popular in home studio applications for multi-track recorders, although in that application it's used to store raw audio data, not ATRAC-compressed music.
Both those sites have excellent reviews of players, media, writers, CODECs, conversions and everything in between.