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.

Comments

Is it just me or...

[billstr78]

... has the media format standards always been divided between two non-compatable formats. Is there really any reason they cannot agree on one. Why not argue over three or four.

Beta/VHS, CD-RW/CD-RW+, mp3/wma, DVD-RW,DVD-RW+. One of them always looses big time, they ought follow in the footsteps of the W3C or IETF and make _one_ standard that makes everyone happy.

It seems as though companies align themselves along competition lines rather than going with the one with the best specification.

As wavelenth shortens, scratch-resistance dies...

[harrkev]

I already have problems with my 2-year-old son scratching my CD collection. DVDs are even MORE sensitive to scratching. As the wavelength shortens and density increases, it seems reasonable to expect the thing to be a lot more sensitive to scratching. If the format stores a disc in a cartridge, then this is not a problem. However, cartridges seem to have died out years ago.

Unify

[Anonymous Coward]

What they need to do is instead of bickering about my format or yours, they just need to make a open standard that anyone can use. Granted you don't make all the money of the royalties, but we all saw how quickly DVD took off. As long as there's a good reason to upgrade (HDTV compatability, extra features, etc), and there's only one standard with DVD backwards compatability, then people won't stop to think about upgrading. It'll be a no brainer as long as you have an HDTV (which someday may be commonplace).

Maybe the MPAA could actually do something useful and actually back an open, flexible, and useful standard that can be used in computers and HD-DVD players.

The Death of DVD+RW?

[DeadBugs]

I have noticed lately that many of the companies that were DVD+RW "supporters" are now offering DVD-RW drives either separately or in Desktop\Notebook computers. Sony, TDK & HP all of which are listed as DVD+RW supporters have DVD-RW offerings. I wonder if they are starting to quietly shift formats. I also saw that the first "Blue Laser" product from Sony in only backwards compatible with -RW and not +RW.

so, 6 standards?

[SuperBanana]

So this means DVD-R, DVD+R, Blue1DVD-R, Blue1DVD+R, Blue2DVD-R, Blue2DVD+R?

What exactly -is- the difference between +/-R, anyway? Same question for the two blue 'standards'?

My wish: a cartridge format

[The Ego]

There is one non-backward compatible change I'd like to see embraced: put the optical media in a _thin_ cartridge.

I believe blue-ray is such, but from what I read blue-ray is not really meant as the next-gen DVD format, mostly as a format for recorders and computers. And one of the reason cited is the cartridge :(

I would prefer a format where the media is protected better than current CDs and DVDs. A format that could be grabbed by a reader more reliably than the current (cf. slot-loading readers on Mac). I don't understand why so many seem opposed to such a change. Maybe some people imagine something similar to the old CD caddies, where you had to place the regular format in a cartridge. I rather imagine a format that is always enclosed in a cartridge, like the 3 1/2" floppies.

Conspiracy theory: RIAA/MPAA execs don't want this to happen, as they know more people would lend their CDs/DVDs to friends if the media was made more resistant to abuse.

For the record: I don't believe that for a second.

Re:As wavelenth shortens, scratch-resistance dies.

[blincoln]

However, cartridges seem to have died out years ago.

The Blu-Ray format uses cartridges which hold the discs. It's the main reason I hope it wins out.

A crazy idea

[swb]

I had a crazy idea this morning.

Why can't they make a "generic" optical disc that can be written in any format (CD, DVD-R, DVD+R, etc) up to whatever the granularity of the dye is?

I know its probably a dumb question, but it seems like there's no reason I shouldn't be able to write a CD-R format disc onto a DVD-R, at least in terms of pit density.

Re:A crazy idea

[Cyno]

What he said doesn't matter, what he was saying is that some new type of DVD formats are using multiple layers. Making a generic optical disc would probably be rather difficult unless the layering was done through a hologram or color or some other type of optical illusion.
I read somewhere that there are certain types of crystal that can hold extreme amounts of write-once data by using up to 180,000+ different distinguishible colors of laser light per cell. Once burned that cell would only allow those colors of light to pass through. But I read that a long time ago so take it with a grain of salt.

You can say that again!

[dpbsmith]

...Heck, they can't even get reasonable interoperability with CD media.

Everyone has all these superstitions and voodoo about which dye colors and media types and brands and what speed to record at, and the plain fact is that it is not at all rare to find that a CD you've burned in a pretty-darn-new burner can't be read in someone else's pretty-darn-new drive. Either the standards are no good or the manufacturers aren't following them.

And it was only a few months ago that it transpired that you could burn out the laser in a LOT of DVD-RW drives simply by inserting a new kind of medium (4X, maybe?) that was, of course, SUPPOSED to be backward compatible with the old one--and was, except for the minor detail of destroying drives.

And wasn't it HP that promised that their DVD-RW drives would be compatible with DVD+RW media via a firmware upgrade... and then reneged on the promise?

What a zoo.

Isn't it about time to quit dicking around and set some standards for some reasonable kind of high-capacity medium that gives you some assurance that the data you store today can be read on a different drive tomorrow?

Re:Way too slow to roll out. Don't buy DVHS

[TheAwfulTruth]

The development of the "blue" (Really violet) laser diode has taken TREMENDOUS effort over the last 3-4 years. (Read up on it some time it's pretty interesting) Yes, it was mostly all done (though not ALL) in asian countries. The US can't (and shouldn't) be the leader of ALL tech you know.

I don't know why a blue dvd recorder HAS to be revolutionary to be news-worthy, It is evolutionary and it is news-worthy, therefore it's in the news.

"Holographic" storage has been talked about and played with incessently for almost a decade now. If it were practical, something would have been done with it by now. But the much simpler CD/DVD optical disk technology has progressed with sufficient speed and capacity to warrent more complex solutions completely unneccesary.