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First 3 Generation-Compatible HD DVD Drive

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the also-makes-julian-fries dept.

fenimor writes "NEC has developed world's first half height size optical drive capable of playing back HD DVDs, DVDs, and CDs with a single optical head. Although the lasers required to read each type of disk vary, NEC said it had successfully created a miniature drive with a single lens that could read all three. The drive was designed for laptop computers and will be released commercially later next year."

9 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. Manufacturers may not dump CDs. by suso · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's reassuring to see that manufacturers are not trying to ditch CD formats in any way with the newer formats that come out. I always figured that if any medium uses a simular technique for reading/writing as another medium, then the two mediums should support each other. I was afraid that as time goes on, manufacturers would try to ditch CD mediums to try to get people to upgrade. Maybe that will still happen. Hopefully it won't.

    1. Re:Manufacturers may not dump CDs. by Laurentiu · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If you want to have a prayer of success on the "home user" market, you must be able to read CDs. Even for the simple fact that most of the music on the planet is (still) sold on a CD support. So I don't think you need to worry. Yet ;)

      --
      Just /. IT
    2. Re:Manufacturers may not dump CDs. by suso · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, but the record player was still in heavy use when they decided to heavily push CDs. I'm sure there were a lot of people back in the 80s who were thinking the same way that you are (ie. if a record company wants to make money, they need to release everything on LP).

    3. Re:Manufacturers may not dump CDs. by Stephen+R+Hall · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There was previous backward compatibility in the record market - the original 78rpm 10 inch record was replaced by the 45rpm 7 inch and the 33rpm 12 inch, but newer players would still play the old 78s. It was only when there was a huge leap in technology that backwards compatibility was broken.

  2. Looks like a desktop drive by maharg · · Score: 2, Insightful

    .. smells like a desktop drive..

    laptop ??

    --

    $ strings FTP.EXE | grep Copyright
    @(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
  3. Press releases by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Last 3 items are just press releases. Can we get some news?

  4. Half-height? by adolf · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Half-height? Bah. I think that's more properly dubbed a "laptop drive."

    Half-height drives, rather, are of course about half the height of a full-height drive. See here.

    HTH.

    --
    Kid-proof tablet..
  5. Re:Blu-ray by MoonBuggy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The PS3 is going to use Blu-ray for its games, so I'd strongly assume that it'll also play Blu-ray movies but not HD-DVDs. Bear in mind the fact that ~70%* of households with 13-25 year olds have a PS2 and will probably upgrade to a PS3 within a year of release (hell, if it's anything like the PSP it'll bring in more sales than that with 'wow' factor alone - I hate to say it about a DRM encrusted and hideously expensive console, but the PSP is a damn good piece of kit).

    You're going to have a huge number of people with a Blu-ray device in their house almost by default wheras HD-DVD, even with the best marketing in the world, requires the person to actually go out and buy a HD-DVD device on its own merits. I honestly don't know which way this will swing - it seems to me that HD-DVD has better marketing potential and more powerful backing, but Blu-ray might just worm its way in unnoticed on the back of the PS3.

    *Statistic from the consortium for inventing plausible statistics

  6. you know it's Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    when the editor doesn't RTFA.