Slashdot Mirror
Lens That Writes on Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray
morpheus83 writes "Ricoh claims they have developed an optical component that reads and writes all disk formats -- Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD, as well as DVD and CD -- with one pickup and one objective lens. The component is a 3.5-mm diameter, 1-mm thick round diffraction plate with minute concentric groves on both sides which function as a diffraction grating. Based on disc information the drive can identify which format disk is loaded, Ricoh's optical diffraction component adjusts the laser beam with its diffraction grating for each format and passes it to the objective lens."
Phew! I thought there'd be no solution to the format wars.
Oh wait, there's still:
But, at least now we've gotten that pesky dual-compatible use-a-single-object-lens issue out of the way. Now I can tell all my friends and family the hurdle has been cleared and to let the floodgates of new consumers open.
Not.
I'm going out for a bicycle ride.
It's a good start. Legal issues may end up being the biggest hurdle.
I wouldn't mind a drive that burned all formats.
In fact, I wouldn't mind a drive that burned anything at all. My last one 'cookied' about 12 discs before it fucked up and my computer wouldn't start if it was connected. Being able to burn any format would certainly be useful though.
So, if Blu-ray players are expensive as hell, and HD-DVD players are also expensive (though not quite as much), wouldn't a player that combined the capabilities of the two be even more expensive? Unless these things can be produced relatively cheaply, then this isn't going to be the answer to the format war.
...COST ONE MILLION DOLLARS!
In other other news, the Sony spokesperson in the previous story was just hired by Microsoft as Director Of Public Relations. A Microsoft spokesperson was quoted as saying, "His previous experience at the Iraqi Ministry of Information is what clinched it for us. This guy thinks like we do."
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
It's a nice trick. Diffraction to take advantage of the fact different wavelengths bend different amounts through the same material. As usual, when someone says something can never be done, they've probably missed a good half of the equation.
I wouldn't consider the mad hatter mad. Just reality impaired. He sure can make a mean cup of tea.
This kind of multi-numerical aperture diffractive lens has already been used in several DVD players for CD compatibility. As an example, check out this link.
Notice that you do not only need different numerical aperture lenses to read every format, you also need to generate lasers of the proper wavelengths. There are several solutions for this, but the easiest is to use three different laser diodes.
This is only going to make it more likely that both formats will survive. I would really rather prefer that one of the next-gen formats dies off - I don't really care which one.
Actually, dispite what the misleading headline would like you to believe, this isn't the first to read both HD and BluRay, and TFA doesn't make that clam... It's the first to read both, and read CDs and DVDs too with a single head. That's the tricky part, as CDs and DVDs use a different wavelength than HD-DVD and BluRay. Prior to this, if you wanted backwards compatability, you needed a second lens.
Won't buy anythying associated with Sony after their rootkit fiasco and support for DRM and the RIAA, MPAA etc etc.
And all those who don't give 2 hoots about the PC3 or any other gaming toy (especially XBOX) for that matter.(This is actually the majority of computer users if you care to research the stats)
IMHO, the capacity of BLURay of HD-DVD is still an order of magnitude less that what I really need for a backup device. IN the past few years, HDD capacitied have increased dramatically and there are more increases on the horizon. But, backup media affordable by the masses has not increased buy anywhere the same amount. So, I think it is useless!
Why do I think so, Well as a professional software developer and systems integrator for the past 25+ years, I don't:-
Play DVD on my PC's
Listen to MP3's on my PC's (my Ipod is good enough)
Play shoot'em up games of any sort
So, why do I need HD-DVD or BluRay?
What I want is an optical device tat can backup my 100Gb laptop HDD on ONE volume in less than 1 hour.
Give me that, and I will eat my hat
I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
A couple. Most are riding the fence, committing to nothing.
Which will only be important if people feel the PS3 is worthwhile, and if it doesn't cause other Blu-Ray manufacturers to jump ship because Sony is taking away their sales with the PS3 loss-leader.
It's worth noting that while all the currently available next-gen disc players available so far have problems, the $1,000 Samsung Blu-Ray players seems to be the worst of the lot. It's also fairly important that both Toshiba and RCA are already selling their HD-DVD players for half the price of the Samsung unit and the forthcoming Sony Blu-Ray player. Finally, there are more HD-DVD titles on store shelves than Blu-Ray so far.
Personally, I'm still in wait-and-see mode, but your assertion that HD-DVD is already dead is premature at best.
Virtual monopolies are needed (especially in formats) to help consumers eventually.
PCs took off because Windows provided an equal format for everyone.
Apple thrives in spite of this monopoly by maintaining its own monopoly through its OS, regulating everything in order to keep quality high and survive as a 'niche' demographic just as concerned with design and appeal as they did utility. Having a virtual strangehold on internet music helped too.
The only place where these 'format wars' have had even minimal success have been in game consoles, because they were largely seen as competing factions to a toy, instead of a 'universal medium' like office software or movies. If we get back to the point where we only have a couple of key consoles (I predict Nintendo will successfully splinter off, leaving the main war between MS and Sony), so much the better for game programmers.
Reprased: Watch as sales of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players go from approximately 0 units to approximately 0 units
My Systems
...so the rest of us kids from the poorhouse can get it cheaper tomorrow ;)
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Once again an elegant technological solution has emerged. Unfortunately a device that is encumbered with the licensing of both DRMs (Bluray/HD-DVD) would be cost prohibitive to the consumer. Anyone have an idea on how much it would cost a manufacturer to license both Bluray and HD-DVD, assuming this was politically possible, which it probably isn't.
Companies should not be allowed to "own" formats. Eventually, they will be broken anyway. It's inherent with technology that if something is hidden or secret, it can and will be cracked (don't you remember what your mom said? There's always someone smarter than you).
Formats should be open and standardized. Eg.: Microsoft should not be allowed to monopolize the market by locking in users to their Office formats; and likewise, the media industries should not be allowed to screw over their own customers by creating formats that are designed to be combative against those customers.
Just imagine how many decades we'd be ahead in technology if things worked this way.
It's not the COST of the second lens, it's the SIZE. That's why the article summary boasts of the compact size of this solution. There isn't a lot of extra room available, especially in small form-factor drives.
At least now there's one LESS remote for you guys to hog!
Let's call it what it is, Anti-Social Media.
reads and writes all disk formats
Cool - my 5-1/4" floppies aren't obsolete after all! Arkanoids, anyone?
It's no surprise, which is why I don't even care about digital format wars. Eventually, somebody ALWAYS starts combining them all together, so a few years after adoption, everything supports everything. DVD players that you can get in the grocery store for $49.99 play audio CD's, MP3 CD's, DVD single layer, DVD dual layer, DVD +R, DVD-R, DVD +RW, etc. Hell, My $100 PS2 does even better than that.! (I use My PS2 exclusively for entertainment. Love how easy it is.) As long as there's no physical difference in the format, the digital differences amount to just a few lines of code, which ends up being very cheap to combine on a tiny chip, even after those licensing fees. As long as the media doesn't physically change, there will be increasing convergence all of the time. Eventually, those cheap players that you can get at Wal-Mart will read HD, Blu-Ray, OGG, and WMA's. Just give it time. It'll happen.
What have you got against the wikipedia. What did it ever do to you!
Incorrect. The Supreme Court said that the definition of a "limited time" was up to Congress. DRM that's based on strong encryption doesn't just take control of IP out of the consumer's hands -- it takes control out of Congress's hands as well.
100 years from now, no act of Congress is going to make it possible to play a BluRay disc if, by some unlikely chance, the media consortium gets the encryption right this time. When access to a work remains blocked after the expiration of its copyright term, the publisher will have failed to live up to its part of the copyright bargain.
In short, when Congress passed the DMCA, they willingly gave up their ability to enforce the limited-time clause in exchange for payoffs from industry lobbyists. The Constitution doesn't permit them to do that, and (inexplicably, IMO) the courts have never ruled on that point.
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
What sales?
You seem to have described refraction there, not the 'spreading' effect of waves when passing an obstuction or aperture known as diffraction.
Once again an elegant technological solution has emerged. Unfortunately a device that is encumbered with the licensing of both DRMs (Bluray/HD-DVD) would be cost prohibitive to the consumer. Anyone have an idea on how much it would cost a manufacturer to license both Bluray and HD-DVD, assuming this was politically possible, which it probably isn't.
Well, the protection system (ACSS, which has nothing to do with CSS except in name) is the same, except Blu-Ray added a few extra bells and whistles. Also, you should only need one license per codec (MPEG2, H.264, VC-1) since they're the same. Any basic blue-laser related patents may also be the same. However, you may have to pay any other patents twice. It might happen, it might not... DVD+/-R recorders don't seem to cost an arm and a leg, for example.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Just like how one of the two recordable DVD formats (DVD+R/RW & DVD-R/W) was supposed to "win" and become the dominant format? AFAIK neither one has won definitively and it only makes sense to buy a drive capable of writing both simply out of convenience. Why lock yourself into one format when you can spend a couple more bucks for compatibility across the board?
Clue for you: Ford didn't invent the assembly line. The Wright brothers didn't invent the airplane. Wanamaker didn't invent the department store. Edison didn't invent the light bulb.
All these people derived inspiration from their contemporaries. All they did was "steal" ideas from others and make them better.
Steve Jobs' saying, that "real artists ship," is right on the money. Production, after all, has a more lasting impact than theory and prototype. Now let's hear from you an example of Linux community innovation even by the diminished standards set by the aforementioned inventors, or fail.
I've tried to keep track of this "up-and-coming" format war for quite a while now. I used to favor Blue-Ray quite a bit as it just makes sense to pick the format with the biggest capacity in my opinion. However, I could really care less anymore. I predict there will be no "real" winner. If I, a Slashdot reader and computer nerd, don't care about HD-DVD or Blue-Ray anymore do you think the average consumer will? I highly doubt it. There is no huge convenience factor that sets apart either new format as a must have for consumers. Blue-Ray and HDDVD are glorified DVDs without much benefit over that of what everyone has now. More resolution? Big deal. More DRM? Yeah, that will be a big selling point... I compare the movie industry to the music industry a lot. I feel the music industry goes through what the movie industry will down the road in a decade or so. Let's take a closer look. Music: Cassette Tapes -> CDs (Many benefits such as noticeable higher quality and jumping to any track you want instantly.) CDs -> SACD, DVD-Audio (Slightly perceivable better quality but both have never been successful in any way, shape or form.) CDs -> Online Downloads (Very convenient, instant gratification, maybe not better quality but that doesn't seem to matter.) Movies: VHS -> DVDs (Many benefits such as noticeable higher quality and jumping to any track you want instantly.) DVDs -> BlueRay, HD_DVD (Slightly perceivable better quality but both "will not be" successful in any way, shape or form.) DVDs -> Online Downloads or On Demand (Convenient, and somewhat instant gratification.) By the end of the decade I see much more progress being made to having home movie servers (media PCs, whatever you want to call them) where all y our movies are stored and you can access them much like you can with music now with programs such as iTunes. I see myself personally gravitating towards this sort of use already. I once thought that HD-DVD or Blue-Ray would do much better in PCs for backup purposes, but as has been said by others the greater capacities are not keeping up with what is needed now. For me to back up my almost full 250 GB hard drive it is easier for me to just by a new larger drive and transfer everything to it while keeping the old one as a backup somewhere. So long for being useful Blue-Ray or HD-DVD. Unless you come out at a cost lower than DVDs I don't see either of you getting far.
Your going to need to be Rioch as hell to afford one of these!
All they did was steal from Xerox.
That same tired old canard trotted out one more time. There is the legalistic answer about deals made and licensing arranged but a more significant recounting of that piece of history is that Apple hired the scientists and engineers from Xerox PARC, like Alan Kay, Larry Tesler and others. This put them in a company that actually had a clue about what was required to accomplish their goal which led to the Lisa and Macintosh. Of course you may be of the opinion that these individuals should be viewed as indentured servants of Xerox who had no right to use ideas that were the property of their former pointy-haired bosses at Xerox. Different stages of personal computing were invented three separate times at Apple: Apple ][, Mac, and OSX (NextStep in Mac drag). That is a remarkable record of creation and it is just some high points. For example both HyperCard and QuickTime could arguably be considered. Another easily overlooked act from the past was that Apple was one of the petitioners to the FCC to allow for unlicensed spectrum that eventually led to WiFi. What the heck, let's not overlook FireWire.
They're not quite in the same league as IBM as far as fundamental contributions (hard drives, relational databases, various Nobel prize researchers, etc) but Apple is no slacker as you would imply. Now for having so little awareness of the history involved, you should go over to the corner and sit quietly.