Laser that can play Blu-ray and HD-DVD

[Katsuya]

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The battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD to control the high-definition DVD market could be solved by a laser that can read the two competing formats.

According to reports in the Japanese press, Ricoh is developing a system that uses a single component to read both kinds of discs.

HD-DVD discs and regular DVDs hold data 0.6mm from the surface of the disc, while Blu-ray discs must be read at 0.1mm from the surface.

Ricoh's optical laser technology uses a "diffraction grate" to read the discs at the correct level.

However, the technology will initially be used only in high-definition DVD players because the process decreases the intensity of the beam. To counterbalance this effect, the devices will use higher powered lasers.

The technology will be on show for the first time at Tokyo's International Optoelectronics Exhibition on Wednesday.

According to Ricoh, the optical laser will be ready for use in devices by the end of the year and will be offered to OEM companies at that time.


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[Silenus]

That's great.
I think with that, the transition to the new formats will be easier.

[Norbi]

Yeap, a lot eaiser having one laser than two seperate readers... Hope that includes DVD and the sub types of it, eh? (R/w, RAM etc)

[doggieiscool]

I wish they'd adhere to one format instead of competing

[MiretanK]

That's cool, it'll save some of my moniz

[FrostyTheSnowman]

Originally Posted by doggieiscool

I wish they'd adhere to one format instead of competing

I second that. Talk about dividing the media industry... I can just see it: 'X Movie is now available in Blu-Ray AND HD-DVD!'

They should just stick with the superior design of the two. They need to quit competing, and chill out. Cant we all just get a bong?

[doggieiscool]

I hope you ment along :P But yeah, they really need to start working together. Cost savings, shared technology = Good business

[james.miller]

competition means lower prices for us. nobody wants to see a monopoly of formats, despite what you guys think.

[KillerShots]

I'd tend to agree - multiple formats initially are not a bad thing. Think of it this way, a hypothetical situation:

A company (smalltech) comes out with a HD media device that reads and writes to a small form factor optical disc (say, 2" diameter). Writing can be gel-based, just like current technology, and it can store 120G of data (though the burners take 8-12 hours to burn that much data).

Another comany (nanotech) comes out with a HD media device based on flash media. Using an insane (tm) lossless compression schema, they can store 12 hours of video on a 2G USB flash drive - Effectively, the only thing the consumer pays for is an insane (tm) hardware decoder for the insane (tm) compression and a simple USB 2.0 interface. Integration with a PC is easy, and open source software decoders are already available (though you need a beefy CPU to decode them).

Note: In case nobody picked up on this, both of the above are fictional, hypothetical cases.

Now, would you really want one technology to completely disappear? Granted, in the Blue-Ray vs. HD-DVD, the technologies are not that different from each other... but I'd be hesitant to set up a precedent.