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Taken from a tech site on Blue Laser Tech
Several companies are trying to win the race to mass-produce blue laser hardware devices for consumers. Many companies have made announcements about breakthroughs in the past 12 months.
Blu-ray Disc. In mid-February 2002, nine international companies announced joint establishment of the Blu-ray Disc standard, which they hope will become the next generation standard format for optical disc recording. Developers say the Blu-ray Disc uses a 405nm blue laser light and holds between 23.3GB and 27GB of data on a single-sided, single-layer DVD-sized disc. Some manufacturers are working on a double-layer disc for the Blu-ray Disc standard that would permit storage of about 50GB of data. Current single-sided, single-layer DVD discs use red laser light and hold about 4.7GB of data. It’s estimated that one hour of high- definition video will require about 10GB to 15GB of storage space.
Although it’s tempting to call Blu-ray Disc the next generation of DVD, those involved with the standard say it’s an entirely new technology. Blu-ray Disc will use a data-transfer rate of 36Mbps. Its small beam spot size allows for short pit lengths of between 160nm and 138nm. The tracking pitch for Blu-ray Disc is 320nm. The tracks on a Blu-ray Disc are less than half as wide as tracks on a DVD disc, which, along with the smaller pit size, lets the Blu-ray Disc store far more data than a DVD.
Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial (owner of the Panasonic brand), Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Thomson Multimedia are collaborating on the Blu-ray Disc standard. By creating the Blu-ray Disc standard, the companies hope to avoid the splintering that occurred with the original DVD standards for red lasers, including DVD-RW, DVD-R, and DVD+RW.
Although those companies involved in the standard have refused to say when they expect blue laser DVD hardware products to appear on the market, hardware manufacturers should be able to begin licensing the format by the time you read this. One company spokesperson says consumers aren’t too far away from seeing mass production of Blu-ray Disc hardware devices based on the Blu-ray Disc standard. Other experts think blue-laser hardware will begin appearing around the same time as high- def digital broadcasting becomes widely available, probably within the next few years. (HD digital broadcasting is currently in the earliest stages of implementation.)
The companies backing the standard say Blu-ray Disc hardware manufacturers will choose whether to include backward compatibility with current DVDs, but they expect most to include it.
Toshiba. Toshiba announced its own DVD disc using a blue laser in early 2002. Its disc should hold about 30GB of data per layer and per side, although the early configuration is a single-sided, single-layer disc. Toshiba would like any developments of blue-laser DVDs to remain part of the DVD Forum, which has established standards for red-laser DVDs. The DVD Forum announced in February it’s going to begin looking at establishing a single format for a blue-laser DVD standard.
Several companies are trying to win the race to mass-produce blue laser hardware devices for consumers. Many companies have made announcements about breakthroughs in the past 12 months.
Blu-ray Disc. In mid-February 2002, nine international companies announced joint establishment of the Blu-ray Disc standard, which they hope will become the next generation standard format for optical disc recording. Developers say the Blu-ray Disc uses a 405nm blue laser light and holds between 23.3GB and 27GB of data on a single-sided, single-layer DVD-sized disc. Some manufacturers are working on a double-layer disc for the Blu-ray Disc standard that would permit storage of about 50GB of data. Current single-sided, single-layer DVD discs use red laser light and hold about 4.7GB of data. It’s estimated that one hour of high- definition video will require about 10GB to 15GB of storage space.
Although it’s tempting to call Blu-ray Disc the next generation of DVD, those involved with the standard say it’s an entirely new technology. Blu-ray Disc will use a data-transfer rate of 36Mbps. Its small beam spot size allows for short pit lengths of between 160nm and 138nm. The tracking pitch for Blu-ray Disc is 320nm. The tracks on a Blu-ray Disc are less than half as wide as tracks on a DVD disc, which, along with the smaller pit size, lets the Blu-ray Disc store far more data than a DVD.
Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial (owner of the Panasonic brand), Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Thomson Multimedia are collaborating on the Blu-ray Disc standard. By creating the Blu-ray Disc standard, the companies hope to avoid the splintering that occurred with the original DVD standards for red lasers, including DVD-RW, DVD-R, and DVD+RW.
Although those companies involved in the standard have refused to say when they expect blue laser DVD hardware products to appear on the market, hardware manufacturers should be able to begin licensing the format by the time you read this. One company spokesperson says consumers aren’t too far away from seeing mass production of Blu-ray Disc hardware devices based on the Blu-ray Disc standard. Other experts think blue-laser hardware will begin appearing around the same time as high- def digital broadcasting becomes widely available, probably within the next few years. (HD digital broadcasting is currently in the earliest stages of implementation.)
The companies backing the standard say Blu-ray Disc hardware manufacturers will choose whether to include backward compatibility with current DVDs, but they expect most to include it.
Toshiba. Toshiba announced its own DVD disc using a blue laser in early 2002. Its disc should hold about 30GB of data per layer and per side, although the early configuration is a single-sided, single-layer disc. Toshiba would like any developments of blue-laser DVDs to remain part of the DVD Forum, which has established standards for red-laser DVDs. The DVD Forum announced in February it’s going to begin looking at establishing a single format for a blue-laser DVD standard.
