Tuesday, December 21, 2004
World's First 3 Generation-Compatible HD DVD Drive
Posted by James Fee in "HARDWARE" @ 07:00 AM
"In general, HD DVD employs blue LDs with shorter than conventional wavelength as its light source to enable higher recording density. In order to realize compatibility with current discs, such as CDs and DVDs, a large number of parts are required resulting in a large-sized drive. To date this has been one of the major challenges to overcome. NEC's new development realizes a small, slim HD DVD drive, which can read and write 3-generations of optical discs, HD DVDs, DVDs and CDs, with a single optical head. NEC will continue advancing and accelerating its development toward commercialization of the HD DVD drive, in turn contributing to the spread of the HD DVD format."
The more and more I read about HD DVD and Blue-Ray, the more I have to question how quick the adoption will be. The work to overcome what would seem to be such simple procedures such as reading existing media could cost quite a bit. Even though we had the hassle of DVD +/- R, one was always able to read existing CDs on those drives. If Sony or Toshiba can figure out the cheapest and easier to produce way of reading all types of disks, they will be in the drivers seat.
The more and more I read about HD DVD and Blue-Ray, the more I have to question how quick the adoption will be. The work to overcome what would seem to be such simple procedures such as reading existing media could cost quite a bit. Even though we had the hassle of DVD +/- R, one was always able to read existing CDs on those drives. If Sony or Toshiba can figure out the cheapest and easier to produce way of reading all types of disks, they will be in the drivers seat.
