IP: DVD makes way for the 'Blu-ray Disc'

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: jspira () basex com
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 19:33:19 -0500
To: farber () cis upenn edu
Subject: DVD makes way for the 'Blu-ray Disc'


Dave, this may actually be "the next big thing."

/s/ Jonathan 

Jonathan B. Spira
Chairman and Chief Analyst
Basex. What's in IT for you (tm).
Phone: +1 212 760-1555 x113
E-mail: jspira () basex com
Web: http://www.basex.com
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DVD makes way for the 'Blu-ray Disc'
Aki Shimazu of Sony Corporation holds the Blu-ray Disc during a press
conference in Tokyo after nine electronics companies announced that they
jointly established the basic specifications for the next generation large
capacity optical disc video recording format. Photo: AFP Tokyo: Nine major
international technology firms have unveiled the "Blu-ray Disc", a new
digital optical disc format that will eventually replace the popular DVD.
"It is a truly remarkable format, marking a new era," corporate senior
executive vice president of Japan's Sony Corp Shizuo Takashino said after
posing with a model of the disc. The new invention is 12 centimetres in
diameter, the same size as compact discs (CDs) and digital versatile discs
(DVDs). But the Blu-ray will use a blue laser to burn codes on to the disc
instead of red -- multiplying the maximum data capacity of a single density,
one-sided disc by five, to 27 gigabytes. A DVD can only store 4.7 gigabytes
of information. The new format is capable of recording over two hours of
digital high definition video and 13 hours of standard television
broadcasting, the firms said. The current DVD can record just 133 minutes of
regular TV broadcasts. The companies also plan a double density disc with a
50-gigabyte capacity that will increase the capacity by twice as much again.
Aside from Sony, other technology giants involved in the venture include
South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and France's Thomson Multimedia.
Licensing to other industry groups to develop products for the technology
will begin in the next few months. But the firms said they would head in
their own directions in developing products for the format, and none were
prepared to name a date for when their versions would hit the store shelves.
The executive corporate engineering adviser to Pioneer Corp, Masao Sugimoto,
said the format would be able to take advantage of the spread of
high-definition television, which had reached some 2.3 million Japanese
households by the end of 2001. "(The Blu-ray) is of great significance in
terms of the further development of the electronics industry and the high
definition broadcasting sector," Sugimoto said. However the companies, wary
of alienating DVD fans, said the new technological products could be made to
be compatible with DVDs. "It is possible," Sugimoto said. "These discs are
based on a major base of infrastructure (to support DVDs) and the spread of
high-definition television may not be all that sudden. We cannot simply
disregard that." But he said each company would decide individually whether
to make the Blu-ray compatible with DVDs. "This is a technological format
and product planning is up to each company," he said. Some 25.5 million DVD
players are expected to be in consumers' hands by March 2002, according to
Sony's estimates, a significant market penetration since the gadgets were
only hit the market in 1996. Jan Oosterveld, representing Dutch partner
Royal Philips Electronics from the Netherlands, said the companies wanted to
avoid the struggle over standards that plagued DVDs. "You all know the
struggle we had to come to one format in DVD. We wanted to avoid that right
away," he said. The other companies cooperating on the technology are
Japan's Hitachi Ltd, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd, and Sharp Corp
as well as South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. AFP

http://www.smh.com.au/news/0202/20/biztech/biztech101.html
(c) 2002 smh.com.au



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