Sony first to market w/ BLUE RAY LASER DVD

[funky-d-munky]

http://news.com.com/2100-1041-990771.html?tag=fd_top

My feelings are Blue ray will dominate within 2 years.
funky

[Brian Ellis]

At $3,800 a go and $30 per coaster, remind me to buy half-a-dozen. And people complain that 250 bucks to upgrade MSP is too much

However, the real crunch is " Toshiba, a pioneer in DVD technology, has weighed in with a competing blue-laser format it says will be less expensive and more compatible with existing recorders, although it would only store 15GB to 20GB of data per disc. ". This is the start of another format war.

May the good Lord protect me from technofollies.

[Kris1]

...even worse is that I'm beeing swamped with complaints on DVD-R compatibility issues with TOSHIBA 6012 DVD-R writers at the moment, and Toshiba here has no immideate cure. A bright, new, clear and problemless horizon ? Not judging from my current position (that is : beeing burried underneath customer complaints and with NO assistance from Toshiba what so ever).

[wkulecz]

"More compatible with existing DVD" is a load of crap for the next gen, you'll need dual optics anyway its done. With current DVD players selling for $60 the optics/servo for current players can't be a very big deal to include/duplicate in the next generation.

DVD-R and DVD+R is not very compatible with "older" players, I quickly figured this out back when the Pioneer A03 cost ~$800 and have been trying to tell anyone who'd listen. Its still far too easy to buy an "older" player right off the shelf now.

--wally.

[Ray Austin]

cool good to see a product finally released for this....

it will make those DVD's real cheap now!

[funky-d-munky]

"This is the start of another format war"
Who cares. I wouldn't be using this drive to make DVD's for friends. It would strictly bee for archive use. By that time regular DVD burners will be $99 bucks. The price of the unit must and will come down. And when it does $30 for 20gig's isn't bad at all. And burn proof will make sure we have no coasters. Video makers wish come true as far as I see.
funky

[Brian Ellis]

Nice to have one's head in the clouds, isn't it? I burnt a coaster on a burn-proof DVD system just last night. And $30 for 20 Gb is still $1.50/G while a 4.7 Gb DVD-R costs, say, $2 or 43 cents/G, 28% of the media cost. Nice to be rich, too. And all your friends would need to spend big bucks to read your blue disks, as well.

However, these disks would be GREAT for Hollywood blockbusters lasting up to 12 hours on the trot.

[Snake-Eyes]

The best use I could see for that technology (for me, anyhow) would be to make direct archive copies of my DV captures in native DV format. Then I'd use a normal -R/-RW/+R/+RW disc for my viewing copies and to give to my family.

I already make +R discs for this last purpose that are working fine in my parents' Toshiba set-top player as well as in both of my Sony players, but I haven't got a really good method of storing the non-MPEG2 compressed original DV footage yet, short of buying more DV tapes. Of course, at this point in time, DV tapes for archive are much cheaper than the proposed Blu-Ray and competing formats.

[Jerry Jones]

http://news.com.com/2100-1041-990771.html?tag=fd_top

"Sony said on Monday it would start sales next month of the world's first DVD recorder that uses blue laser light and can pack a two-hour high-definition TV program onto a single disc."

"Sony's Blu-ray machine will be able to play red-laser discs using the DVD-R and DVD-RW formats, but not those that use the DVD-RAM or DVD+RW formats."

Isn't that ironic?

Sony... one of the big supporters of DVD+RW... now markets a high def DVD video recorder that can't read DVD+RW.

Ha!

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

P.S. It also doesn't read the DVD Forum-approved DVD-RAM format (only DVD-R/DVD-RW)

[arciervo]

Originally posted by Brian Ellis
However, these disks would be GREAT for Hollywood blockbusters lasting up to 12 hours on the trot.

I think this is more a case of "these disks would be GREAT for Hollywood blockbusters lasting up to 2 hours on the trot". :-)

As HDTVs become more widespread (at least in North America), there will be a market for a hi-def counterpart to mass-produced DVDs. D-VHS tape technology, such as JVC's D-Theater, is definitely not as "cool" as optical discs and to many people (myself included) looks like a step backwards.

I'd be interested to see how soon pre-recorded Blu-Ray discs and "cheap" players become available. I'd agree that these expensive first-generation units are unattractive as high-definition VCR replacements (capacity too small) but also overkill for recording standard-definition home movies (capacity too big).

Tony