DVD standard seen challenging Sony

[John Corn]

Toshiba and NEC have drawn up a new standard for the next-generation optical discs, in a move seen as a challenge to a group led by Sony involving a new DVD format, a Japanese newspaper says.
The new standard mapped out by the two partners can store more than four times the data of the current DVD format, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said in its Saturday online edition.

Manufacturing costs for the new disc will be lower than what was proposed earlier this year by a group of nine big electronics makers from Japan, South Korea and Europe, the paper said.

Neither firms were available for immediate comment.

The new optical disc will record and play with a blue laser, which has a shorter wavelength than the current type of red laser used by DVDs.

Full Story (http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=1366896)

[invaliduser88]

Hmmm...blue laser = shorter wavelength = more capacity on disk = less need to compress video = Better picture quality....

A good thing I do believe...

[David_Levin]

The new Sony standard is also a Blue laser. This is required for HD. I believe the storage is around 27 gig on a single layer disc.

The Sony group is large: Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsu****a Electric Industrial, Pioneer, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, Sony and Thomson Multimedia.

Hope they settle it quick - we don't need another format war (I'm still waiting for DVD-RW vs DVD+RW).

[Jacob S]

So this means that you have to have a player that can play this type of format or is this compatible with any/some of the other formats? This reminds me of the capatibilty issues with satellite and digital television and so forth. I have heard of this blue laser before, and of another color other than red as well in which has a higher quality than the red one. Why cant everyone use the same format?

[David_Levin]

Originally posted by Jacob S
So this means that you have to have a player that can play this type of format or is this compatible with any/some of the other formats? This reminds me of the capatibilty issues with satellite and digital television and so forth. I have heard of this blue laser before, and of another color other than red as well in which has a higher quality than the red one. Why cant everyone use the same format?

I'm not sure what you're asking here. The Toshiba and Sony HD standards are incompatible. Of course an old (red laser) DVD player will not be able to play a new higher density (blue laser) dvd. I assume they will make the new players backward compatible with current DVDs.

Really annoying - HD DVD standards should have been worked with HDTV. Although cabling standards are still a bit messed up. JVC is now sneaking into this window with a HD VHS recorder and a few 1080i prerecorded movies.

Seems like it'll be a while before we see a HD DVD.