Sony's Blue-Violet Laser the Future Blu-ray? 260
JoshuaInNippon writes "Japanese researchers from Sony and Tohoku University announced the development of a 'blue-violet ultrafast pulsed semiconductor laser,' which Sony is aiming to use for optical disks. The new technology, with 'a laser wavelength of 405 nanometers in the blue-violet region' and a power out put 'more than a hundred times the world's highest output value for conventional blue-violet pulse semiconductor lasers,' is believed to be capable of holding more than 20 times the information of current Blu-ray technology, while retaining a practical size. Japanese news reports have speculated that one blue-violet disk could be capable of holding more than 50 high-quality movie titles, easily fitting entire seasons of popular TV shows like 24. When the technology may hit markets was not indicated."
405 nm (Score:5, Informative)
According to wikipedia, the light used in a bluray laser is also 405 nm, so that isn't the new part, in case that was confusing for anyone else.
Re:Another new format? (Score:5, Informative)
History is easy to forget. DVD was around on the shelves for almost a decade before it hit mass consumption levels.
No, it wasn't.
DVD came out between late 1996 (Japan) and early 1999, depending on where you lived. Here in the UK it apparently came out in late 1998 (*), and in 3-4 years sharply falling prices were already seriously eroding the VHS market. I got a DVD-ROM drive for UK £40-45 circa 2002, and that wasn't especially cutting edge (nor expensive!) by that time.
(*) Or so Wikipedia claims. However, I remember DVD-ROM drives and decoder cards being offered- albeit it at a notable premium- as a mainstream option when I was choosing a PC in Spring '98.
Re:um (Score:3, Informative)
For delivery, not storage.
Re:By the time they've made this into a real produ (Score:3, Informative)
Is there such a thing as "compatibility" with fiber? I mean, I know that optic fiber's frequency-transmission characteristics aren't perfectly flat, which probably yields more or less signal attenuation, but it's not like photons come in different 'formats'.
Re:405 nm (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
This is one case where the market really DID decide.
Really? As I remember it a bunch of companies got together and decided to pull the plug on HD-DVD right after christmas one year when player prices had been cut.. think that timing was an accident? I also seem to remember that there was a rather large payout involved in the deal as well between said companies.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The only reason HD-DVD didn't take off was Not enough repeated letters in the name to be catchy. This time they'll try HHDVVDDBVD.
The reason HD-DVD didn't take off was because they didn't allow porn.
ya got that backwards. HD-DVD did allow porn, initially Blu-ray did not.