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."
um (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Yet Another Format War on the Way... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:4, Interesting)
If your storage medium has to explicitly allow your content then someone is doing it terribly, terribly wrong.
Yeah, they were very stupid about licensing, and that's why, even with, what a year+ lead, HD-DVD died an embarassing death. This is one case where the market really DID decide.
Re:Sorry, I'm not buying the capacity claims. (Score:3, Interesting)
The limit on drive capacity is not switching speed, but focal spot diameter. If this is a 405nm laser, its minimum focus spot will be exactly the same size as the spot of existing Blu-Ray lasers (they're 405nm, too). What am I missing?
That somebody somewhere along the line hasn't thought about the implications of what they're talking about?
The laser described is a _100W_ laser. Because of the short pulse length, I'm not sure if this makes it a class 3B or class 4 laser, but in either case safety equipment including a failsafe keyswitch is legally required. This is not consumer equipment. It is not going to be built into a consumer-grade optical disc player. Ever.
But if it were, which is of course theoretically possible, then the original Sony press release [sony.net] has more technical details that I can't claim to entirely understand, but which do suggest some rationale for the claims.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Blu-ray beat by hard disks already.. (Score:5, Interesting)
... the cost of 20PK of 25GB discs (500GB) is the same as a 750GB-1GB hard disk, with 2TB hard disks going for $99. The media for blu-ray is not cost competitive with hard disks any longer they better hurry up since by the time blu-ray discs become cost competitive so hard disks no longer offer more bang for the buck there will be new Hard drives out.
Re: (Score:4, Interesting)
The reason HD-DVD didn't take off was because they didn't allow porn.
HD-DVD was supported by Warner Brothers and Universal.
Blu-Ray had Disney.
In home video, that is all you need to know to predict a winner.
Disney was the rocket that launched the ABC television network into orbit in the mid 1950s.
When Disney moved to NBC and all-color programming, the big screen B&W set was on the fast track to oblivion.
The big screen HDTV is family entertainment -
and Disney has 87 years of product to meet that demand.