Philips Unveils World’s First Blu-Ray Optical Drive

KingFishKingFish
edited January 2005 in Science & Tech
Royal Philips Electronics Tuesday said it would showcase the world’s first commercial optical drive that can play compact discs, digital video discs and blu-ray discs at Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, Nevada later during the week.
The drive, that can read, record and re-write CDs and DVDs as well as play Blu-Ray discs, will be demonstrated during the CES show in the USA, but will only hit the market in the second half of the year, as expected. Furthermore, the drive is unlikely to be in mass demand until sometime in 2006, when film studios release their movies on Blu-Ray discs.

Philips’ new optical drive features three types of lasers, including one so-called blue-laser that has shorter wave-length allowing to read physically smaller bits of information.

Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD) is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by thirteen leading consumer electronics and PC companies, such as Dell, Hitachi, HP, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson. The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition television (HDTV). Blu-ray makes it possible to record over 2 hours of HDTV, or more than 13 hours of SDTV on a 27GB disc. There are also plans for higher capacity discs that are expected to hold up to 54GB of data, according to Blu-Ray.com web-site.
Source: X-Bit Labs

Comments

  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited January 2005
    Now make something that can do all that current disks can do, this technology and HD-DVD all on one disk and one piece of equipment.
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited January 2005
    Yeah, and I want all that for $150 or less too. And it had better be reliable.
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    And I want a zero-point energy gun... Oh, wait... You guys are serious? ;)

    I don't think such a thing would be below $150 for a while, nor would it necessarily be practical for most consumers to have an all-in-one optical drive with so many technologies inside. They just don't need it. Enthusiasts, on the other hand, would love such a thing. I know I would. Just messing with you guys. :)
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    Consumers would love it; they like having more CAV/ZAV numbers proceeding Xs than they can shake a stick at.
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited January 2005
    Haha. I guess that's true. Crazy people. :p
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