Posted on 09/20/2006 11:39:19 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Inventors have come up with a design for a disc that can store copies of films in rival high-definition formats. A US patent has been filed for the discs that could hold both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray versions of movies.
Currently movie makers and technology companies are dividing into camps that back either one or the other of the two formats. The creation of the discs could end the looming battle over the different high-definition formats. Format wars The design of the disc patented in the US would have three layers. One for a standard DVD version of a film and then one for each of the competing formats. The innovation is thought to be possible because the rival formats store data on the discs at different depths. Using reflective films should make it possible to store data for one movie format in one layer but to see through that, if needed, to the deeper layer which has the same movie in the rival format. The engineers behind the idea reportedly work for the Warner Brothers movie studio. The idea could end the potential confusion that consumers face as high-definition films in different formats start to go on sale.
Few movie studios are planning to release films in both high-definition formats the majority are backing Blu-ray. Only three are backing HD-DVD. This week movie studio Universal announced it would not support the Sony-backed Blu-Ray format. In late September Warner Brothers will release the first movie in both high-definition formats. For consumers the issue is made more confusing because Microsoft and Sony have backed different formats for their next generation games consoles. Industry analysts have predicted that the confusion could mean the market for high-definition movies is stunted until one format becomes dominant.
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we already have dual-layer DVD's and it works fine.
AND:
TDK's Blu-Ray Disc Technologies
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The high-precision Spin Coating technology enables TDK to furnish its Blu-ray Disc with an extremely smooth and precise cover layer. TDK's DURABIS2 technology makes TDK's Blu-ray Disc scratch-resistant, and TDK's special Recording Layer technology makes higher speeds and multiple recording layers possible.
What makes you think the price will come down while no one is buying them. Most PC magazines are saying that DRM is killing both the technology and sales. Maximum PC couldn't find a player and videocard combination that would play either format without obvious errors.
As for using them for backup, who would trust optical drives for backup when their expected lifespan is about two years?
And also found this:
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Seagate envisions 2.5 TB desktop hard drives for 2009
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September 15, 2006 11:22
Scotts Valley (CA) - Seagate today provided an updated outlook on the future of the hard drive. The company nearly tripled today's highest storage density and believes that 275 GB capacities will be realistic for future Ipods, while desktop computers will be able to store up to 2.5 TB on one drive.
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S eagate's currently highest mass-produced storage density is 133 Gb/inch2, but the company believes that this value will increase on a fast pace. 1.8" drives, the form factor used for example by higher-end portable audio players such as Apple's Ipod could soon reach 275 GB. 2.5" notebook drives will grow to 500 GB and desktop drives to 2.5 TB - which is enough to store 41,650 hours of music, 800,000 digital photographs, 4000 hours of digital video or 1,250 video games - at least by today's standards.
Kryder believes that these capacity levels could be achieved by 2009. Seagate's largest drive today is a 750 GB 3.5" PMR drive, which is ample space for storing music and image. In times of HD video, the drive may not be enough anymore - as one drive can hold the content of only 15 Blu-ray disks. For the future, Seagate told TG Daily in an earlier interview, PMR may storage densities of up to 1 TB/inch2, which could translate into 5 TB hard drives - which would be in line with the estimate Hitachi mentioned in April of 2005.
Hard drives not only need to accelerate their growth on the high end, but on the low-end as well. With flash memory sticks already reaching 16 GB - which is above the largest micro hard drives today - and a recent announcement of Samsung that flash memory cards will reach more than 100 GB capacity in the foreseeable future, today's announced progress needs to be put into mass production rather sooner than later.
screw them all. i'll stick with xvid.
HF
HF
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