Sony, NEC to Merge Optical Drive Teams

illeism writes to tell us The Register is reporting that Sony and NEC are planning on merging their optical drive divisions. From the article: "Sony will be the bigger of the two stakeholders in the joint venture. It will own 55 per cent of Sony NEC Optiarc, to NEC's 45 per cent. Indeed, the JV will be run by Sony staffer Shinichi Yamamura, currently deputy president of Sony's Video Business Group."

HD vs Blu

[Brushfireb]

The move may pave the way for reconciliation between the two next-generation optical disc formats, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD.

I guess that means that Sony has learned since the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax [wikipedia.org]Betamax Fiasco

Although, in this case, I would tend to think that Sony buying their standards competitor, would mean that their Blu-Ray will win. Unless someone else wants to take up the HD DVD cause...

Merged format or multi format?

[gbulmash]

I wonder if this will mean a reconciliation between the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats or just that the joint venture will end up building multi-format players. I'm probably oversimplifying things, but it seems that multiformat has been the way the industry has gone in recent years... look at all the 7-in-1 card readers, DVD burners that support both DVD-R and DVD+R, etc. Would have been nice if Beta/VHS multiformat VCRs had become the standard way back when.

Wake the hell up! This was announced in November!

[Anonymous Coward]

This merger was announced November 17th, 2005. It's OLD news.

http://www.necus.com/companies/11/NECCORP_NEC_SONY DiskDrives.pdf [necus.com]

Thanks Scuttle Monkey! With some work, you will eventually find a calendar and learn it's now 2006.

Re:Merged format or multi format?

[TheRaven64]

The laser technology is completely different between the two

Both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD use 405nm blue light. The lasers are identical. You will need a different focussing lens for each disk, since they have different data densities (15GB Vs 25GB per platter). Most of the optical system, however, can be shared between the two drives. Both types of drive are expected to read DVDs and CDs as well, however, which requires a 650nm red laser as well.

If both sides are planning on manufacturing dual-laser systems to be backwards compatible, I think it quite likely that drives that are sideways compatible as well will appear relatively quickly.

Well that's just great

[BestNicksRTaken]

Sony's the one that's going to benefit from this, as they couldn't make a DVD burner to save their lives, NEC however is top of the market (especially with the hacked firmwares) along with BenQ.

Could make life difficult for other vendors who rebadge NEC drives.

Of course, this does mean that we can't buy NEC anymore because it's giving money to Big Bad, so better head off and grab a few ND-4551's before the takeover.