Lens That Writes on Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray 289
morpheus83 writes "Ricoh claims they have developed an optical component that reads and writes all disk formats -- Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD, as well as DVD and CD -- with one pickup and one objective lens. The component is a 3.5-mm diameter, 1-mm thick round diffraction plate with minute concentric groves on both sides which function as a diffraction grating. Based on disc information the drive can identify which format disk is loaded, Ricoh's optical diffraction component adjusts the laser beam with its diffraction grating for each format and passes it to the objective lens."
I smell a hoax. (Score:1, Informative)
Re:well, now that that's settled (Score:5, Informative)
Most consumers will get bit by DRM, but only after the fact when it is too late.
This is already used in several DVD players (Score:5, Informative)
Notice that you do not only need different numerical aperture lenses to read every format, you also need to generate lasers of the proper wavelengths. There are several solutions for this, but the easiest is to use three different laser diodes.
Re:How unexpected....NOT! (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, dispite what the misleading headline would like you to believe, this isn't the first to read both HD and BluRay, and TFA doesn't make that clam... It's the first to read both, and read CDs and DVDs too with a single head. That's the tricky part, as CDs and DVDs use a different wavelength than HD-DVD and BluRay. Prior to this, if you wanted backwards compatability, you needed a second lens.
Re:What's The Point? (Score:5, Informative)
A couple. Most are riding the fence, committing to nothing.
Which will only be important if people feel the PS3 is worthwhile, and if it doesn't cause other Blu-Ray manufacturers to jump ship because Sony is taking away their sales with the PS3 loss-leader.
It's worth noting that while all the currently available next-gen disc players available so far have problems, the $1,000 Samsung Blu-Ray players seems to be the worst of the lot. It's also fairly important that both Toshiba and RCA are already selling their HD-DVD players for half the price of the Samsung unit and the forthcoming Sony Blu-Ray player. Finally, there are more HD-DVD titles on store shelves than Blu-Ray so far.
Personally, I'm still in wait-and-see mode, but your assertion that HD-DVD is already dead is premature at best.
Re:How unexpected....NOT! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I have to second this. (Score:5, Informative)
Somewhat. Usually a single console "wins" in every generation. The secondary consoles either die, survive in a niche (Nintendo) or require masssive subsidies (MS, Sega).
Re:well, now that that's settled-Extensions (Score:3, Informative)
100 years from now, no act of Congress is going to make it possible to play a BluRay disc if, by some unlikely chance, the media consortium gets the encryption right this time. When access to a work remains blocked after the expiration of its copyright term, the publisher will have failed to live up to its part of the copyright bargain.
In short, when Congress passed the DMCA, they willingly gave up their ability to enforce the limited-time clause in exchange for payoffs from industry lobbyists. The Constitution doesn't permit them to do that, and (inexplicably, IMO) the courts have never ruled on that point.
Re:hurrar (Score:2, Informative)
Remember they have a lot in common... (Score:3, Informative)
Well, the protection system (ACSS, which has nothing to do with CSS except in name) is the same, except Blu-Ray added a few extra bells and whistles. Also, you should only need one license per codec (MPEG2, H.264, VC-1) since they're the same. Any basic blue-laser related patents may also be the same. However, you may have to pay any other patents twice. It might happen, it might not... DVD+/-R recorders don't seem to cost an arm and a leg, for example.
Re:Price (Score:3, Informative)