New Generation DVD…
Toshiba and NEC have announced the development of a new DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) format, less expensive and able to contain more data, but not compatible with the norm developed by the consortium headed up by Sony.
Toshiba says this new generation format, which will be available before the end of the year, uses a blue laser instead of a red one to read the information encoded on the disc.
According to a Toshiba spokesperson, the use of this method will facilitate the passage of current DVD’s to that of the future blue optical discs.
"When a new player is released, what the users want is to be able to continue using the DVD’s they already have", explained Midori Suzuki.
"From the point of view of the manufacturer, our format will allow many of them to use their current installations, which will reduce the manufacturing cost.
The Toshiba-NEC format will, in any case, remain incompatible with the so-called “Blu-Ray” technology presented last February by Sony, Matsushita and seven other enterprises including Thomson Multimedia.
Toshiba was one of the rare Japanese electronic giants not to associate themselves with the Sony project.
Questioned on the eventual threat posed by the Toshiba-NEC, norm, a spokesman declined to comment.
The manufacturers of DVD’s are suffering from the fragmentation of the “red laser” formats. Even though sales in past months have been quite constant, there are many who say the same errors should be avoided when it comes to the next generation.
Toshiba has minimised worries in this sense, with regard to an eventual battle of formats, affirming that the “Blu-Ray” norm was, in the longer term, the next logical step, saying that they are also working on this norm.
"Blu Ray" technology multiplies by five the capacity of data storage on one single side of an optical disc – giving it a capacity of 23.3 GO, enough to stock a two hour film in high definition.
Red Light discs can stock 4,7 gigaoctets.
Source - yahoo.fr