Sharp begins making blue lasers for next-gen DVDs
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Sharp has begun mass production of blue-laser diodes at a new factory in Japan -- a move that should help reduce the cost of Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD players.
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Notebook PCs coming out this year will likely include more colorful screens thanks to LED (light emitting diode) backlights and Blu-ray Disc optical drives this year, an executive from&#160;Micro-Star International (MSI)&#160;says, as well as more environmentally friendly attributes.But other technologies such as WiMax and SSDs (solid-state discs) probably won&#39;t see as much widespread use, said Sam Chen, director of notebook PC sales at MSI.There are a number of new technologies people are likely to find more readily available on notebook PCs this year. For one, the size of the standard screen is likely to expand to 15.6-inches from the current mainstream standard, 15.4-inches, as users snap up notebooks with bigger screens, said Chem. And colors on those screens will probably be better due to the use of LED backlights, which are coming down in price.LED backlights not only help create a better picture, they save power compared to current mainstream backlighting technology, CCFLs (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps).More laptop PCs will launch with Blu-ray Disc optical drives inside this year as well, Chem predicted. Blu-ray Disc, the high definition optical disc in line to replace DVDs, gained a march over rival format HD DVD earlier this year when Hollywood studio&#160;Warner Bros. announced it would shift from producing in both formats to just Blu-ray&#160;alone. The decision means five of the seven major Hollywood studios now back Blu-ray Disc exclusively, while the HD DVD camp has just two, Paramount and Universal.On Monday, market researcher Gartner said that it expects Blu-ray Disc will be the winning format in the consumer market by the end of this year.Currently, MSI makes laptops with either HD DVD drives or Blu-ray Disc drives inside. Chem suggested that in future, the company will likely only use Blu-ray Disc.A few other technologies people may find in greater use in laptops this year is digital TV and better, 2-megapixel Web cams. Digital TV is growing, Chem said, and people are likely to demand it on more than just mobile phones.WiMax, the wireless technology in line to replace Wi-Fi for wireless Internet use may be a function included in a lot of notebook PCs, but it probably won&#39;t drive sales because the technology is still to early, said Chem. Outside of some major cities, there are few WiMax networks being built globally, he said.Energy savings will be one of the biggest trends this year, as companies vie to offer laptop PCs with better battery performance and more environmentally friendly materials inside. &quot;This is an important trend. Al Gore&#39;s film &#39;An Inconvenient Truth&#39; really pushed environmental issues to the fore, he said.
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Sony plans to launch a Blu-ray Disc player this year that will cost $400 less than many current models.
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A consortium of Chinese university engineers and government officials, in cooperation with a Chinese video standards group that includes globally recognized manufacturers, plus the DVD Forum, have come to an agreement on a standard specification for a blue-laser disc mechanism and format specifically for the Chinese market. It means China could be producing low-price HD DVD mechanisms by this next summer.
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Sony, Matsushita and other firms are planning to launch camcorders using next-generation, smaller DVDs in the Blu-ray format as early as 2005 to win a lead over a rival offering, a report said Thursday.
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Sony, Sharp and Matsushita plan to offer camcorders based on a cut-down version of the Blu-ray Disc, and could announce product as early as next year.
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Media giant Thomson announced today that it is supporting both next-generation DVD formats, and will manufacture both HD DVD and Blu-ray DVD disks through its Camarillo-based Technicolor business.
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(InfoWorld) - Visitors to the IFA consumer electronics show, which opens Friday in Berlin, will have ringside seats to the war over high-definition disc formats raging between Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. As the two formats duel for the title of successor to current DVD movie discs, many European consumers haven't decided which kind of player they will buy. "Everyone is waiting for IFA where many new products are expected to be announced," said Frank Simonis, chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc have sold in lower quantities in Europe than in other regions and prices are still relatively high, between â¬599 (US$814 ) and â¬899, according to Simonis. Currently, five manufacturers have launched Blu-ray Disc players in Europe, including Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic). Five additional vendors are expected to launch Blu-ray Disc players at IFA, while companies with players already in the market plan to introduce devices with new features, Simonis said. Many of the manufacturers are major suppliers of HDTV sets and hope to leverage that expertise to "accelerate the adoption of Blu-ray Disc," he said. The format has received a big boost from its use in Sony's PlayStation 3 games console, with sales of more than 1.4 million units in Europe, according to Simonis. The HD DVD camp is also bringing new wares to IFA, according to Frank Eschholz, business development manager of HD DVD products at Sony Deutschland GmbH. "There will be new devices and new features and more." Both types of players are designed with many of the same components inside and offer many of the same features, according to Simonis. But one of Blu-ray Disc's key benefits is its ability to store up to 50G bytes of data, he said. "Studios want to pack a bunch of extras onto discs in addition to the movies, and Blu-ray Disc allows them to do so," he said. The Blu-ray Disc camp, however, was jolted when Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation announced last week that they would align themselves exclusively with the HD DVD high-definition format. The decision comes at a time when market indicators have been pointing to competitor Blu-ray Disc as having the lead. In addition to next-generation movie-disc players, visitors to this year's IFA can expect to see plenty of HDTV sets, camcorders, digital cameras, MP3 players and notebook computers. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will introduce new products in all those categories, according to a spokeswoman. The company may launch two handsets as well, she said. Sony has decided to return to IFA after its absence last year, with plans to exhibit new Blu-ray Disc players, new Walkman music players and HDTV sets, according to a spokeswoman. More information about IFA -- the letters stand for Internationale Funkausstellung, although the full name is rarely used these days -- is available at the show's Web site .
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Electronics companies are at war over next-generation DVDs
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Sharp Corp (6753.T) said it would launch  a Blu-ray high-definition DVD recorder with a 1-terabyte hard  disk drive (HDD), the world&#39;s largest storage capacity on any  Blu-ray recorder, as it competes with the HD DVD camp.
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Sony is planning to hit the HD DVD camp square between the eyes with a midsummer Blu-ray player price cut that Sony hopes will earn it the next-gen DVD championship belt.
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Sony Corp. is increasing its bet on Blu-ray Disc and plans to ditch DVD and use the high-definition video disc format in all future digital video recorders in Japan, the company said Wednesday.
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Sharp officially released to the Japanese market yesterday the first Blu-ray Disc recorder console to record high-definition TV content directly. But Sharp's solution to the problem of securing the digital connection between the recorder and TV tuner could become controversial: It requires a dedicated link to the company's own Aquos brand HDTV units.
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The BD-HD100 will be the third recorder on the market to support the Blu-ray Disc format, which is one of two blue-laser based formats fighting to become the de-facto optical disc standard for high-definition video content.
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Discs offering high-definition images using blue lasers likely will rule the market starting in 2005. By Jonathan Sidener. A pessimist might say that right about the time the last person on the planet buys
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Sony Corp  said it will launch four models of new Blu-ray high-definition optical disc recorders in November in Japan, as its format battle with the HD DVD camp heats up.
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As part of digital shift, electronics maker is planning device that will record HD DVDs, DVDs and CDs.