Up until now the optical head in Blu-ray drives could only operate with Blu-ray media due to the wavelength of the laser. Multi-format drives which handle Blu-ray and CD/DVD required a second red/infra-red optical pick-up head for handling CD/DVD media. Now Sony has developed a 3-wavelength recording/playback optical head which is capable of recording to and reading from CD, DVD and Blu-ray media.
Incorporating all three wavelengths in a single unit thus simplifies development and reduces cost by just dealing with a single optical head. This becomes useful for Blu-ray recorders and players allowing them to support legacy CD and DVD media for recording and playback. The pick-up unit has a single 3-wavelength laser diode, a single multi-wavelength object lens and two Opto Electronic Integrated circuits; one for handling red & infra-red light and the other for Blu-violet light.
Sony expects to commercialise its 3-wavelength optical head within two years. With its launch, it
should reduce costs, simplify production and increase reliability by not dealing
with two optical pick-up heads in multi-format equipment. Thanks to
Majdas and GristyMcFisty for submitting the following news via our news submit :
|
BD is an optical disc system capable of recording and playing-back HD contents from, for example, HD broadcasting. Sony has commercialized the world's first BD recorder <BDZ-S77> with this standard. The BD market is expected to expand in the coming era where high-quality contents will become the mainstream and BD recognized as the indispensable optical disc system. On the other hand, together with the capability to recording/playing-back HD contents of the BD standards, it is desired for the BD recorder to play DVD software, recorded rewriteable/postscript DVD disc, as well as playback of music CD. In order to cope with this, in <BDZ-S77> , 2 optical heads, one to playback DVD and CD, and the other to record and playback BD is incorporated. Read Sony's full press release here. |
It looks like until 3-wavelength optical heads become commercially available, Blu-ray enthusiasts will have a choice of purchasing expensive two head multi-format Blu-ray equipment or lower cost Blu-ray-only equipment. It will likely be a few years before HDTV-video for optical media becomes standardised as well as for Blu-ray to catch on. Majdas wrote "Maybe this willl be a part of the upcoming PlayStation 3? You never know."
Feel free to discuss and read more about Blu-ray and HDTV on our new Satellite, HD-TV, Blu-ray and HD-DVD Forum.
Source: Sony Global - Press Release
