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Disc Makers Bet on Blue Lasers

Toshiba, Sony, JVC, and Panasonic are developing drives that could boost storage capacity to 27GB--and beyond.

Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

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CHIBA, JAPAN--Many of the companies behind the Blu-ray Disc optical video disc format unveiled prototype players here Tuesday, the first day of the Ceatec 2002 exhibition. Toshiba, meanwhile, gave the first public demonstration of its competing format.

The two formats, which are both still in the design stage, are based on blue lasers, which allow the discs to hold several times more data than DVD discs--up to 27GB per layer in the case of Blu-ray and 20GB per layer for Toshiba's Advanced Optical Disc.

Both formats are already battling to succeed DVD Video in the consumer electronics market, and technology derived from their development is expected to play an important part in future optical disc formats aimed at computer use.

In February, a group of companies headed by Sony announced Blu-ray; the format grew out of work the company was doing with Pioneer on DVR Blue, a blue-laser-based system project unveiled at Ceatec in 2000.

Surprise Announcement

Among the companies showing prototypes of Blu-ray recorders at Ceatec was JVC, which was a surprise because the company was absent from the nine-member group that established the format. Other prototypes were on display from consortium members including Sony, Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic), Sharp, and Pioneer Electronics.

The recorders looked impressive. However, they are still far from completion, and many were displayed in a way that hid the large component boards typical of such prototype devices.

Alongside the players, the companies were also showing media for the format. There are three capacities of Blu-ray media: 23.3GB, 25GB, and 27GB. Each version is a single-layer disc; double-layer discs (with double the capacity) are also specified.

While stressing that commercial plans for the format have yet to be decided, representatives of both Sony and Matsushita said their companies hope the media will cost around $42 per disc when they go on sale.

Competing Formats

Toshiba, which is one of the few major consumer electronics companies not behind the Blu-ray format, unveiled in public for the first time a prototype of its new Advanced Optical Disc.

The AOD is being developed by Toshiba and NEC and has the ability to store around 20GB of data on a single-layer recordable disc and 15GB of data on a single-layer prerecorded disc, says Naoki Morishita, a specialist at Toshiba's optical disc development department.

Its announcement in August set the stage for a format battle between AOD and Blu-ray.

Toshiba proposed AOD to the DVD Forum, which it chairs, as a next-generation successor to DVD Video. The Blu-ray group has not approached the DVD Forum, however, maintaining. that its format is a new-generation system and should not fall under the DVD Forum's auspices.

Based on the prototypes on display at Ceatec 2002, it is still too early to tell which format has the edge, although the sheer number of Blu-ray prototype players make that format difficult to ignore.

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