News and Reviews....

    Blue Laser vs. DMD     July  2004

    How do you fit High Definition content onto a single red-laser DVD? Until recently the answer was, without some heavy-duty encoding, you don't. Most manufacturers have set their sights on Blue Laser technology, with its shorter wavelength and tighter spiral track, can store significantly more then the 4.7 GB limit of most red-laser DVDs. SONY is clearly committed to the Blue Ray, which is the cornerstone of its new XDCAM camcorders as is Panasonic, Thomson (RCA), LG (Zenith), Pioneer and Samsung. Toshiba and NEC are betting on HD-DVD (High Definition DVD) another Blue-Laser Technology that can store about 15 GB of data. Both blue-laser formats are extremely expensive to manufacture and will lead to considerable shifts in existing DVD production lines.

    Enter D Data, a newcomer that has figured out how to use the relatively less expensive red-laser technology to store 15 GB of HD content on one disc - about as much as you need for a full length feature film shot and encoded in HD. The company is positioning its Digital Multi-layer Disc (DMD) technology as a bridge between the market's existing storage limitations and the promise of next-generation formats still in developments.

    A single DMD disc, which is completely transparent, holds multiple information layers on each side. Standard DVD's, including Blue-Laser discs, can hold only two information layers underneath its reflective metallic coating. Conversely, the multiple layers on the DMD are coated with a transparent florescent material that, when bonded together, form a single see-through 15-30 GB disc.

    HD content encoded to DMD averages at 35 Mbps and peaks at about 40-45 Mbps. DMDs also appear to be impervious to other disc-related maladies such as DVD rot. For starters, most "rot" or layer degradation, occurs in a CD or DVD's reflective layer, which DMDs lack. D Data states that its discs don't succumb to the bending and flexing that stress dual-layer DVDs. 

    The DMD format is read only to take away the piracy issue. And due to the complexity of the process a DMD disc will never be a "burnable at home" format. If content partners embrace the format, (no one has signed on to date) the discs and first generation DMD-HD players - which will also play existing DVD - are expected to roll out in the early part of 2005.

Comment .....  While all of us at Custom Audio-Video Systems feel that nothing stops technology, and that their will always be a better method and equipment for consumers to embrace, we also believe that the current DVD is heavily entrenched, the process is well defined and the format is being developed into all aspects of the information and entertainment worlds. High Definition is well on its way and currently trying to make its way into the Television market. Once it has a good enough foot hold in the Television market, then and only then will the High Definition DVD be relevant. At that point, the consumer will be looking for High Def DVDs and at first will want a playback product which does not make their entire DVD collection part of the trash, and so we believe that the DMD is a fine stepping stone into the HD playback market. For those that have been hold outs to the entire DVD process (I don't think their are many) the Blue-Laser machine will be their initial product of choice.

For information leading up to this article see:

    Birth of the Blues    February 2002

    DVD - Blue/Out - Red/IN    March 2002

    DVD - New Standard    May 2002

    Next Generation DVD    December 2002

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