News and Reviews....

DVD... Blue/OUT - Red/IN .......    March 2002

Yes Folks... Just as we thought the format of DVD was going to change (see review -  Blue Laser DVD)  to the BLUE RAY, it looks as though the Red Laser Format will stay. As a refresher, the Red laser High Compression, MPEG-2 format was deemed unfit for High Definition content. As it stands that format (the one in existence now) would not have the area for High Definition Movies and other content. So... the so called need to change formats to the Blue-Ray Laser. But wait... The DVD forum Steering Committee thought it just a bit too much of a change, not to mention the general public opinion once the word gets out.

The foreseeable Change...

The DVD forum Steering Committee voted to approve the use of low-bite rate compression for High Definition DVD content. Going from MPEG2 - (4.7 Gigabytes) to MPEG4 - (9 Gigabytes) of High Definition content. Eleven (11) of seventeen (17) companies that sit on the committee approved the Low-Bit-Rate encoding approach. The remaining six including Matsushita, JVC and Philips, reportedly abstained. It was clear as reported that the forum did not arrive at its decision last week without some pain. Sources disagreed not only what the vote meant but even on what had been decided. 

Some sources involved in the developments insisted that they saw no contradictions in pursuing both blue-laser and low-bit-rate approaches. The industry might draw distinctions in playback and recording. Having Red-Laser Low-Bit-rate for Playback and Blue-Laser for recording.

Thus, the industry walks a fine line between advancing DVD performance and fragmenting what to date has been an aggressively robust market for DVD disks and equipment.

DVD Playback format Current generation:

• 4 Gigabytes (single layer disk)

• a 650-nm red laser

• MPEG-2 video

DVD Playback Next generation:

• HD-DVD (an extension to the current DVD format)

• 9 Gigabytes (dual layer disk) (Update March 2006 - 30 GB)

• a 650-nm red laser

• MPEG-4 or an improved version MPEG-2 with heavy pre/post processing

DVD Recordable Format Current Generation

• DVD-R (write once)

• DVD-RAM (rewritable)

• DVD-RW (rewritable)

• DVD+RW (rewritable)

• 4.7 Gigabytes

• a 650-nm red laser

• MPEG-2 Video

DVD Recordable Format Next Generation

• Blue-ray Disc

• 27 Gigabytes (single layer) to 50 Gigabytes (dual layer)

       ( Update March 2006 - Plans for a eight layer disc at 200 GB)

• a 405-nm Blue-violet Laser

• MPEG-2 Video

More to come ........ I'm sure

For More Information See - Birth of the Blues    February 2002