Blu-Ray or HD-DVD / Which do you think will win out?

[Jason]

jevans64 - That's good info you posted. It really puts into perspective the technical & monetary hurdles that a duplicataing facility must overcome.

The *only* thing I think blu-ray has going for it is their hard-coating technology. There is no mention if the HD-DVD people will be adopting it. Though TDK has started selling plain old DVD-R's (I could not find any DVD+R's) directly with the coating calling it their "armor plated with UV protection".

My question for jevans64 is how hard would it be for a duplication company to switch over to the new polymer created by TDK?

[jevans64]

Originally Posted by Jason

My question for jevans64 is how hard would it be for a duplication company to switch over to the new polymer created by TDK?

I took a look at the link provided. Our DVD lines are modular with polycarbonate pellets going in and finished ( but not printed ) DVDs coming out. I would assume the TDK coating would take the place of the regular PC coating since the article referred to a two-step process ( apply and dry.) I guess it would depend on how the layers are to be applied.

The "spin-coat" referred to in the article is exactly how the PC coating is applied now; an arm picks up the disc, lowers it into a chamber, a hot UV-activated polymer coating is squirted near the hub of the disc ( the disc is slowly turned for this.) The disc is then spun at 300 RPM to disperse the coating, then it is lifted and placed onto a rotating conveyor to be UV-cured.

All this happens AFTER the metalizing process. Since the lines are modular, it wouldn't be a problem for a module to be replaced with another one that applies the TDK coating IF the handling is different. The bigger question would be whether the manufacturer of our lines ( Singulus, Sumitomo ) has the upgrade for our lines. I am guessing it would just be a matter of cleaning out the existing PC stations and vatting the TDK goo.

We already have 8 of these ... http://www.singulus.de/english/4_pro...eplication.htm

And a TON of these ... http://www.singulus.de/english/4_pro...eplication.htm ... with the DVD-9 upgrade.

These are just the "front" ends and have either a Sumitomo SD30,SD35, or SD40 moulding module ( two injection moulding units ) on the "back" end.

We are still awaiting delivery of our Blu-Ray lines by the same manufacturer.

Here is the Durabis page I was looking at ... http://www.durabis.com/en/con00100.htm

I bet all we need to do is obtain a license ( on the DVD / HD-DVD lines ) to use this coating on our existing discs as it SEEMS to use the same application process as regular PC.

[Aynjell]

Awesome, glad to hear we have an insider giving his input. I really do hope that HD-DVD wins out. Jevans, thay actually make computer parts in america these days? Granted, dvd discs, but still... I'm shocked.

[ether.real]

not every manufacturing job left the US....there are still plenty of fabs here.

[Aynjell]

Originally Posted by ether.real

not every manufacturing job left the US....there are still plenty of fabs here.

I'm glad, but a lot of things are outsourced, can you blame me for being surprised?

[foy1der]

Originally Posted by Aynjell

Awesome, glad to hear we have an insider giving his input. I really do hope that HD-DVD wins out. Jevans, thay actually make computer parts in america these days? Granted, dvd discs, but still... I'm shocked.

There is a GIGANTIC cd/dvd manufacuring plant near my house. Granted, its Canadian owned, but its still in the US. They employ a bunch of people too, its tough to find ppl that don't know someone who works there.

[ether.real]

I work for an American fab that still has 12,000 or so american employees. Not including the huge fab getting built in Utah

[Aynjell]

I also work in a machine shop, not saying it was impossible, just saying that it surprised me is all. Nice to see that not all jobs are being outsourced.

[Jason]

I did some googling the other day and saw that cdfreaks had a review of the TDK DVD's with the durabis coating. They took a sharpie to it, sandpaper, etc, and compared it to a regular DVD.

From the looks of it, the material is quite a bit more durable, unless you are intentionally trying to damage the CD/DVD, it should resist all little scratches from people throwing them around on their desk and whatnot.

[maximus7724]

I really want a Blu ray drive just because of the larger storage, as our apps and media get bigger and bigger a 50 Gb disc will be brilliant
+ microsoft are trying for 35Gb HD-DVD whilst blu ray is trying for 100Gb

[skeensp]

Off topic a bit, I just read this weekend about the new halographic discs that are going to be hitting the streets this year. first ones to hit will be around 300gb (supposedly) and later upto 1TB. So we can add this to the equation on next media. However I have not seen any cost associated with halographic imaged discs yet. I would have to think the way they are created though that the cost would be cheaper than Blue-Ray, but that is yet to be seen.

[undefeatedone]

Originally Posted by Turtile

THE REAL WINNER IS THE HOLOGRAPHIC DISC
http://www.joystiq.com/2005/11/26/bl...aphic-storage/

It can hold up to 1.6TB

Nuff said.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by maximus7724

I really want a Blu ray drive just because of the larger storage, as our apps and media get bigger and bigger a 50 Gb disc will be brilliant + microsoft are trying for 35Gb HD-DVD whilst blu ray is trying for 100Gb

Trying for 100GB is not the same as having available. Right now they only have 25GB & 50GB discs that I have seen. They could try for 1TB, but if it never hits the market then it's moot.

[KorbenD]

When DVD was just being released, FMD was coming Real Soon Now(TM) with capacities up to 1TB. Not a peep since then.

I wouldn't be all that surprised if the touted holographic discs followed suit.

Announced technologies often never make it to market.

[Jason]

I was just thinking... If they shrunk down the size of a DVD with whatever next gen technology gets used, using a smaller spindle hole too, that medium could make quite an impact in the mobile market & compete with hard drives and solid state media. Think if a little disk the size of a silver-dollar could hold say... 5GB. New iPod? New PSP?

Just because there are new technologies emerging, don't forget about the applications of these higher densities in a smaller format. Nobody said they only have to be used in a full sized DVD.

[cdy291]

Originally Posted by Jason

I was just thinking... If they shrunk down the size of a DVD with whatever next gen technology gets used, using a smaller spindle hole too, that medium could make quite an impact in the mobile market & compete with hard drives and solid state media. Think if a little disk the size of a silver-dollar could hold say... 5GB. New iPod? New PSP?

Just because there are new technologies emerging, don't forget about the applications of these higher densities in a smaller format. Nobody said they only have to be used in a full sized DVD.

It may sell but ten agian people may not give a flip about it. I would be cheaper than memory cards. You may want to put up a poll here to see what people have to say about it.

[Jason]

My guess wasn't too bad... If you figured based on the difference between a 4.7GB single layer DVD and a 1.8GB UMB, and scale that up to the difference between a 15GB single layer HD-DVD, you get about 5.7GB for a smaller UMD sized disk...

There was actually already blu-ray specs on the wikipedia for an 8cm disk... 7.8GB sigle layer & 15.6GB dual layer!

[jevans64]

Originally Posted by foy1der

There is a GIGANTIC cd/dvd manufacuring plant near my house. Granted, its Canadian owned, but its still in the US. They employ a bunch of people too, its tough to find ppl that don't know someone who works there.

Well. Well. Well. The company I work for is Canadian-owned. I think we MIGHT be referring to the same manufacturer / plant. If you live near Huntsville, Alabama, then it IS the same. If you live in Richmond, Indiana, then that is the SMALL U.S. manufacturing plant. I think there are others now since the company is buying up A LOT of plants now.

[foy1der]

Originally Posted by jevans64

Well. Well. Well. The company I work for is Canadian-owned. I think we MIGHT be referring to the same manufacturer / plant. If you live near Huntsville, Alabama, then it IS the same. If you live in Richmond, Indiana, then that is the SMALL U.S. manufacturing plant. I think there are others now since the company is buying up A LOT of plants now.

No this plant is in Scranton PA

[MaDoNiOn]

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jh...8&pageNumber=0

From the link above.
Catalog Blu-ray disc titles will wholesale for $17.95, about the same as DVDs when that format hit the market in 1997. New-release Blu-ray discs will wholesale for $23.45, a premium of 15%-20% over what suppliers were charging for new theatrical DVDs.