Blue Laser Musings
They're merging their respective approaches. They're not. They might, but nothing's definite yet. You've, like me, probably been following the National Enquirer-style rumours being floated by various blogs and media outlets these past few weeks with respect to the negotiations supposedly underway by the Blu-ray and HD-DVD optical disc camps. My favourite, oft-repeated scenario is when some supposedly reputable reporter breathlessly floats a juicy nugget offered up by an authoritative albeit anonymous 'insider', only to contradict himself/herself a day or a few later with a writeup that wraps up with the exact opposite conclusion. But I digress….
None of my contacts in either camp is talking, so in the absence of definitive data I'm not going to further feed the speculation flames; stay tuned for the news as I get it. I figure that since Sony's Playstation 3 is supposed to include a Blu-ray drive, and since E3 Expo is next week, I might know something solid by next Monday evening. I sincerely hope, for the common good of innumerable segments of the high tech industry, that the Sony- and Toshiba-led forces lay down their arms and agree on a common standard. Even if the merger pushes out product availability by a year or a few. But who knows for sure?
Until then, I'll leave you with this tidbit. One of the frequently touted characteristics of HD-DVD, which my optical storage cover story two years ago mentioned, is its disc manufacturing backwards-compatibility with today's red laser-based DVD. From a manufacturing facility ease-of-migration and low-cost-retrofit angle, I figured this compatibility was a good thing. But then I read John Dvorak's column in the April 26th issue. I quote; "Hollywood would prefer new plants with new equipment since the bootleggers in Asia already have the old gear, and who needs that crowd to change effortlessly to HD-DVD?"
Good old John, once again giving me pause with an angle I'd admittedly overlooked.
