You might have read my earlier blog post about GE offering an optical disc that could store 500 GB data. Researchers at a University in Melbourne, Australia have come up with a “five dimensional” disc capable of storing 2000 times more data than a conventional DVD.
The discs, which are the same size as a conventional DVD, use nanostructures to add an additional two dimensions to existing disc’s three dimensional structure.
The extra two dimensions, created using nanostructures, are a spectral, or colour dimension, and a polarisation dimension. The researchers concede that recording times for the discs still needs to be addressed, however they are optimistic that commercial versions will become available in the next decade. To this end they have signed a commercial agreement with Korean company Samsung.
Source: PC World.
Technorati Tags: Melbourne, Australia, DVD, Nano structures, five dimension, Samsung, Korea
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A disc that can store 500 gigabytes (GB) of data, equivalent to 100 DVDs, has been unveiled by General Electric. The micro-holographic disc is the same size as existing DVD discs. Micro-holographic discs can store more data than DVDs or Blu-ray because they store information on the disc in three dimensions, rather than just pits on the surface of the disc
While the technology is still in the laboratory stage, GE believes it will take off because players can be built which are backwards compatible with existing DVD and Blu-ray technologies.
I think it’ll be few years before the technology really takes off. According to BBC, General Electric will need to work with hardware manufacturers if it is to bring the technology to the consumer market. The challenge for this area of technology has been to increase the reflectivity of the holograms that are stored on the discs so that players can be used to both read and write to the discs. Plus, the cloud computing technology and online digital distribution might render this unnecessary in the future. We have to wait and watch.
Source: BBC.
Technorati Tags: General Electric, micro-holographic, DVD, Blu-Ray
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Posted 04 Mar 2009 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu
I have a weird problem in my desktop. If I have Brasero CD/DVD burner application installed (which is the default option in Ubuntu), my system hangs whenever I insert a CD or DVD. It doesn’t matter what type. I tried audio, movie, data and blank. The system just hangs. I have to continously press the power button to shut it down. None of the CTRL combination keys work. If I uninstall Brasero, then the system works fine. I can use GNOME Baker to burn the disk. I’m not sure why Ubuntu moved from a mature application (GNOME Baker) to a buggy one (Brasero).
Update: The system hangs even after I uninstalled Brasero. I believe the problem has something to do with DVD writer being PATA and hard drive being SATA. I have ordered a new SATA drive which is on it’s way. I’ll let you know once I get the drive.
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Posted 22 Dec 2008 — by Arun
Category News
Infinity Storage Media has released the first Blu-Ray/DVD hybrid disc in Japan. According to My Digital Life,
The new technology, which embeds both Blu-ray and DVD compatible contents on the same disc is believed to be able to smoothen the migration process from DVD to most desired full HD (High Definition) Blu-ray standard especially for those users that still stick with existing DVD standard.
The benefit is obvious, now users will be able to run the same copy of DVD disc in both conventional DVD players and Blu-ray players without worrying about the old favorite movies compatibility with new Blu-ray machines. The mechanism behind is it is based on the different laser wavelength that can penetrate into different layers (isolated by semi-reflective film) embedded in the disc to read DVD and Blu-ray media contents respectively. For instance, it reflects blue light on upper layer for Blu-ray contents readings while able to pass through red light to the DVD layer underneath.
I’m not sure if there will be performance impact compared to using either just Blu-Ray or DVD.
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Posted 17 Dec 2007 — by Arun
Category News
I somehow missed this news. I accidentally came across this news in PC World today. The news was 3 months old. It was talking about a new technology, namely HD VMD (Versatile Multilayer Disc) which was supposed to be cheaper than Blu Ray and HD DVD. It uses the current DVD technology, the red laser technology, unlike Blu Ray’s and HD DVD’s blue laser technology. HD VMD discs holds 30GB on a single disc (one sided). The format uses MPEG-2 and VC1 video formats to encode at 1080p resolution for the time being, and will possibly move to the H.264 format in the future.
The 1080p set-top players, which use the HD VMD (Versatile Multilayer Disc) format, should be on sale on Amazon.com and in stores such as Radio Shack and Costco for around $150. People are already pulling their hair between the Blu Ray and HD DVD war and I don’t think we want another format now. I’m not sure if any movie studio is supporting this format.
I have a Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player. One cool new feature I like (not yet tested) in HD DVD player is sharing movies with families and friends. If you and any of your friend’s or families have HD DVD player (in separate places) and both are connected to the internet through the ethernet port (all HD DVD players have ethernet port, but it’s not the same with Blu Ray players), you can play a movie and share it with the other people through the internet connection. They can watch whatever you are watching, but they won’t have the control to operate or pause or stop the movie. It’s a cool features, but I’m not sure how useful it’ll be in a practical world. (Source: Tech Consumer).
Technorati Tags: HD VMD, HD DVD, Blu Ray, PC World, Tech Consumer, Toshiba HD A2, DVD
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Posted 27 Nov 2007 — by Arun
Category General
My brother gifted me a Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player. I didn’t have any HD movie at home to test and the movie rental stores near my house didn’t have any HD DVD movie for rent. I played the regular DVDs and they worked fine. I then rented couple of HD DVDs from Netflix. The player reported one of the HD DVD was not a playable disk and recognized the other one, but didn’t play it. It didn’t work. I was going to return the player, but then decided to upgrade the firmware and try.
You can update the firmware in 3 different ways.
1. You can update using the Ethernet connection (HD-A2 has Ethernet port), but my router was not close to my living room.
2. You can get it by postal mail which might take couple of weeks.
3. You can download the ISO image to the CD and load the firmware in the player through the CD. This is the only solution that could work for me, so I downloaded the firmware ISO for my HD-A2 from here and burnt it to the CD. I then loaded the CD in the player. The player then prompted with Yes or No to upgrade. Once I pressed Yes, it took few minutes to upgrade the firmware. Once upgraded, it ejected the CD and powered itself off. I removed the CD and put the HD DVDs back and the player played both the HD DVDs fine. I’m not sure how many people returned their HD-A2 player back due to difficulty in playing the HD DVD discs. If you have issues playing the HD DVD using Toshiba HD-A2 and haven’t returned the piece yet, then try upgrading your firmware.
Technorati Tags: Toshiba, HD-A2, HD DVD, Netflix, DVD, CD, Firmware
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