Sony charges up Blu-ray DVD drives
By Richard Shim
CNET News.com
April 8, 2003, 6:23 AM PT
Sony Electronics is expanding into new markets with its recordable DVD
products.
The company is demonstrating Blu-ray drives and media for professional use as well as new
multiformat DVD drives with rewritable speeds of 4x DVD+RW for desktop PCs. Sony is one
of the first manufacturers to announce these products.
Blu-ray represents the next generation in DVD recording technology and is designed to allow
a single-sided, 12-centimeter disc to hold up to 27GB of storage. (Most DVDs hold 4.7GB of
data.) The technology uses a short-wavelength violet laser--instead of the red lasers in
current optical drives--to read data from the discs. Last month, the Japanese parent of Sony
Electronics said it would release a Blu-ray disc recorder in Japan on Thursday of this week,
priced at about $3,800.
Sony's Blu-ray rewritable
and write-once discs will
come in cartridges, instead
of bare discs, and will be
able to store up to 23.3GB of
data at a transfer rate of
9MB per second. The
5.25-inch drives use an
Ultra-wide 160 SCSI
interface.
The company is licensing
the design for the drive as
well as the media to other
manufacturers and both
should be available by this
summer. The drives will cost
about $3,000, and the media
will cost around $45. A
Sony-branded version of the drive and media will be available before year-end.
Sony said manufacturers already are interested in selling second-generation drives and
media with 50GB capacity and transfer speeds of 18MB per second by 2005. The
third-generation products would involve recorders and media with 100GB capacity and
36MB-per-second transfer rates.
Sony is demonstrating the recorders and media at the Association of Information and Image
Management conference in New York until Wednesday. The drives are a successor to 9.1GB
magneto-optical technology and are meant to target professional customers, such as
high-end workstations users.
Sony Electronics was also demonstrating new multiformat drives with 4x DVD+RW rewrite
speeds at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas this week. The
higher speed means that consumers will be able to record a full length DVD in about 15
minutes.
The previous generation of DVD multiformat rewritable drives will not be upgradable to 4x
DVD+RW speeds, the company said. Sony's drives support DVD+RW, DVD-RW and
DVD-R formats. The DVD+RW format includes support for DVD+R media.
Sony will release internal and external drives supporting 4x DVD+RW speeds, along with 4x
DVD-R, 4x DVD+R and 4x DVD-RW speeds. The drives also support DVD-ROM, CD-R and
CD-RW media. The internal drive will be available in early May, and the external drive will be
available in June.
Sony is targeting a market for DVD recorders that is expected to grow to almost 90 million
units in 2006, according to research firm IDC.
By Richard Shim
CNET News.com
April 8, 2003, 6:23 AM PT
Sony Electronics is expanding into new markets with its recordable DVD
products.
The company is demonstrating Blu-ray drives and media for professional use as well as new
multiformat DVD drives with rewritable speeds of 4x DVD+RW for desktop PCs. Sony is one
of the first manufacturers to announce these products.
Blu-ray represents the next generation in DVD recording technology and is designed to allow
a single-sided, 12-centimeter disc to hold up to 27GB of storage. (Most DVDs hold 4.7GB of
data.) The technology uses a short-wavelength violet laser--instead of the red lasers in
current optical drives--to read data from the discs. Last month, the Japanese parent of Sony
Electronics said it would release a Blu-ray disc recorder in Japan on Thursday of this week,
priced at about $3,800.
Sony's Blu-ray rewritable
and write-once discs will
come in cartridges, instead
of bare discs, and will be
able to store up to 23.3GB of
data at a transfer rate of
9MB per second. The
5.25-inch drives use an
Ultra-wide 160 SCSI
interface.
The company is licensing
the design for the drive as
well as the media to other
manufacturers and both
should be available by this
summer. The drives will cost
about $3,000, and the media
will cost around $45. A
Sony-branded version of the drive and media will be available before year-end.
Sony said manufacturers already are interested in selling second-generation drives and
media with 50GB capacity and transfer speeds of 18MB per second by 2005. The
third-generation products would involve recorders and media with 100GB capacity and
36MB-per-second transfer rates.
Sony is demonstrating the recorders and media at the Association of Information and Image
Management conference in New York until Wednesday. The drives are a successor to 9.1GB
magneto-optical technology and are meant to target professional customers, such as
high-end workstations users.
Sony Electronics was also demonstrating new multiformat drives with 4x DVD+RW rewrite
speeds at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas this week. The
higher speed means that consumers will be able to record a full length DVD in about 15
minutes.
The previous generation of DVD multiformat rewritable drives will not be upgradable to 4x
DVD+RW speeds, the company said. Sony's drives support DVD+RW, DVD-RW and
DVD-R formats. The DVD+RW format includes support for DVD+R media.
Sony will release internal and external drives supporting 4x DVD+RW speeds, along with 4x
DVD-R, 4x DVD+R and 4x DVD-RW speeds. The drives also support DVD-ROM, CD-R and
CD-RW media. The internal drive will be available in early May, and the external drive will be
available in June.
Sony is targeting a market for DVD recorders that is expected to grow to almost 90 million
units in 2006, according to research firm IDC.