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Home :
TV Video Models :
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HD-DVD formats
: HD-DVD
and Blu-ray
Sony blue-laser
DVD - High Definition
March 2003
- Sony Unveils World's First Blu-ray Recorder. Sony has taken the wraps off the first commercial consumer-use video recorder that uses blue-laser technology. The BDZ-S77 went on sale in Japan May 2003. It is based on the Blu-ray optical disc format announced just over a year ago. The nine consumer electronics companies behind it are promoting it as a system for recording high-definition television broadcasts. Sony's first generation recorder will land on Japanese retail shelves at a price of $3,800. To support the new machine, Sony also announced its first generation Blu-ray media Discs with a 23GB capacity, priced at $30. The market has already been established, and there will be a growing number of users who want high-definition recording. The recorder, which includes a built-in broadcast satellite tuner will be expensive. The machine will give Japan's Sony, the world's largest consumer-electronics maker, a head start over its partners in the Blu-ray consortium, a nine-member group of industry heavyweights that unveiled a common format for blue-laser DVDs. Blue light, with a shorter wavelength than red, can read and store data at the much higher densities needed for high-definition recordings. Blu-ray discs, which Sony will also sell, hold up to 23GB of data, or nearly five times as much as existing DVDs and enough for two hours of digital satellite high-definition programming.
Other members of the Blu-ray consortium include Matsushita Electric, which makes Panasonic products, South Korea's Samsung Electronics and Dutch manufacturer Philips Electronics. Toshiba, a pioneer in DVD technology, has weighed in with a competing blue-laser format it says will be less expensive and more compatible with existing recorders, although it would only store 15GB to 20GB of data per disc. Sony's Blu-ray machine will be able to play red-laser discs using the DVD-R and DVD-RW formats, but not those that use the DVD-RAM or DVD+RW formats. Toshiba is hoping to have its first blue-laser DVD recorder on the market in another year. |
Blu-ray discs will also cost several times more than conventional discs.
