Ricoh claims development of optical component that can read HD DVD and Blu-ray
It's not surprising to discover at least one company working on a solution for the HD DVD/Blu-ray "war" (or is it just a dilemma) - the potential advantages to consumers is huge.
Ricoh's solution is an optical component lens that can read both Blu-ray and HD DVD, as well as conventional DVDs and CDs.
Though HD DVD and Blu-ray both use blue laser technology, the data on a HD DVD disc is stored at a depth of 0.6mm from the surface (the same as standard DVDs), whereas Blu-ray data is stored at 0.1mm depth.
The EETimes explains things better than I would:
The component is a 3.5-mm diameter, 1-mm thick round diffraction plate with minute concentric groves on both sides which function as a diffraction grating.
The diffraction plate is placed between lasers and an objective lens. The diffraction grating is designed to adjust a light beam to an optimum incident ray relative to the objective lens so that light focuses on the proper position for each disk format.
Ricoh's optical diffraction component adjusts the laser beam with its diffraction grating for each format and passes it to the objective lens. The lens then forms a beam spot at the appropriate depth for each disk format.
Currently, a small amount of laser power is lost during the diffraction process, and so a more powerful laser is required for the writing process. Because of this, Ricoh are currently only manufacturing players.
Though this sounds very promising, I still have a niggling feeling that licensing issues could make the solution economically or legally infeasible. I hope not, as I think in the ideal world consumers would have one machine that plays any disc format.
The device is being shown at the International Optoelectronics Exhibition '06 outside Tokyo on July 12-14.
