CES 2006 Blu-ray & HD information

CES 2006 was bigger than ever with events and vendors at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Alexis Park, the Las Vegas Hilton, and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. This covers information I gathered about the Blu-ray and HD storage. I found more information on Blu-ray. This includes what different companies have coming out in the near future.

CES 2006 Blu-ray and HD

Toshiba www.toshiba.com Toshiba HD-DVD Qosmio

Toshiba’s Digital Products Division (DPD), demonstrated an HD DVD-ROM drive equipped Qosmio™ (pronounced “koss-mee-oh”) audio-video notebook PC at its CES booth, the first notebook computer to integrate an optical drive under the new HD DVD media standard. With its similar disc structure, HD DVD is backwards compatible with the current DVD formats. The drive can read or write current DVD formats, allowing users to continue playing compatible discs in their existing DVD collections, offering the optimum entertainment notebook PC experience. Other benefits of HD DVD include discs that offer 30GB of storage capacity, enough for playing long-running high-definition movies, and discs that are less sensitive to surface blemishes and fingerprints. This is a “four-in-one” audio-video notebook PC featuring an integrated TV tuner, digital video recorder (DVR), virtual surround-sound stereo and all the capabilities of a powerful, full-featured notebook PC with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. Pricing, availability and specific model number and configuration for the next-generation Qosmio with integrated HD DVD will be announced later in Q106. Some advanced HD DVD features may be limited in initial product.
Toshiba America Consumer Products, L.L.C. ("Toshiba") unveiled its line-up of the first High Definition DVD players for the U.S. market. The new HD DVD players, models HD-XA1 and HD-A1, will take advantage of the superior capabilities of the HD DVD format, including outstanding visual quality supported by leading-edge video compression technologies, the high resolution audio specifications and the capability for enhanced functionality including, Advanced Navigation, also referred to as "iHD." The units have backward compatibility. Supporting the leading-edge efficient video compression standards of MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1, as well as MPEG2, both models will utilize the new video decoder chip developed by Broadcom. To meet the latest advancements in Audio/Video interfaces, both models connect to HDTV sets via a High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI™). Through the HDMI interface, standard definition DVDs can be up-converted to output resolution of 720p or 1080i to complement the performance of a HDTV. HD-XA1 ($800, March 2006); HD-A1 ($500, March 2006)

CyberLink www.cyberlink.com
CyberLink demonstrated direct-to-disc recording of high-definition video content onto a BD-RW burner using CyberLink PowerProducer. They also showcased its three latest products to incorporate Blu-ray and HD DVD burning technology, Power2Go - data and music burning software program, InstantBurn- lets you operate your optical disc burner as if it was another hard drive, and PowerBackup - data archiving software. Attendees were also shown BD-ROM and BD-RE playback via CyberLink’s PowerDVD and a Blu-ray drive from Panasonic.

LG www.LGusa.com
LG’s Blu-ray Disc (BD) Player (BD199) plays Blu-ray discs; Planned for second-quarter 2006, its hi-tech-chic design complements the technology within the unit.

Nero www.nero.com
Nero demonstrated its support of HD and Blu-ray in its all-in-one digital media suite Nero 7 Ultra Edition. High definition video playback is possible with Nero ShowTime and Nero Home and HD DVD-Video authoring. Nero 7 Ultra Edition supports both: the HD 15GB single-layer disc, and the dual-layer disc with double-capacity for a full 30GB. It also provides the ability to burn and back-up data to BD-RE and BD-R media, (25-50 GB) onto a single disc. To complete the support for the video formats, support for BD-MV (BD-ROM) and BD-AV high definition authoring, capturing and video recording will be added and officially released in April 2006.

NewTech Infosystems (NTI) www.NTIus.com
Announced new software solutions with Blu-ray disc (BD) support. With support for the new 25GB single-layer and 50 GB dual-layer Blu-ray media.

Panasonic www.panasonic.com
Blank Blu-ray (BD) discs will be introduced in the United States. The new discs will be available in both 50GB and 25GB storage capacities which can be used on BD drives with 2X writing speed. The following four models will be introduced in the U.S. market this spring:

Model Number	Specification	SRP*
LM-BE50DE	Rewritable, 50GB, Single-Sided, Dual Layer	$59.99
LM-BE25DE	Rewritable, 25GB, Single-Sided, Single Layer	$24.99
LM-BR50DE	Write once, 50GB, Single-Sided, Dual Layer	$42.99
LM-BR25DE	Write once, 25GB, Single-Sided, Single Layer	$17.99

Models LM-BE50DE and LM-BR50DE utilize a dual layer structure to realize the large capacity of 50GB.

Philips Electronics www.philips.com
They announced the introduction of a Blu-ray Disc consumer electronic player (BDP 9000), an all-in-one PC Writer (TripleWriter™) and new Blu-ray media (BD-R and B-RE, single layer 25 GB1 and dual layer BD-R and BD-RE 50 GB.) Both will be available in the second half of 2006. The Philips TripleWriter (SPD7000) features recording and playback capabilities of all popular optical storage formats including CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc, which allows users to select their media of choice depending on the preferred application.
Additionally, Philips will launch four types of discs (BD-R and BD-RE, single layer 25 GB and dual layer BD-R and BD-RE 50 GB) together with the introduction of the TripleWriter.

Pioneer Electronics www.pioneerelectronics.com
Announcing one of the industry’s first Blu-ray Disc computer drives, the Pioneer BDR-101A. It will utilize shorter wavelength blue lasers in order to store up to 25 gigabytes of information on a single layer Blu-ray Disc. It is expected to begin shipping in the first quarter of 2006.
This first generation product will be targeted primarily to professional users and serious enthusiasts, generally the first to adopt new technology. In particular, content creators will depend on Blu-ray Disc writers to test and evaluate high definition consumer Blu-ray Disc titles during the authoring process before replication. The drive will come equipped with a data recording application to transfer digital files to Blu-ray Discs. The drive also will be able to play consumer Blu-ray Disc movie titles on BD-ROM discs and will play and record standard DVD media. The half height writer will read BD-ROM/R/RE, DVD-ROM/DVD-R/DVD-RW and +R/+RW discs. It offers the following write speeds:

They also showed their BD player the BDP-HD1, with features such as 1080p output via HDMI, up conversion of DVDs to 1080i/1080p and networking features for playback of HD video. The player is scheduled for US release in May 2006 and will retail for about $1,800. For those operating a networked home, it was designed with Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) guidelines. When utilizing the IP networking capability, users will be able to access and easily load protected content currently stored on a DLNA compliant server or Windows XP PC using Windows Media Connect. For even easier set-up options, the unit features single wire connection through HDMI for the transfer of both video and audio in HD. HDMI output ensures the best quality picture and sound for both standard definition and Blu-ray Disc content. Compatibility features:

Samsung www.samsung.com
TSST Korea (Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corporation) announced today that it has completed the technical development of its Blu Ray Disc Drives. These products for the Optical Disc Drive market offer a storage capacity up to 25GB at a single layer disc. The demand for high-definition and large storage capacity is taking off and both Blu Ray and HD-DVD are next generation optical disc formats.
In the Blu Ray drive, the Blue laser is the core factor that enables the next generation optical disc format. Current DVDs uses the red laser (650nm) to read and write data, while Blu Ray and HD-DVD use a shorter wavelength, blue laser (405nm). As a result, the Blu Ray beam can focus more precisely, enabling it to read information recorded in pits that are only 0.16 microns long, which is more than twice as small as the pits on a DVD. Also the smaller pit length allows for the storing of up to 25GB in a single layer disc -- about five times more than can be stored on a standard DVD disc. A single-layer Blu-ray Disc can be used to record over 2 hours of HDTV or more than 13 hours of standard-definition TV. Samsung Electronics will launch internal and external Blu Ray drives simultaneously in 2006.

Sony Electronics www.sony.com
U.S. product introductions will begin this spring and gather momentum over the summer with the introduction of a home player. BD technology will also be included in VAIO® computers. The format features a 25GB single layer and 50GB dual layer capacity. Sony's first Blu-ray Disc home player, model BDP-S1, will be available in early summer and features 1080p full HD video output for HD imagery and also DVD upscaling to 1080p. Using Sony's VEGAS software users can edit high-definition footage then archive and share it on Sony high-capacity BD-R and BD-RE Blu-ray Discs or on traditional DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/+RW discs.
A Blu-ray Disc aftermarket drive for personal computers is also expected to be available this year, and will support 25GB/50GB BD-R/RE discs, as well as DVD+R/+RW, and CD-R/RW recordable media. This drive will be bundled with consumer-level BD recording software and accessories for creation of High-Definition home video and data Blu-ray Discs. Beginning in the spring, Sony will begin selling a 25GB single layer BD-R and the BD-RE recording media. Dual layer 50GB capacity recordable media will follow in the subsequent months.

Ulead www.ulead.com
Unveiled the latest development of the company's high-definition video authoring software. BDAV recording allows users to record high-definition video content from HDV camcorders such as the Sony HDR-HC1 to Blu-ray Discs in full HDV resolution. Discs may be recorded directly from the camera in real-time, or video may be first captured to hard drive for editing. Users may also record non-copy-controlled program stream or transport stream HDTV recordings at full resolution, including high-definition recordings made in Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition Digital Video Recording (DVR-MS) format.
Editing features allow users to combine multiple standard or high-definition clips as well as trim clips and extract sections of clips. High-definition slideshows with pan & zoom, transitions and audio are also supported. Newly developed SmartScene menus feature a single preview area for project titles rather than separate motion buttons as in traditional menu systems. Full previewing allows an easy preview of all project content, including menu transition effects. HD project may be output to either HD DVD Type I or Blu-ray Disc HDMV formats.

Verbatim www.verbatim.com
Their initial products will include 25GB single layer media in both write-once (BD-R) and rewritable (BD-RE) formats. They already supplied burner/recorder manufacturers and their software suppliers with engineering samples of its new high-capacity media for securing read/write compatibility. Shipping will begin in early 2006 when hardware and software products supporting the formats are launched. The new Verbatim BD media will include a proprietary super-hard coat developed by them. In developing its BD-R and BD-RE media, MKM/Verbatim also leveraged its experience in producing 30GB UDO (Ultra Density Optical) blue laser media.

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