One combo DVD player to rule them all.
- From: Allan <Spamsucks@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2006 16:11:11 -0500
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-one-combo-dvd-player-rule-them-all-/2006/jan/1285971.htm
[January 14, 2006]
One combo DVD player to rule them all
(Orange County Register, The (CA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
Jan. 14--Mind not made up on whether to go with Blu-ray or HD DVD for
your living room? By the time you're ready to buy, the point may be
moot.
Irvine's Broadcom Corp. just introduced a chip that will let the
next-generation DVD player work with either format. The company
expects the first combo players to launch late this year. Broadcom
wants to help consumers avoid confusion and frustration, like the
consumers who bought Betamax instead of VHS in the 1980s, or sided
with one of the three incompatible DVD recorders just a few years ago,
said Don Shulsinger, Broadcom's vice president of business development
for its consumer electronics group.
"That is absolutely the strategy behind our efforts," Shulsinger said.
"(Competing sides) want to make this like DVD-minus and plus. You had
to think about what media and player you were buying. We want to make
it so that consumers don't have to worry about the stuff. The whole
idea of a format war isn't good for anybody."
There's even a group, The HD Disc Consumer Advocacy Alliance, pushing
for one format at www.dvdsite.org.
But a two-in-one player isn't as simple as creating a combo chip,
Shulsinger said. The other parts of the DVD player -- the drive,
software, the box -- must also be compatible with the two formats. And
this is no easy task. The formats differ in bit rates, audio formats,
security and navigation software (Blu-ray uses a Java engine while HD
DVD uses Microsoft software).
Broadcom opted to develop the software along with the chip and now is
trying to interest hardware makers to do rest.
"Don't forget, it's not just us but the electronics," Shulsinger said.
"Even though both use a blue laser -- and both must handle red laser
-- there are differences in terms of aperture of optical size, media
and bit size. Broadcom doesn't make that, but there are
(manufacturers) who are working on that."
The Broadcom technology isn't limited to third-party manufacturers and
is also targeting Blu-ray and HD DVD makers who want to build in the
rival format.
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-- self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time."
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