Logical Eccentricity

Peter Moore was quoted by the Japanese web site ITMedia as saying Microsoft would offer the Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360, if it becomes the favored standard over HD-DVD. Microsoft was quick to reply, with that “HD-DVD format as the best choice for our consumers. The question of whether the Xbox 360 has the flexibility to adapt to consumers’ needs is a different issue entirely.” The Xbox 360 is designed to be a “future-proofed system-one that allows us to add features as consumers demand them.”

Both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are competing formats that offer increased storage for high-definition entertainment.

Sony is the major backer for the Blu-Ray format, and will use Blu-Ray technology in their new PlayStation 3 consoles. Microsoft has taken the opposite stance, and supports the HD-DVD. Furthermore, during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 would get an external HD-DVD player in the future.

On Suday, the Chrysler Group announced that they would be offering full iPod integration as an option in most of their 2006 models. At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit they said that drivers would be able to select music by artist, album or playlist using either steering wheel or radio controls. The selection will appear on the radio display.

Microsoft recently patched a critical vulnerability in the way Windows shows certain graphic files. This vulnerability was so severe that Microsoft released the patch outside of their normal monthly update. So, if you haven’t updated yet please make sure that you update as soon as possible.

The new vulnerabilities are not as severe as the previous one, but deals with the same thing. All three flaws concern the way Windows renders images in the Windows Metafile (WMF) format used by some CAD (computer-aided design) applications. The old flaw could allow hackers to take control of Windows; these two bugs only cause the WMF-viewing software, typically Internet Explorer, to crash. Pretty much all of the current Windows versions are vulnerable to attack; the vulnerability has been confirmed in Windows XP, Service Pack 2; Windows Server 2003, Service Pack 1; and Windows 2000, Service Pack 4.

When Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 on November 22nd, they aimed to sell 2.75 million to 3 million consoles within 90 days. Now, Microsoft is finally admitting that severe shortage problem has affected the company’s early sales goal. Microsoft is now looking at a longer term picture and focusing on their June target; Microsoft is aiming to hit sales of 4.5 million to 5.5 million consoles by the end of the company’s fiscal year this June, when they expect supply to finally equalize with demand.

According to analysts, sales through the holiday seasons were predicted to be around 1.3 million units, and the problem behind the shortage was capacity and components. According to Peter Moore, “Nothing’s perfect - you’ve got a complex piece of hardware that includes 1,700 different parts. Every now and again the line will slow down because something’s happened and there’ll be a component that didn’t make it that morning. That’s just the way of the beast, particularly when you are ramping up factories from ground zero all the way up to full capacity.”

There is a lot of confusion over the differences between Blue-Ray and HD-DVD, this will hopefully clear some of that up.

HD-DVD:

The biggest difference between HD-DVD and current DVD is the wavelength of the laser that reads the information on the disc. Current DVD use a 650nm wavelength laser, while HD-DVD use 405nm wavelenght laser. This difference in wavelength allows for a great amount of information to be stored on the disc. Despite this difference, HD-DVD player should be backwards with current DVDs; both red and blue diodes can be used with a single lense in HD-DVD players.

HD-DVD has a single layer capacity of 15GB, and dual layer capacity of 30GB. There is a possible triple layer dics that will have a capacity of 45GB. The surface layer of the disc will be 0.6 nm thick. This is the same as current DVDs, meaning the production process will not need to change drastically for HD-DVDs. This thicker layer causes some problems. The laser that reads the data on the disc needs to pass through this layer. As it passes through the layer, the laser gets distorted; thus, each bit of information needs space around, so that the laser can recognize it.

Blu-Ray:

Again, the difference between Blu-Ray and DVD is the wavelength used to read information, Blu-Ray also uses a 405nm wavelength laser. However, there is another crucial difference, the surface layer on a Blu-Ray disc is only 0.1nm thick. This thin layer allows a higher desity of information on each layer; each layer can store about 25GB. Currently four and eight layer dics are being researched, these discs would be able to hold 100 GB or 200 GB of data.

The thinner surface layer creates some problems. First of all, the production process will need to be changed; resulting in higher costs to the consumers. It is predicted that Blu-Ray discs will cost $10 more than current DVDs. Furthermore, since the information is stored close to the surface of the disc, early Blu-Ray discs were very prone to dust and scratches. This problem has been solved with lear polymer coating that gives Blu-ray discs unprecedented scratch resistance. With this clear coating, Blu-Ray dics can be cleaned with just a tissue, apparently can wiststand an attack by a screwdriver. While not required, the Blu-ray Disc Association recommends that Blu-ray drives should be capable of reading DVDs, ensuring backward compatibility.

Technical Comparison

Most of the information in this post is from the Wikipedia