X-bit labs

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Difference Between HD DVD and Blu-Ray Discs Explained. Web-Site Gives Snapshot About Blu-Ray and HD DVD

With the high-definition television and content coming to the mainstream world, capacities provided by contemporary optical discs, such as CDs and DVDs are far less than enough. There are two new standards of optical data storage that are coming to replace outdated technologies, unfortunately, in addition to increased storage abilities, they bring in problems with compatibility.

Blu-ray Disc (BD) and HD DVD have been designed by different groups of companies, with different specifications and features. This makes the two standards virtually incompatible with each other in spite of similar basic technology used – blue laser. The Tech Zone has summarized everything that is known about the two standards and compared them in an article.

“While the two ‘standards’ share blue laser technology – shorter wavelength and a more precise ability to focus the laser – there are enough differences to make it obvious to even the most casual Tech Watch reader to realize that a compromise solution will be difficult. More importantly it will be too complex and too expensive to simply take the route Sony took in 2004 of throwing all of the technologies into a single burner and let the consumer choose the write/read solution he or she wants to use. Because the construction of the media and writing layer for BD and HD DVD are completely different between the two the chance for a compromise solution - one where both sides save face - appears to be slim to none!” explains The Tech Zone.

Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD) is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by thirteen leading consumer electronics and PC companies, such as Dell, Hitachi, HP, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson. The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition television (HDTV). Blu-ray makes it possible to record over 2 hours of HDTV, or more than 13 hours of SDTV on a 27GB disc. There are also plans for higher capacity discs that are expected to hold up to 54GB of data.

HD DVD is the next generation DVD format being standardized at the DVD Forum, which represents over 230 consumer electronics, information technology, and content companies worldwide. HD DVD can store up to 15GB of data on one layer. HD DVD players and HD DVD video software were originally expected to come to market in late 2005. The development of HD DVD is headed by NEC and Toshiba.

• The Tech Zone: DVD Insider Snapshot - Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD.

Group Mulls About Security Techs for Mobile Devices. Smart-Phones Need Security Improvement – Group

Today, in a number of countries, you can do almost anything with your cell phone, including e-mailing, money transfer, bill payments, shopping. But those kinds of activities require decent security measures, it appears.

Data security has been one of the major headaches not only for end-users but for software and hardware manufacturers as well. There are a lot of means to protect your PC, for example install a firewall and/or anti-virus software. While this approach is common for desktop computer world, it still requires a relatively powerful processor to perform this kind of protection, thus, this approach is not suitable for mobile phones in general and smart-phones in particular.

“Without proper security, mobile phones may become a target for hackers and malicious software. The benefit of hardware-based security is that users can rely on their phone and (know) that private data is protected,” said Janne Uusilehto, senior technology manager at Nokia and chairman of the TCG’s Mobile Phone Working Group.

“The TCG’s plans call for mobile handset hardware to support features similar to those of the Trusted Platform Module. The TPM is a security chip designed for PCs and servers that enables a variety of security features, including authentication, protected storage and secure e-mail. The TPM technology will need to be adapted because mobile phones are much smaller than PCs,” writes CNET News.com.

• CNET News.com: Security Lacking for Do-It-All Phones.