52GB Blu-ray disks are already on sale

Two companies supporting the Blu-ray Disc optical disc format unveiled prototype players at the Ceatec 2004 exhibition, taking place here this week.

Among the prototypes was the first Blu-ray Disc drive intended for personal computer use.

The drive is from Pioneer and uses a recently developed system that combines a signal processor and control circuitry for a blue laser and red laser in a single chip. The blue laser is used for Blu-ray Disc and the red laser is used in DVDs, meaning the new drive supports both disc formats. Until now most prototypes made use of multiple chips to accomplish the same task, wrote PC World.

According to the Forbes, &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/comp/2002/06/19/30659.html ' target=_blank>firms that are supporting one of the next-generation optical DVD formats, the Blu-ray Disc, plan to release camcorders that record on smaller versions of the discs as early as 2005, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, without citing sources.

Sony Corp, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd and Sharp Corp plan to develop smaller, 8-cm discs for recording, that are 4 cms smaller than current Blue-ray discs, the report said.

Both Blu-ray and HD DVD are designed to do the same thing - bring huge capacity to disks so that more information can be stored, played and recorded on them.

If DVD introduced consumers to a lush home cinema experience, Blu-ray and HD DVD promise to boost quality even further.