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LTH BD-R Discs Not Compatible With Older Drives!?

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LTH BD-R Discs Not Compatible With Older Drives!?

Postby Ian on Tue Sep 18, 2007 1:45 pm

I'm not sure if you guys saw the latest announcement from Pioneer and Mitsubishi Chemical, but they've developed a new organic dye for BD-R discs. These new discs will correspond to the "Low to High" (LTH) recording system so they're expected to be cheaper to produce.

http://pioneer.jp/press/release598-j.html

The big catch here is that they're not compatible with current BD drives. Right now, drives use a "High to Low" (HTL) system and its unknown whether or not they can be tweaked to write to these new discs.

To sum it up.. starting next year, we're going to see two types of BD-R media on store shelves. The normal (HTL) and this new LTH media which may or may not be compatible with older drives.

Just wait til the HD DVD fans get wind of this...
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Postby Grain on Tue Sep 18, 2007 3:32 pm

Not that I'm a HD-DVD exclusive fan, but I do like the format. However, as I can't buy a HD-DVD burner to save my life, I won't say anything :wink: .
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Postby dolphinius_rex on Tue Sep 18, 2007 3:46 pm

I've checked around and it seems quite possible that with some effort a newer firmware will make these discs backwards compatible with current burners... the question is more if the drive makers will care to put that much effort into it.

Actually, this is a little reminiscent of the problems that drives had with 4x DVD-Rs vs. 2x DVD-Rs.
Punch Cards -> Paper Tape -> Tape Drive -> 8" Floppy Diskette -> 5 1/4" Floppy Diskette -> 3 1/2" "Flippy" Diskette -> CD-R -> DVD±R -> BD-R

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Postby Phoenix '97 on Thu Sep 20, 2007 11:58 pm

Any word on how much cheaper?
When you say they're not compatible with current drives, does that refer to recordability only? Can an LTH disc recorded with an LTH-compatible burner be read on today's drives?
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Postby Ian on Fri Sep 21, 2007 7:52 am

Phoenix '97 wrote:Any word on how much cheaper?
When you say they're not compatible with current drives, does that refer to recordability only? Can an LTH disc recorded with an LTH-compatible burner be read on today's drives?


I don't think they know how much cheaper they'll be. I think they're just guessing that they will be cheaper at this point as disc manufacturers can use existing CD/DVD production lines.

That's a good question about readability. Blu-ray would be really dumb if these discs couldn't be read back by existing drives and players. If I have some time today, I'll email one of my contacts at Pioneer and try to find out.
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Postby dolphinius_rex on Fri Sep 21, 2007 11:34 am

Playback should be exactly the same, and burning them should be fixable via firmware updates... assuming the drive manufacturer wants to put the time/effort into making it happen. I would assume Panasonic at least would offer a solution for their drives.
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Postby Ian on Fri Sep 21, 2007 11:53 am

dolphinius_rex wrote:Playback should be exactly the same.


Are you sure? The pits and lands are opposite on this new system.
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Postby dolphinius_rex on Fri Sep 21, 2007 12:26 pm

Ian wrote:
dolphinius_rex wrote:Playback should be exactly the same.


Are you sure? The pits and lands are opposite on this new system.


Well, based partially on things that I've been told, and based partially on things NOT said, I would say that playback is not a problem. I'll see if I can dig a little deeper on the matter though.
Punch Cards -> Paper Tape -> Tape Drive -> 8" Floppy Diskette -> 5 1/4" Floppy Diskette -> 3 1/2" "Flippy" Diskette -> CD-R -> DVD±R -> BD-R

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Postby Justin42 on Sun Sep 30, 2007 1:24 am

Is it just me or does this seem to herald cheaper, but much less reliable, recordable discs? I always thought one of the big deals was that this generation of recordable media DIDN'T use organic dyes, making them much more reliable?
#-o

I can only imagine the screaming when a 50GB Ritek BDE dies 2 minutes after burning.
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