Blu-ray may well be the next-gen home cinema format of choice but in order to play a BD disc you have to buy a rather chunky player.
This is due to the innards being far more complicated than that of a standard-def DVD player, mainly due to the size of the chips used to process the hi-def audio and imagery.
In fact, a Blu-ray Player needs seven external memory chips and separate front and back-end LSI (Large-Scale Integration) devices. Until now…
Small is the new big
Panasonic has announced that it has created a new chip that is 50 per cent smaller and uses 25 per cent less power. Not only that, it is compatible with the latest Profile 2.0 BD releases.
The company had this to say about the new chip: “By using this product, Panasonic will be able to realize smaller sizes and lower power consumption in BD players compatible with the latest BD standards.”
Theoretically, the new technology means that Panasonic could soon be making Blu-ray players that are slimmer and cheaper, which is nothing but a good thing for the fledgling HD format.
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amp
May 28th 2008
1. The size of players is 'due to the size of the chips' - please, get real. Have you even looked inside a player? Look at a Sigma reference board for example: the whole thing is less than 5x7 in size. Broadcom boards are a similar size.
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