Blu-ray Suffers Delays in Europe While Ricoh Announces Laser That Can Read Both New DVD Formats

Digital Journal — With the DVD format war just up and running since Samsung launched the world’s first Blu-ray player, the Blu-ray team could be facing yet another setback in Europe. Blu-ray supporter Pioneer has admitted it could be facing another delay in the launch of its Blu-ray disc player. The company was expected to announce the players at the IFA trade show in Berlin this September but as with so many others in the Blu-ray camp, it’s been delayed. Pioneer now hopes to celebrate its European launch by announcing its Blu-ray player at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. No doubt, execs at Toshiba are laughing it up since their competing HD-DVD format has been available for months in North America and sells at a significantly lower price point. While Toshiba hasn’t yet released product details or pricing, the company plans to debut an HD-DVD player at the IFA show. Meanwhile, as competing formats battle it out for consumer supremacy, a company called Ricoh has created a single laser that can read both disc formats. While there is still doubt over when a hybrid player would be available, the fight could get a whole lot messier with a laser capable of reading or writing to Blu-ray, HD-DVD, DVD and CD with one pickup and objective lens. Ricoh plans to show off the technology later this week at the International Optoelectronics Exhibition '06 in Japan. http://www.hdbeat.com/2006/07/08/ricoh-laser-head-can-read-hd-dvd-and-blu-ray-discs/ target=_blank>Check out HDBeat for more info.