Hitachi showcases internal GGW-H20N Blu-ray burner / HD DVD reader

Ah, the sweet aroma of competition in the air. That's what we've gotten a whiff of after catching an (admittedly grainy) shot of what appears to be an internal Blu-ray writing / HD DVD reading combo drive from Hitachi. The GGW-H20N should have no issues playing your favorite high-definition films on either format, and it can also burn 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray discs, BD-R, BD-RW, and the typical flavors of writable DVDs and CDs. Reportedly, the drive will also boast a speedy SATA interface and will posses a read rate of up to 6x and burn rate of 4x, but the most important detail (read: worldwide release details) was unsurprisingly omitted. Bring on the price drops.

[Via FormatWarCentral]

[JohnDoe303 @ Jun 12th 2007 6:23PM]

great.. more dual format devices.. that's really what we need to wind down this format war. hd-dvd needs to die already or Universal needs to put the final nail in.

[Yayaja @ Jun 12th 2007 6:32PM]

I disagree with JohnDoe303. Actually I think this is just the sort of thing we need to see more of to make this whole format war thing go away. Why does one format have to win over the other? If they both have their advantages and disadvantages, and products like this prove that they need not be mutually exclusive, why not have both? That way blu-ray can be utilized for its advantages and wherever it falls short, HD DVD can come in, and vice versa.

This of course means that neither sony nor toshiba will come out on top, and neither of them will make butt loads of money... which is perfectly fine with me.

[Patrick @ Jun 12th 2007 6:38PM]

jeez...pretty soon we're gonna run out of space on optical drive trays for all the stupid logos.

[Standingfast @ Jun 12th 2007 6:38PM]

I have a Sony High Definition camera AND a High Definition TV. I would LOVE to have some kind of next-gen optical media format! Preferably blu-ray because of it higher storage capacity, I will never argue with more storage! ^_^

[Dan @ Jun 12th 2007 7:42PM]

Why is it a Blu-ray burner but only an HD-DVD reader? Seems kinda silly...needs to be write/write.

[Ashley @ Jun 12th 2007 8:17PM]

just answering your ? so not a flame, but mainly because why should they go to the expense of putting in the HD-DVD burning electronics. HD-DVD does have a few advantages over Blu-ray, but not when it comes to storing data. Blu-ray blank media is already cheaper than HD-DVD and as production ramps up it should drop faster. So there's not much use in increasing the expense of what will already be an expensive product.

[Mak @ Jun 13th 2007 1:58PM]

And the advantages of HD-DVD are??? (I can't think of any, over Blu-Ray).

Blu-Ray is obviously the more mature technology of the 2, if manufacturers can integrate Blu-Ray writers, but only HD-DVD readers. With the added space Blu-Ray offers, and the superior movie playback, and given the wier studio support, I can't see how it's even possible for HD-DVD to win...

[Yasser @ Jun 12th 2007 10:48PM]

HD-DVD are still a bit too expensive. Buying a dual is out of the question.

[h0mi @ Jun 13th 2007 12:25AM]

I dont think Toshiba has finalized the specs in terms of burning HD-DVD discs. Check avsforums.

[Dave @ Jun 13th 2007 12:49AM]

For PC i dont need anything else except Blu-ray. It has double the storage with better price per GB and way better access speed.
So why should i pay for hd-dvd reader? I want those drives separate so that i can skip the hd-dvd part!

[Joel @ Aug 6th 2007 6:01PM]

I read that HD-DVD used a thicker surface making it less likely to fail when normal wear occurs (light scratches, dust, etc) then Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray requires a higher degree of accuracy in the electronics to read/write with greater capacity on the same size media which also implies a higher probability of read/write failures.

As a business owner, I would prefer media that I could count on and from the specifications it appears that HD-DVD is less error prone then Blu-Ray. Because of lower tolerance factors required for HD-DVD, HD-DVD media should be less expensive to make. I have not seen statistics on this issue so I can only use the specifications as a loose guideline.

Has anyone else heard if HD-DVD media and electronics provide more stability (less likely to lose data or have read/write failures) then Blu-Ray?