Subscribers of Netflix‘ online DVD/Blu-ray rental service have been complaining about receiving damaged or cracked discs from the company. “Over the last two months, we’ve had probably four to six Blu-ray discs in a row arrive with small cracks at the edge of the disc that render it unplayable,” says Pete Brown, whose wife has been a Netflix subscriber for three years.
Blu-ray is structured significantly different to DVD in that DVD is comprised of two 0.6mm thick polycarbonate discs with the data recorded to a thin metal substrate in between, while Blu-ray is a single 1.1mm polycarbonate disc with the data recorded at the top, and protected by a 0.1mm coating. The Blu-ray discs circulated by Netflix may be more affected by the process than DVDs, and you have to remember Blu-ray is still a very young format.
“The coating is supposed to protect the discs but it could also be making them more brittle,” says Adrienne Downey, senior analyst at research firm Semico. “Ultimately Blu-ray is a new technology and they are still working the kinks out of it.” The problem can’t just come down to the discs however, as BlockBuster customers don’t complain about damaged Blu-ray titles as much.
For Pete Brown and his wife, the experience has been particularly bad. They added Babel to their queue and received a cracked disc. Upon receiving a replacement disc of the same movie, they checked and found that it was also damaged. To make it worse, the same thing happened the third time too. “At a point, my wife was like, maybe they are sending us same thing to us over and over again,” said Brown.
[More]>>
Result for: substrate
Recently showed off at the Display 2008 expo trade show in Japan, Sony has introduced new “ultra-thin” OLED display televisions that are even thinner than its current XEL-1 model.
The XEL-1, which is currently the industry-leading OLED display is 11-inches,and measures 1.4mm (0.06in) thick. The new display model showed off will measure 0.3mm, a huge improvement from the current model.
Sony says that thanks to a “new TFT substrate and less glass, the same resolution of 960×540 pixels is possible despite the reduction in dimensions.”
Even more impressive, but nowhere near commercial production, is a thinner 3.5-inch prototype display that measures a measly 0.2mm (0.008in) and features a 320×220 pixel resolution. The display will most likely be used in media devices or even mobile phones.
Result for: substrate
JVC has announced that it will be introducing the “industry’s thinnest” 1080p LCDs with built-in TV tuners next month.
At its deepest, the new 42-inch LT-42SL89 and the 46-inch LT-46SL89 are 2.9 inches deep, and each come equipped with new backlight paneling and power supply substrates making each set lighter and more efficient. Each set also boast Full HD 1080p resolution (1920×1080).
The new sets will be part of the JVC Procision line and the newly developed technologies should help the company put out even slimmer TVs in the future. “The backlight is 40 percent slimmer than the old panel, and weighs in at 26.5lbs while consuming 145W. The slimmer backlight was made possible not with more parts but with a more efficient integration of them,” JVC says. The added low power consumption is accomplished “via the use of a direct-mount power substrate that does not use a fan to dissipate heat.”
Other specifications include the now standard three HDMI, S-video, two component and a PC input. There will also be a built-in USB port for viewing videos and listening to MP3s.
The LT-42SL89 has a street price of $1899 USD while its big brother has a $2400 USD price tag.
