General Question

GeorgeGee's avatar

If you buy a combination blu-ray player DVD/CD R/W for your computer, does it have separate laser units for these purposes?

Asked by GeorgeGee (4935points) August 5th, 2010

Or does blu-ray require a different laser from the one that’s reading from or writing to the DVDs and CDs?

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2 Answers

jaytkay's avatar

From what I can Google, it appears they have three lasers.

CD infrared 780 nm
DVD red 660 nm
Blu Ray violet 405 nm

For example:
Dissection of a Blu-ray Reader Assembly
“The laser diode can in the PS3 contains three laser diodes. The Red 660 nm diode is mounted next to the Infrared 780 nm diode, and both are bonded to the 405 nm Gallium Nitride violet diode.”

jerv's avatar

To add on, they do require different lasers, but whether they require separate lasers really boils down to a semantic argument over the definition of “separate”, especially given that many companies prefer to integrate things in such a way as to reduce their costs whenever possible.

If they can make one laser that does three different frequencies that costs less to make than having three separate lasers and doesn’t cost too much to retool their production lines, they will. Of course, if the retooling costs are too high then they won’t even if it would save them money and/or enhance profit margins in the long run. And since there are different companies that make such drives, I think it depends on the company.

I wish this were a strictly technical question, but any time we are talking about consumer products, it gets more complicated than even I feel it needs to be.

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