HD-DVD Diodes?

[instinct]

Now that it looks like Blu-Ray is the winning system in the battle, it looks like HD-DVD players are super cheap on ebay. I have heard that these have the same color laser as the blue ray (405nm). Is this true? Anyone have any experience taking apart an HD-DVD player and making a pointer or anything similar with it? I've seen a lot of talk with doing this with Blu-ray, but not HD-DVD.

 

[liveforphysics]

HD DVD uses normal red laser(Edit*** They are not red, they are blue, I was completely wrong) diodes.

However, if you want to pick-up loads of very cheap HD media, buying a HD DVD player and buying up discontinued media would be a great idea. I have both a blu-ray player and a HD DVD player. I am very pleased with how cheap HD DVD content is now! Picked up planet earth diarys in HD for $10! You can buy an HD DVD player and planet earth diarys for less than you can just by the blu-ray planet earth diarys set.

 

[dr_lava]

Now that it looks like Blu-Ray is the winning system in the battle, it looks like HD-DVD players are super cheap on ebay. I have heard that these have the same color laser as the blue ray (405nm). Is this true? Anyone have any experience taking apart an HD-DVD player and making a pointer or anything similar with it? I've seen a lot of talk with doing this with Blu-ray, but not HD-DVD.

this thread has some information:
http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1204080284

 

[2xTrinity]

HD DVD uses normal red laser diodes. They get the memory space needed for HD content by having more layers on the disk. If you want a low output expensive red laser, they would be a great source of a diode. However, if you want to pick-up loads of very cheap HD media, buying a HD DVD player and buying up discontinued media would be a great idea. I have both a blu-ray player and a HD DVD player. I am very pleased with how cheap HD DVD content is now! Picked up planet earth diarys in HD for $10! You can buy an HD DVD player and planet earth diarys for less than you can just by the blu-ray planet earth diarys set.

HD-DVD uses 405nm as well, it'd not just a multi-layer DVD:

DVD: 4.7GB/layer
HD-DVD: 15GB/layer
BluRay: 25GB/layer

The BluRay I know has the actual recorded media much closer to the surface of the disc, this allowed them to get higher information density, as well as make it possible to support a much greater number of layers (up to 8 have been demonstrated in prototypes, though probably only 2 will work on existing players). As a consequence, BluRay is likely more susceptible to damage from scratcing. I personally never scratch my optical media as I'm pretty anal about keeping them in cases or sleeves but this is bad news for people who stack up discs loose, use them as coasters, etc (evidently a significant fraction of renters...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_high_definition_optical_disc_formats

 

[liveforphysics]

Whoops! I feel silly! I had my info all confused about how HD DVD worked! I will edit above post to prevent mis-leading other members. Thanks for correcting me guys