The dirt on Blu-ray lens (and how to clean it)
In an interview with Hexus, Toshiba Storage Device Division personnel Jim Armour dished the dirt on the Blu-ray’s built-in drawbacks. One of the weak spot of the Blu-ray according to Jim is its drive lens.
To allow the drive to read 25GB worth of info, the Blu-ray lens is placed very close to the disc surface – somewhere between 0.1 and 0.3 millimetres. Here’s the potential problem. The Blu-ray disc is coated with Zircon, a substance almost as tough as diamond. When the disc heats up it could undergo warping. Since the Zircon is stiffer than Al Gore, the disc can only warp downwards towards the lens.
“Guess what happens when you run Zircon over glass at 2000rpm?” asks Jim. The heart-stopping answer: you’re going to need a new Blu-ray lens. What does that mean to PS3 gamers? “Who can say? To be honest, I’d expect any drive or disc to fail in some way if it was being rattled about whilst trying to run and the Xbox 360 is a prime example, ” says Jim. “But it’ll be interesting to see how the PS3 is treated by the public when in use and to see what errors are thrown up by the Blu-ray drives. As I said, the tolerances in the Blu-ray system unlike HD DVD, donÂ’t leave much room for ‘user error.'”
Okay, so he works for Blu-ray’s arch enemy HD DVD, but it doesn’t mean he’s making this stuff up, right?
Anyway, now that you know the dirt, we bring you a video on cleaning your Blu-ray lens in case it gets dirty (not warped!). We are not suggesting you do this to your PS3. Even the video tutorial from Xtreme Tekno warns about the system’s delicate nature. Sure the hands make it looks easy. The same way Martha Stewart makes you think renovating your kitchen will take only 20 minutes out of your life. That’s a big “Ha!”
We’re posting it as a reference material. Don’t do this at home, kids. Unless you’re filthy rich.
In an interview with Hexus, Toshiba Storage Device Division personnel Jim Armour dished the dirt on the Blu-ray’s built-in drawbacks. One of the weak spot of the Blu-ray according to Jim is its drive lens.
To allow the drive to read 25GB worth of info, the Blu-ray lens is placed very close to the disc surface – somewhere between 0.1 and 0.3 millimetres. Here’s the potential problem. The Blu-ray disc is coated with Zircon, a substance almost as tough as diamond. When the disc heats up it could undergo warping. Since the Zircon is stiffer than Al Gore, the disc can only warp downwards towards the lens.
“Guess what happens when you run Zircon over glass at 2000rpm?” asks Jim. The heart-stopping answer: you’re going to need a new Blu-ray lens. What does that mean to PS3 gamers? “Who can say? To be honest, I’d expect any drive or disc to fail in some way if it was being rattled about whilst trying to run and the Xbox 360 is a prime example, ” says Jim. “But it’ll be interesting to see how the PS3 is treated by the public when in use and to see what errors are thrown up by the Blu-ray drives. As I said, the tolerances in the Blu-ray system unlike HD DVD, donÂ’t leave much room for ‘user error.'”
Okay, so he works for Blu-ray’s arch enemy HD DVD, but it doesn’t mean he’s making this stuff up, right?
Anyway, now that you know the dirt, we bring you a video on cleaning your Blu-ray lens in case it gets dirty (not warped!). We are not suggesting you do this to your PS3. Even the video tutorial from Xtreme Tekno warns about the system’s delicate nature. Sure the hands make it looks easy. The same way Martha Stewart makes you think renovating your kitchen will take only 20 minutes out of your life. That’s a big “Ha!”
We’re posting it as a reference material. Don’t do this at home, kids. Unless you’re filthy rich.
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