Mitsubishi Electric has developed a 1DIN automotive Blu-ray Disc player that has only 1/3 the volume of the company's home BD player to be commercialised later this year.

Technical details and BD standards of the prototype were not revealed. Initial report only covered media compatibility from BD-ROM, BD-R and BD-E, as well as red-book CD and DVD optical discs. A prototype of the product measures 50 x 178 x 180mm.

There are two main factors that contributed to the small size. The board density was increased by 1.5 times and Second, the thickness of mechanical parts was reduced while improving the anti-vibration performance of the equipment. Specifically, the level of disc run-out was reduced to one fifth that of the company's existing products

The new BD player is expected to be used in combination with Mitsubishi Electric's car
navigation systems. However, the player uses Linux as its operating system, while the car navigation systems employ Windows CE. "Home BD players normally use Linux, so we developed the player based on it," the company said.

Mitsubishi Electric has also developed a technology to receive digital terrestrial TV
broadcasts when the vehicle is running at a high speed. Although it depends on the signal reception environment, digital terrestrial TV broadcasts can be received with four antennas when the car is running at 200km/h, the company said. (Source: BDA).

Story filed 01.03.09