Hexus carried an interview with Toshiba where a claim was made that BD drives were likely to have head crashes due to media/heat/warping
http://lifestyle.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6639
Nick Haywood of Hexus then decided to go for a test
http://lifestyle.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=6640
Obviously this was not a test run to Bob C's Standards
What Nick missed is that there is a major difference in bd writable media and bd rom
pressed media, that the comments were directed towards warping of the media, and the potential for head crashes. Nick's test was to disturb the drive during writing. Theory being that this was the time of highest temperature, and also most sensitivity.
We certainly would want to see a more scientific test.
Warping of the media is possibly more influenced by high ambient temperature say from inside a computer case, than the more localized temperature increase from laser activity. It is more likely that larger area warping could be more problematic
Testing needs to be done with a bd rom drive, since it is likely that this drive MIGHT have
different tolerances.
Testing with bd rom pressed media is also in order
It will remain to be seen if this is an issue or not. TDK has a patent on durabis a hard coating, but this is NOT used on pressed dvd's only on writables. The position of the layer which carries the data is 1/6 of the distance from the surface on a BD vs HD media. Since the heads and the media are not in an enclosed "clean" sealed environment like in a hard drive, it is still a question as to the durability of the media, how contamination of the surface will be handled by the laser assembly.
We would recommend a lot more scientific testing before claiming it all was a myth
Sharyn