But they cannot use laser-disc players to watch movies on SD.

CNN: ASIANOW - Asiaweek

It will then self-destruct not in flames, its inventors hasten to add, but because contact with the air eventually renders its surface opaque, making it impossible for the laser in a disc player to read the data beneath.

ECONOMIST: A new twist on an old polymer

The data can then be read simply by scanning the disc with another laser beam.

ECONOMIST: Digital video discs

Such heterostructures are widely employed to make the lasers in compact-disc players and retailers' laser scanners.

ECONOMIST: Microelectronics

Nine consumer electronics firm agreed in February to standardize and promote a new format called "Blu-ray Disc" that uses a shortwave blue-violet laser to read more than two hours of high-definition content stored on a DVD-size platter.

FORBES: What's Coming

In this, the stream of video and audio data is recorded as a series of minuscule spots on the disc's surface that have been gently fried by a laser beam and turned from their normal crystalline condition to an amorphous state that has different reflective properties.

ECONOMIST: Digital video discs