TripleLayer
Latest
New Blu-ray laser from Sharp burns triple, quad layer discs but can't cut red tape (yet)
Sharp stepped up at the 70th Autumn Meeting of the Japan Society of Applied Physics to promote its new 500mW Blu-ray laser that is reportedly production ready and waiting to churn out triple and quad layer (100GB) discs at 8x speed. The only thing holding it back from release now is the lack of an official spec from the BDA. Geeking out over details of the aluminum oxynitride film that enabled this breakthrough (pictured above) continues beyond the read link.[Via Blu-ray.com]
DVD Forum approves 51GB triple-layer HD DVD spec
Toshiba's been demoing a triple-layer hybrid HD DVD / DVD system for a couple years now, but it's been all unofficial until today, when the DVD Forum steering committee voted to approve the spec as part of the official HD DVD standard. The third 15GB layer bumps the total capacity of HD DVD up to 51GB, matching Blu-ray's 50GB disks. Of course, we wouldn't expect to see a flood of content on the new disks anytime soon, what with all those shiny new double-layer players getting sold right now, but it's interesting to see HD DVD step up in the one area Blu-ray was clearly superior. The stalemate continues!
51GB triple-layer HD DVDs in the pipeline?
Just after Verbatim announces that it's shipping 30GB dual-layer HD DVD-Rs our way, here comes some more news to slightly deflate that bubble. At an HD DVD presentation held at CES, at interesting PowerPoint slide caught our eye, as it (very briefly) described plans to "expand HD DVD disc capacity from 15GB to 17GB per layer, and moreover, to add a third layer as well, eventually resulting in a 51GB HD DVD disc. Aside from upping the ante on Blu-ray's capacity by a measly 1GB (currently, at least), it's also noted that "technical feasibility" has yet to be confirmed, and that standardization wouldn't occur until Q4 of this year at the earliest, but it's a novel idea to say the least. So if you're looking to pick up an HD DVD player right this moment, and can't wait to embrace all the potential compatibility issues with a drive never made to play these newfangled, triple-layered discs, have at it -- of course, all those conflicts rely on this pipedream ever being realized. It should be interesting to see how (if at all) the BDA addresses this potential new disc in their press conference later today, and if they'll pay any attention to possibly being leapfrogged in an area they currently lead. Pfft, and you thought the HD DVD / Blu-ray war was settled.
Toshiba & Memory-Tech unveil new triple-layer DVD TWIN disc
Toshiba has unveiled a new flavor of HD DVD that they plan to present to the DVD forum, a single-sided triple layer HD DVD/DVD disc, capable of either a dual-layer 30GB HD DVD and single-layer 4.7GB configuration or single-layer 15GB HD DVD and dual-layer 8.5 GB DVD. This is a change from the original DVD TWIN standard that only allowed for two layers, one HD DVD and on DVD, on the same side of the disc. This is also different from the combo discs released by Warner and Universal here in the US, as those discs are dual-sided. DVD TWIN format movies have only been released in Japan by publisher Pony Canyon, at least partially due to concerns that not all DVD players will be able to read them without problems. As such, we probably will continue to not see these released over here, either way, if they want dual-format discs to to speed HD DVD growth having discs that don't require flipping to view DVD extras is a welcome advance but how about lowering the price?
