Just after Toshiba announced its triple layer 45GB HD-DVD disc, Universal Studios Home Entertainment (UHSE) had announced its approval of two new HD DVD-ROM types. The first is Toshiba's 3-layer HD-DVD disc and the other is a hybrid disc with a 30GB double-layer HD-DVD on one side and a 8.5GB double-layer DVD on the other side.
According to the president of USHE, the purpose of the hybrid disc is to allow consumers to start purchasing movies on HD-DVD once they launch, but with the advantage of being able to play them on their existing DVD player until they decide to upgrade to a HD-DVD player. This also means that consumers do not have to worry about having to purchase movies twice, such as once to play on their DVD player and again to take advantage of HDTV playback once they get their HD-DVD player. The tripple layer HD-DVD will allow for longer movies or extra bonus content.
UHSE is expected to launch several titles on HD-DVD in the 4th quarter, in line with the expected launch of HD-DVD players, although it is not clear if these will be launched on HD-DVD or the hybrid HD-DVD/DVD format.
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Toshiba has just announced a triple-layered, 45GB disc, and a double-sided, double-layer hybrid ROM disc that can store 30GB of high-definition content on one side and 8.5GB of standard-definition content on the other. The new discs reinforce an already powerful next-generation HD solution that offers a potent combination of proven cost efficiency, superior performance and large storage capacity. In line with the launch of HD DVD players on the market, USHE will release a number of selected titles in the HD DVD format sometime in the fourth quarter. HD DVD, the next-generation DVD, already has established two types of ROM disc: a 15GB version (single-layer, single sided) and a 30GB disc (double-layer, single-sided.) Both of these disc formats have been approved and standardized by the DVD Forum. |
This clearly looks like Universal Studios and Toshiba are still determined to get the HD-DVD format mainstream. Unfortunately, if the movie studios keep up their attitude in trying to avoid the other competing format, we could end up having to get two HD players '“ a Blu-ray player to playback content from some movie studios such as Sony Pictures and a HD-DVD player to playback content from the other movie studios such as Universal Studios.
Then again, even if the increased capacity of 45GB may look like a threat to Blu-ray, it will be interesting to see if the manufacturing cost varies much, such as if they reach the costs of manufacturing Blu-ray DL media. Sony also has already announced plans to develop 100GB (4-layer) and 200GB (8-layer) Blu-ray media, although it is not clear if upcoming Blu-ray players or the ones already released in Japan will support these 4/8 layer discs.
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Source: Hardware Zone
