The DVD formats have been heavily discussed the last couple of months. Should we go for DVD+R(W), DVD-R(W) or should we simply go for a drive that can handle both formats? That last option seems to be the perfect solution for now but the successor of DVD is nearing commercialization and it seems there is going to be another battle.
This time it will be between the 'Advanced Optical Disc' technology and Blu-Ray. Both formats will be able to record more than 20GB of data on each side of an optical disk:
Toshiba and NEC have proposed their Advanced Optical Disc technology as a standard to the DVD Forum, a consortium of 212 companies. The forum is expected to settle on full specifications for AOD by the second quarter next year, said Hideyuki Irie, a DVD Forum official. |
Earlier this year, the basic specifications for an alternative high-capacity standard known as Blu-Ray were announced by nine companies: Matsushita Electric Industrial, Royal Philips Electronics, Sony, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Pioneer, Samsung Electric, Sharp, and Thomson Multimedia.
Competing Standards
The AOD is based on a 405-nanometer-wavelength blue laser and can store up to 20GB of data on one side of a disc of the same size as a conventional DVD disc. AOD drives are expected to be commercially produced next year, according to Mitsumasa Fukumoto, an NEC spokesperson.
Blu-Ray, which also uses a 405-nanometer blue laser, can store up to 27GB of data on one side or 50GB on two sides, and is expected to be commercialized soon but no targeted launching date is set, Sony's Tsuyoshi Sakaguchi said.
Unless each side approaches and compromises with each other it looks like we're going to see another battle between these standards. Want to discuss DVD-related subjects? Check out our DVD±RW related forums.
Source: PC World
