Taiwans alternative the Blu-ray is a red laser scheme named FVD or Forward Versatile Disc. They got a bit of a shot in the arm today from Colorado based Dataplay.
| Dataplay (DPHI), a Colorado-based maker of micro-drives and optical media, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), to further develop FVD technology. 'The MOU covers all of the applicable technology for our system, including the engine, media and content protection system," said Bill Almon, CEO of DPHI. 'Our cooperative activity will enable us to advance our goals to create a small or micro-optical system standard for portable/mobile applications, license our technology and OEM a complete system." FVD is a DVD-like format for storing HDTV content and was developed jointly by ITRI and Taiwan Advanced Optical Storage Research Alliance (AOSRA). It was formally launched in Taiwan at the end of March. Unlike other HDTV discs such as Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, which use blue lasers, FVD is based on red lasers. It is capable of storing 5.4-6 GB on a single-layer disc or 9.8-11 GB on a dual-layer disc. |
The FVD discs will incorporate Windows Media Video 9 video compression, and the report indicates that by using this codec, a
135-minute long high-definition film will fit on the disc. In addition, FVD comes with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Content Protection System for piracy prevention.
Source: Compound Semiconductor
