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Memory-Tech, Toshiba Develop DVD/HD-DVD Discs
Kralizec writes "PC World reports that Memory-Tech has developed a dual DVD, HD-DVD disc, which stores DVD content on the upper layer and HD-DVD content on the lower. The DVD data can be read by standard DVD players, giving customers the incentive to buy now, and reap future benefits by buying an HD-DVD player at a later time. Blu-ray suffered a heavy blow when HD-DVD gained the support of four major movie studios; could this be the knockout punch?" (The format was developed jointly with Toshiba.)
So I have some more links for y'all.
Technology News' Report and PCWorld's Article on the new disc that will contain a backwards-compatible (4.6 GB) DVD layer and a higher definition (15 GB) HD-DVD layer of which production is planned to begin in October or November of next year.
This seems like this could be a major factor in the format war between HD-DVD and the higher capacity Blu-ray.
Why is Blu-Ray superior ?
1. More capacity, up to 200Gb according to Sony
2. TDK has developed a scratch-free surface for Blu-ray DVD's. I would say that's a killer, no more hard to read DVD's when you come home from Blockbuster.
It could be twice the price, say maybe 10cents per unit, retail $20.
hell they only loose a coupld of cents.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Yes. Haven't you been paying attention to your Apple PR?
H.264 to the rescue:They say it's good enough that "at today's SD DVD data rates, H.264/AVC can deliver full HD." So yes, I think they can do it in 15GB.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Anyone who thinks this is a good idea is on CRACK...unless you stand to profit from the sale of HD-DVD's
Ok, a little background. DVD's, when they first started, were primarily 1 layer, not two, per disc. To start they didn't use two layers but it was part of the spec that they eventually could. Now, transfer technology back then wasnt as refined as it is today, so one of the reasons rereleased discs look better is due to the better restoration techniques and transfering technology
HOWEVER, the other HUGE reason is the addition of the second layer. By doubling the space available, you get soooo much more space and higher bit rates ensue, thus you get far better picture with less compression.
What Toshiba is saying is "lets get rid of that second layer, and provide you with whole movie on only one layer again!" Indeed transfer tech has improved, but not THAT much. The video will be so much more compressed and less detailed than if they had just put out the DVD as a dual layered disc. I see only two reasons to even pursue this.
The first is that it will SOUND better to the stupidity of the average consumer, who would rather have the convience, even though they are buying an inferior DVD (and as I will mention, and inferior HD-DVD). This isn't a big issue for one reason. That is, if you are buying this disc, you might reason that youll have a lesser copy now, but when HDDVD comes out, you'll never watch that DVD copy again, so if you put up with it till then, you'll have a nice HDDVD copy to watch.
Problem is, your HD copy is going to look like crap compared to one which was dual layered, 30GB of space for the movie. Infact, given sony has 50, 100 and soon 200 GB discs, the HD-DVD disc cant compare compression-wise. No matter what, a normal HD-DVD will be more compressed than a Blu-ray, but this still begs the question of whether or not the 30gb will be sufficient that there will be little difference from a 50gb copy, to your eye anyways.
Doing some quick math
Animorphic DVD: 720x480 resolution = 345,600 pixels per image
HDDVD at 1080p (why p later and not i) = 20,736,00
thats a difference per image of 6 times (exactly) as much information
So, assuming that you want your HD-DVD copy to have just about the same compression as your DVD copy had (why would you want more?) then a dual layerd, 9.2gb dvd would need 55.2 GB to store this
However, MPEG-4 is far more efficient than the MPEG-2 compression used in DVD's today, and would easily break under 50GB to store that, and possibly even 30. However, it is not good enough to create a HD-DVD copy of the same movie, with the same amount of clarity and compression, in 15GB of space.
Here is my take:
Toshiba knows this marketing might work, and the HD-DVD layer will look OK at first, worth noting that the original DVDs looked good for their day too. But when people have adopted the player, guess what? The Dual layered, HD ONLY discs will destroy the hybrids ones, and that collection of dvd/hddvd you bought is now obsolete. That's right, they do it with full knowledge that they are selling you inferiority to get you to double dip, as they do often today with DVDs
to comment on why hddvd is 1080p, where as HDTV is only 1080i: Its pretty obvious that the plan with HDTV from the start was to sell the 1080i to the rich, and then to the consumer, and then put out 1080p which wouldnt work for broadcast, just as 480p doesnt today, unless they update the spec, but it would look damn good for hddvds. DVD is stored in progressive, there is no reason not to store HDDVD progressive. Just as between 480p tvs and hdtv, they sold edtv with 720i and etc, to the rich, only to get them to buy the newer ones, they are milking HDTV
Anyways, my take is that toshiba is going to try to screw the consumer, but unless this is patented and somehow Sony can't do the same idea, I think this would be GREAT for Blu-ray. If sony can take the 4 layer discs they got, place 2 layer