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Toshiba Develops 3-Layer DVD and HD-DVD

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the play-it-anywere dept.

morpheus83 writes, "Toshiba, in collaboration with disk manufacturer Memory Tech Japan, has successfully combined a HD-DVD and DVD to a single 3-layer, twin-format disk. The resulting disk conforms to DVD standards so it can be played on DVD players, and also on HD-DVD players after upgrading the firmware. The disk can have either Single Layer DVD (4.7GB) + Dual Layer HD DVD (30GB); or Dual Layer DVD (8.5GB) + Single Layer HD DVD (15GB). There will not be a long wait as the new disk can be produced on the existing HD-DVD mass production line with minor process additions."

16 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. What is that whoosing sound that I hear by also-rr · · Score: 4, Funny

    Amazing, who would have though that both Sony Stock and Sony Executives would accelarate at the same rate on their way down.

    --
    Think of the Children; Sleep with your Sister
    1. Re:What is that whoosing sound that I hear by ivan256 · · Score: 4, Informative

      There is already an existing technology to accomplish this with BluRay. In fact, there already existed a similar technology for HD-DVD, and this is just yet another way to do it. Both BluRay and HD-DVD have supported DVD compatable content on the same disc since 2004. (Sorry about the Reg link, but it was the first one I could find on google, and I'm too lazy to dig for a more reputable source. I know they are out there though.)

  2. Amazing! by Rendo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Say for example you're married like I am. You could use the DVD format for kids videos, pictures etc etc and install a DVD only drive on your wife's machine. Your machine however could have a HD-DVD drive and the HD-DVD side could be your porn, and she'd never know. This, by far, will save many marriages that are destroyed by porn.

  3. Well done Toshiba by Kimos · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think we just figured out who's going to win in HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray...

  4. CD-RW/1/2/3-layer HD-DVD/DVD-R +/-RW by tverbeek · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh, no, consumers won't find this confusing at all.

    --
    http://alternatives.rzero.com/
  5. Nothing to see here... consumers are clueless. by Tackhead · · Score: 3, Interesting
    > The resulting disk conforms to DVD standards so it can be played on DVD players, and also on HD-DVD players after upgrading the firmware. The disk can have either Single Layer DVD (4.7GB) + Dual Layer HD DVD (30GB); or Dual Layer DVD (8.5GB) + Single Layer HD DVD (15GB).

    Going by the number of stretched video I've seen from users who don't know the difference between widescreen/letterboxed/4:3/16:9/pan-and-scan, (just when you thought "but I don't like the horizontal black bars at the top and bottom" was dying out on 4:3 screens, the very same who now have 16:9 screens are sying things like "I don't like the vertical black bars on the left and right!")...

    The dirty little secret of this technology is that it's just a regular DVD, but you can convince yourself that it's HD-DVD when you play it back on an HD-DVD player... on your NTSC display. Or something.

    (And if you can't immediately tell the difference, I'm sure there's a guy in a blue shirt who'll be happy to sell you some triple-layer Monster Cables that'll cure what ails ya. "Only triple-layer monster cables are compliant with triple-layer HD, sir, and can we interest you in the extended warranty on your new cables?")

  6. Counterpoint by Dobeln · · Score: 3, Funny

    My guess is that Sony will still win this one, thanks to the Umpteen PS3-installed BluRay players that will eventually fill the market.* Unless HD-DVD players become really cheap really fast, I can't see them matching the installed base that will rumble into place as soon as Sony get their act together.

    * This does not imply that I believe the PS3 will crush the XBox360 - Microsoft will probably gain marketshare this generation. But Sony will still sell a bucketload of PS3:s, giving them the edge in the HD wars.

    1. Re:Counterpoint by Rix · · Score: 3, Funny

      I can't see them matching the installed base that will rumble into place as soon as Sony get their act together.

      I don't think there's any danger of that happening.

    2. Re:Counterpoint by GweeDo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I can't see them matching the installed base that will rumble into place as soon as Sony get their act together.

      Sorry man, Sony users don't rumble anymore...

      --
      Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
  7. Useless Hype? by duerra · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am most definitely not trying to troll, but as much as I wish this was useful, I just can't find it to be so. They need to develop a compatible quad-layer DVD, for dual HD-DVD and dual standard DVD support on the same side of a disk. As it stands right now, neither 15GB for HD-DVD or 4.7 GB for standard DVD is sufficient size for an entire movie in their respective formats, meaning that either the DVD version or the HD-DVD version on the disk is going to suffer. If I was in the market for HD right now, I certainly would not be purchasing one of these discs, as I would either be going to suffer *now* because of the compression to a single-layer DVD, or I would suffer *later* because of the compression to a single-layer HD-DVD.

    --
    A community-oriented lyrics site
  8. Re:Good news for Microsoft... by Milican · · Score: 4, Informative

    There is no HD-DVD player in a XBox 360...

    JOhn

    --
    Campaign for Liberty
  9. Now it's official by Overzeetop · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since the entire net community has proven that 4.7GB DVDs are perfectly acceptable, this paves the way for barebones movies at 4.7GB plus the HD version on dual layer. They'll be marketed as "future proof" and they'll charge you an extra $5-10 for the privledge. And you'll happily pay it becuase you know if you buy the DVD version you'll probably want the HD version eventually, and the initial cost - resale of the DVD will probably be in the $5-10 range.

    Of course, if they really wanted HD-DVD to win, they'd _only_ produce the dual version. That way its a value added product, and you don't have to upgrade all the players in the house to get the most benefits. As you drop your DVD in favor of HD, your discs stay the same. Folks who are quality nuts will get an HD box pretty soon anyway, and the other 98% of the population will never know the difference of the lost 1-2GB of space.

    It is seriously brilliant. Marketing can still fumble th ball on this, but properly played this could be the difference in who wins the format war.

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  10. Re:Didn't help SACD by John+Miles · · Score: 3, Funny

    SACD is a streming bit format. each bit signals either an up or down step on the waveform, rather than having sampled bytes indicating a complete level. This is why you can't really start an SACD song in the middle of the song.

    I think I'll go back to bed now, on the grounds that the day can only get weirder after reading something like that.

    --
    Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
  11. you have that backwards by User+956 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Your machine however could have a HD-DVD drive and the HD-DVD side could be your porn, and she'd never know. This, by far, will save many marriages that are destroyed by porn.

    Far more importantly, it will save all the porn that is destroyed by marriage.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  12. Blu-ray camp showed this at IFA 2005 !!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    I can't believe it - is the Slashdot populated by demented anti-Sony fanbois?

    This "hybrid disc magic" might be considered high-tech and cutting-edge in the HD DVD world, but the exact same "features" was shown and demonstrated live back at last years IFA 2005 in Berlin in the Blu-ray Disc area ...

      http://www.blu-ray.com/ifa2005/

    Hybrid discs are actually part of the offcial BD-ROM spec and was one of the selling points last year when all HD DVD came up with was those lame "flippers" ...

    So don't buy into the Slashdot HD DVD hype, just accept the fact that everything you can do with HD DVD you can do better with BD. Storage capacity is 66% higher and the video interactivity is based on Sun's Java (just like the DVB standard).

    1. Re:Blu-ray camp showed this at IFA 2005 !!! by iainl · · Score: 3, Interesting

      1) No-one has made a hybrid disc for Blu-Ray and DVD yet, because (a) Sony can't get a second layer to work on Blu-Ray yet, (b) the disc isn't physically thick enough to make flippers, so two layers is your only option, (c) that means only 4.5Gb for the DVD layer, which isn't enough for most current DVD releases and (d) no-one at Blu-Ray can see eye to eye with the rest of the DVD Consortium to get permission to sell one anyway.

      2) Sony could press you a dual-layer Blu-Ray, although it would cost you an arm and a leg because the yields are as bad as their laser diodes. But you wouldn't want them to, because no-one has a player that could read it; Samsung's drive is incapable of focussing on the second layer, and everyone else has put their release dates back repeatedly in the hope that someone can figure it out.

      3) The full Java BD spec is written down, but neither the Samsung nor Pioneer's much delayed player implements it, only the light version.

      So while Blu-Ray looks lovely on paper, it's pretty poor in comparison to HD-DVD out here in the real world right now.

      --
      "I Know You Are But What Am I?"