RSSHD-DVDs Successfully Mass Produced
By Ed Oswald | Published June 8, 2005, 11:44 AM
Disc manufacturers Maxell and Verbatim said they have found a way to successfully mass-produce HD-DVDs on standard DVD-recordable production lines, an important breakthrough that would help ease the transition to the next-generation format.
Toshiba developed HD-DVD, which is one of two formats vying for supremacy in the race to bring high-definition video to DVD.
The two companies will start producing HD-DVDs in bulk next year around the same time compatible drives begin to appear in personal computers, and the first HD-DVD recorders hit the market.
In order to make mass production possible, scientists had to make changes to the organic dye in the DVD. In a standard DVD, it is this dye that stores the data. However, since the next generation format uses a blue laser rather than a red laser as with older DVDs, it required some changes to ensure that the disc would work correctly.
The result is a prototype HD-DVD that is single layer and write-once, and can hold up to 15 gigabytes of data.
"By combining our cumulative know-how in high-density optical disc technology with the breakthrough of the new dye, we have tested and proven the manufacturability of HD DVD-R discs," said Norio Ota, Executive Officer and General Manager of Development and Technology Division, Hitachi Maxell.
According to Hisashi Yamada, Chief Fellow of Toshiba's Digital Media Network Company, last year nearly 90 percent of the 1.4 billion recordable and rewriteable DVD disc market were write-once, and it believes that HD-DVD will follow a similar path.
"I am sure that proving an efficient mass production technology for HD DVD-R discs will provide a big boost for a smooth transition from DVD to HD DVD," he said.
Blue-ray (especially with TDK's quad-layer 100GB Disc) is the superior format, HD-DVD offering backwards compatibility with current DVD readers.
This needs to be settled soon. No way do I want to see Betamax vs. VHS all over again.
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|100 Terabyte to 10 Petabyte Holographic disk in development.
HD-DVD could see hard times ahead.
http://colossalstorage.net
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|Don't hold your Breath :)
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|Toshiba and Sony have been combating for months on this to set the new standard. The last I heard, they were at a deadlock and Sony stated they will continue with Blue-ray due to the PS3.
Hopefully, this will bring more pressure for the two to sit back down to discuss the future of HD format. I sure don't want to have to purchase two separate players - even while the two are bickering over which is better. This needs to settle and move on.
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|That was well said, and I have to agree. Personally, I'm going with Blue-ray, but only because I'm pissed at Microsoft atm. :P
Microsoft was supporting the HD-DVD last I heard.
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|Well I'm supporting HD-DVD. It is a lesser standard but not everyone will want to upgrade to current HD standards or pay for a drive that we don't know the cost of yet. I think both sides are going to put consumers into a position where they won't want to buy either standard to avoid the last showdown that there was... but if HD-DVD doesn't win outright by the end of this year then their chances of victory are going to be almost be non-existant, with the release of the PS3.
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|Exactly, and this might be a ploy by Toshiba to get Maxell out there stating this type of technology is ready to go.
It is not even a big deal if sony wants to use it in their PS3 or not(it only effects them), but that the movie industry and other developers begin to use the two different technologies and the consumers are in the middle with buying two players. That is a crock!
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