New technology could nip DVD format war in the bud

[Spartan_X]

New technology could nip DVD format war in the bud

Tue Sep 26, 2006 11:34 AM ET

By Lucas van Grinsven, European Technology Correspondent

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The format war around next generation DVDs may be over before it has begun, thanks to a breakthrough from a British media technology company.

Britain-based New Medium Enterprises (NME) <NMEN.OB> said on Tuesday it had solved a technical production problem that makes it possible to produce a cheap multiple-layer DVD disk containing one film in different, competing formats.

"Current technologies to create multiple layer disks mostly don't work. We've created a technology for mass production of multiple layers that does not suffer from the well known problem of low yields," said NME Chief Technology Officer Eugene Levich.

A low yield means that many DVDs coming off the manufacturing lines are not working and have to be discarded.

The production costs of a multi-layer DVD using the new NME technology are estimated to be around 9 cents, compared with the 6 cents for a standard single-layer play-back DVD, according to Dutch company ODMS, one of the world's leading makers of production lines for optical disks.

This 50 percent cost increase compares favorably with the current generation of multi-layer recordable DVD disks which cost 3 to 5 times as much to produce than a single layer disk, due to low yields.

The technological breakthrough comes one week after three employees at movie studio Warner Bros. filed a patent for the application of multiple formats on a single DVD disc.

"There's no collision between Warner and us. They patent the application, we are patenting the technology. These are complementary patents. I'm glad it's happened. Warner opened our eyes, because it shows they really want to do this and create multi-format, multi-layer disks," Levich said.

Time Warner <TWX.N> is the world's largest media company and owns Warner Bros. Former Warner Home Video President James Cardwell joined NME as a board member last month.

NIPPED IN THE BUD?

Multiple format DVD disks can solve the emerging war between the two new high capacity DVD formats: Blu-Ray, which is backed by Sony Corp. <6758.T>, and Toshiba-supported <6502.T> HD-DVD.

High capacity DVD disks are needed to store high definition movies on a single disk. Movies stored in high definition provide five to six times more picture detail than standard definition which is used in normal DVDs.

Hollywood studios have been choosing sides in the DVD format war, each supporting one of the two formats. Some have said they will produce films in both, in addition to the standard DVD format.

By putting the same film on a single disk in the two competing formats, movie studios can save money and consumers do not have to worry if they are buying the right disk for their player.

The technological breakthrough by NME was confirmed by ODMS.

"I can confirm this. We were very skeptical when NME approached us. We have experience with producing dual layer recordable DVD discs and the yield is below 50 percent. But their technology gives a much higher yield and also brings other cost savings," said ODMS Chief Executive Jadranko Dovic.

ODMS said it will have the first prototype production line using NME's technology running by early 2007.

NME said it had also created new technology for the machines which have to read and write the disk, which is another bottleneck with multi-layer disks. The current generation of DVD players can read up to two layers.

NME has created DVD disks with up to 10 different layers that were still readable. It has created its own player, but it is willing to license the technology to mainstream consumer electronics companies, Levich said.

Movies on a DVD are stored at different depths depending on the technology. Blu-ray discs store information only 0.1 millimetre from the surface while HD-DVD discs store it at 0.6 millimeters. Movies longer than two hours would need to be stored on two layers of the same format very close to each other.

News source: Reuters.com

[PL_ Veteran]

:o Awesome!

[Spartan_X]

this is a BIG boo boo for Sony's plan for their PS3+BD strategy... :pinch:

wonder if a liltle firmware update to the 360's optical drive will allow the playback of this new multilayer DVD, this will allow to store up to 18gb of data on a 4 layer DVD... :drool: :drool: :drool:

[bdsams Veteran]

i read a few weeks back of being able to have hd-dvd and regular dvd on the same disk...is this the same thing?

[gunnerhkjp]

this is a BIG boo boo for Sony's plan for their PS3+BD strategy... :pinch:

wonder if a liltle firmware update to the 360's optical drive will allow the playback of this new multilayer DVD, this will allow to store up to 18gb of data on a 4 layer DVD... :drool: :drool: :drool:

I don't think the article says anything about a 4 layer conventional DVD?

Normail DVD drives won't be able to focus onto the other layers, unless hardware changes are made.

[magik]

^ This article doesn't, but there has been reports of multi (more than 2, of course) layer DVD production that can be read in all of today's conventional DVD players (some may require a firmware update). I will try to track down the article detailing this if I get the chance, but it was a while back.

[Bant Veteran]

pretty neat, but not a lot of info. very interested to see how this progresses :)

[Gfunk4life]

good news. well not for sony

[PL_ Veteran]

^ This article doesn't, but there has been reports of multi (more than 2, of course) layer DVD production that can be read in all of today's conventional DVD players (some may require a firmware update). I will try to track down the article detailing this if I get the chance, but it was a while back.

Try looking up DVD18, that's what quad-layer DVDs are called.

I think they do exist, actually.

EDIT: Turns out that they can do double-sided double layered DVDs, but you have to flip the disc.

Multiple Layer Capability. Finally, DVDs may have up to 4 layers of information, with two layers on each side. To read information on the second layer (on the same side), the laser focuses deeper into the DVD and reads the pits on the second layer. When the laser switches from one layer to another layer, it is referred to as the "layer switch" or the "RSDL (reverse spiral dual layer) switch". To read information from the other side of the DVD, almost all DVD players require the user to manually flip the disc

http://www.timefordvd.com/tutorial/DVDTutorial.shtml

Edited September 27, 2006 by PureLegend

[magik]

^ What I was referring to was a triple or quad-layer DVD on one side. But maybe I misread it and it's actually double-sided-double-layer DVD, in which case, that's completely useless because you might as well just use two double-layer DVDs.

[Joel]

i read a few weeks back of being able to have hd-dvd and regular dvd on the same disk...is this the same thing?

No, you're thinking of hybrid discs. This is something else totally.

[Danrarbc]

i read a few weeks back of being able to have hd-dvd and regular dvd on the same disk...is this the same thing?

Wel this article does mention a ton of layers can be used. But I doubt a DVD player could find something readable if there were 4 HD layers on the same disc.

I don't think the article says anything about a 4 layer conventional DVD?

Normail DVD drives won't be able to focus onto the other layers, unless hardware changes are made.

Well, it does mention the company created a 10 layer disc. I'd assume they were 'DVD' layers. For the most part though there's no reason to increase layer count with conventional DVD, other than to stay with a red laser format - even 4 layers can only barely reach the storage of 1 layer of HD-DVD media.

[Xerxes]

Sounds good to me :)

Edited October 5, 2006 by Xerxes