HD DVD moves forward with recorders, 51GB disc
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By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 10/11/2007
OCT. 11 | UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif.—The DVD Forum is readying launches of HD DVD recorders that burn to standard-definition media and new higher-capacity 51GB disc configurations.
The new blue-laser recorders using traditional DVDs would be valuable for budget-conscious consumers. Currently, HD DVD recordable discs are priced steeply, whereas a 50-disc pack of DVD-Rs sells for a modest $20 to $30.
Consumers would likely only be able to fit one hour’s worth of high-definition content onto DVD-Rs using these new HD DVD recorders. An HD DVD disc can play back three times that much. But consumers would experience the DVD-R video in high-definition.
“When you playback, you’ll get the full resolution in high-def,” said Mark Knox, Toshiba technology adviser, during the Forum’s conference on Tuesday. “But [the disc] might be able to only hold one hour. You can’t store as much, but you’ll have cheap content on cheap discs. This is a whole new category of product.”
Knox also reiterated that the Forum is nearing finalization of a triple-layer 51GB disc specification. If produced, these discs each holding 17GB capacity per layer, would boost the format’s competitiveness against Blu-ray Disc, which has already released numerous 50GB titles. To date, HD DVD titles are in 15GB and 30GB configurations.
Also in the HD DVD development pipeline is a ‘twin format.’ In this twist on the HD DVD-DVD combo, there are two layers of HD DVD and one layer of standard-definition sitting on one side of the disc. With combos, the HD DVD and standard-definition DVD sit on opposite sides of the same disc.
In other Forum news, members hope to launch an HD DVD format in China by the August 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. This format would be incompatible with the HD DVD format elsewhere but is meant to create a new business in China. Viewed as progress toward this goal, the DVD Forum helped form the Chinese High Definition DVD Industry Assn. in September.
