Toshiba unveil Triplelayered 45Gb HD-DVD ROM Disc

[Parm]

Toshiba Corporation today announced development of a triple-layer HD DVD-ROM (read-only) disc with a data capacity of 45 gigabytes, 50% more than the 30-gigabyte dual-layer HD DVD-ROM disc already announced and enough to record twelve hours of high-definition movies on a single disc. The new disc adds a high-end option to the previous HD DVD-ROM disc lineup that includes the 15GB (single-layer, single-sided) and 30GB (dual-layer, single-sided). These two discs are already approved and standardized at the DVD Forum.

More details here: http://www.physorg.com/news4052.html

If HD-DVD is now going to be capable of 45Gb's, the capacity difference between itself and Blu Ray is practically irrelevant.

Certainly an interesting development, particularly for the HD-DVD camp.

[Funkstar]

This is good to see. Although HD-DVD has a theoretical limit of 60gig compaired to BluRays 200gig.

[GeorgeTuk]

Yeah but since the main battleground will be the movie arena it seems that even after encoding it there is just no point in the 200Gb, I have hardly watched any extras on DVDs anyway so why start now.

I think it will come down to the name (HD-DVD sounds a bit like DVD to the average joe) and what movies are released for what price. After Iomega have touted great storage for years but never had widespead adoption.

[Funkstar]

yeah, you are probably right about that, but it would be good to see an optical format with a decent data capacity in the market, especially with hard drives hitting 1TB in the not too distant future. As far as video content is concerned, as long as you can get things like Lord Of The Rings Directors Cut on a single disk with maximum bit rates on video and audio, then a second disk is fine for extras. Sure beats 4 disk DVD sets

[charleski]

The only issue is that the number of discs is used to increase the perceived value of a release. More expensive special editions are advertised as "two-disc special edition!" More discs = more value is the sort of simple equation that works in the marketplace. Of course, extra discs do represent extra manufacturing and packaging costs, and in Blu-ray's case at least these are not insignificant.

Right now the releases are junk on both formats. They're the same sort of early-adopter stuff we saw when DVD came out and even without the format war it'll take a couple of years for things to settle down to the maturity we see in the DVD market. But I suspect that multi-disc releases will continue to happen, only they'll be filled with a lot more junk as 'extras'.

[GeorgeTuk]

What do you mean junk, Click with Adam Sandler looks AMAZING! [/sarcasm]

Yep I just hope the market doesn't splinter again into what we saw with DVDs ie, -/+ stuff when really to the consumer it was all the same!

[Sinizter]

especially with hard drives hitting 1GB in the not too distant future

Really? I must have a time machine to have my 320gb hard drive.

[Funkstar]

pah! you know what i meant

[dangel]

The only issue is that the number of discs is used to increase the perceived value of a release. More expensive special editions are advertised as "two-disc special edition!" More discs = more value is the sort of simple equation that works in the marketplace. Of course, extra discs do represent extra manufacturing and packaging costs, and in Blu-ray's case at least these are not insignificant..

A very good point - "one disc special edition" doesn't sound nearly as good as "two disc special edition" etc..

[Rack]

Marketing sucks. Having 2 discs is much worse - I will probably never get those 'second' discs out, but on the same disc I might bother to watch some features. But it's all about perceived value, perceived quality... pah.