Say hello to CH-DVD and a 51GB HD DVD

(Credit: Crave UK)

It's all go in the HD DVD camp at the moment. Still on a high from the Paramount/Dreamworks deal, we're now hearing that HD DVD will soon have a 51GB, triple-layer disc on the way. The significance of a 51GB capacity is that it exceeds the current Blu-ray maximum by 1GB.

Obviously, 1GB is nothing more than a token increase, but it's an amusing nose-thumbing by Sony's opposition. Of course, the smile might be wiped from HD DVD's face if Sony announces a 100GB disc in the near future. There's also a DVD/HD DVD hybrid disc that has a 4.7GB DVD layer, and two 15GB HD DVD layers, something that could encourage DVD player owners to buy a hybrid disc for future upgrade purposes.

The good news is that the 51GB discs should play in all HD DVD players currently on the market. We discussed this with James Armour from Toshiba's optical storage division at CeBIT this year, and were told that although the third layer would be harder to read, and generate more data errors, the player's error correction should be able to fix these problems without picture and sound problems.

The other interesting news was that China has decided to introduce a low-cost HD disc format of its own. CH-DVD is similar in structure to HD DVD, but relies on Chinese technology to reduce the number of patent payments that need to be paid to owners. The plan is for the Chinese to introduce it next year, in time for the Olympics, of all things.

There are rumors that CH-DVDs will be encoded with MPEG-2, and might even be playable on HD DVD players. The format also includes some improved anti-piracy technology, which will be important if the Chinese want to secure rights to Hollywood movies--we all know how important copy protection is to the big studios.

(Source: Crave UK)

[EugeniaJ]

Stats used.

Hi. I've used some stats from this article. It's here. Thank You.

[Electrox3d]

A, B, C, you're an idiot... er... misinformed

A) EVERYONE backing HD DVD only (which is fanboys and not studios until recently, and even then its only for 18months) said "50 GB is way too much for HD movies, 30 GB is all you need!" and look what's happening now... Blu-ray was right from the start.

B) Of course Toshiba is going to say error correction can fix reading from the third layer, but that is only if you purchased a Toshiba HD DVD player, or the player used all the specs correctly.
Also, this is just reinforcing that 3 layers is the maximum amount of layers they can go.

C) You must be the last blogger on the planet that still thinks Blu-ray is a Sony product. Panasonic led the way in designing what blu-ray was. This is why if you buy a blu-ray burner for PC you can use it like an optical hard drive, it acts like DVD-RAM media.
This also means Sony ISN'T announcing 100GB media, TDK is. They've already put it on the roadmap because its a finished technology. 200GB is in the works, so yeah, HD DVD will not be able to compete in the near future.

I'd say you're an idiot, but I think at this point you're just misinformed like a lot of consumers.

[McPlot]

It's about the movies, not the data storage

Face it, 100gig Blu-Ray disc,200gig or more still equals NOTHING. People do not use disc for mass storage or transportation any longer. It is VPN over the internet or an external hard drive (including flash drives). It is way cheaper and way faster to transfer the data. Neither HD DVD OR Blu-Ray will end up as mass storage devices on computers. The extra space on the disc will only be used for extra movie content, or so a TV services can be on one or two disc instead of three or four.

Now, stop displaying your OPINION as fact. And stop hiding facts that make your OPINION wrong.

FACT: The #1 thing that Blu-Ray was saying that made them better then HD DVD is the 50 gig disc. HD DVD had to make a 50gig disc to kill that momentum. Good for marketing.

FACT: According to several sources, there will be a $200 HD DVD player on the market by winter of 2007. $200 players are the price point that DVD players started selling real well at.

FACT: SONY is Blu-Ray. While not the only one, they are the top company in the Blu-Ray Camp.

FACT: At this time, Blu-ray movies are outselling HD DVD movies.

OPINION: While both sides have positive and negative things about them, I think the $200 players will start a major push toward HD DVD. Face it, the cheapest Blu-Ray player is the PlayStation 3. And it accounts for most of the Blu-ray player sales. While the HD DVD camp keeps trying to get the price down to make HD DVD players accessible to more of the market, Sony keeps releasing $500+ Blu-ray players.

Fact: All these highly hyped formats failed or had very limited adoption outside of the company that created them: BetaMax, LaserDisc, Universal Multimedia Disc (UMD), MiniDisc, and Memory Sticks. They all failed for the most part due to price and the high cost of royalties for 3rd parties to make player, movies, etc for them. FACT: The company that created them (in whole or in part) SONY!

Opinion: Sony will once again out price itself for the mass market. They will have their loyal fan base that believes that Sony can do no wrong (See PS3 owners), they will have early adopters who stick with Blu-Ray (see LaserDisc owners), however, they will not get the mass market. I am not saying HD DVD will either. A 3rd format may come along and beat both. Remember the 56k dial up standard war? Flex VS. X2! Which is the standard now? V.92!

PS3 owners, do not reply to my post. I do not want some rabid fan boy (Blu Baller as I now call them) coming in with uneducated replies only to say ?HD DVD sucks!? If you have a stand alone Blu-Ray player, which is rare, I do want to hear your opinion and I want you to fill me in on any FACTS I may have missed, or misunderstood.

You will see, Spiderman 4 will be on HD DVD!