Putting SD and HD content on a single disc is a brilliant idea, would save buying a lot of movies twice for many people, we could all start buying our HD DVD's now while we're saving for that 60" HD Plasma!

I would also imagine it'd bring the prices of the HD discs down quicker with all the extra sales. Would be very good for rental discs too, save having to stock 2 versions of everything.

When the rewritable ones come out... :)

Assuming the same technology is available we can look forward to 75GB (or maybe 80? 85?) triple layer Blu-Ray disks within 6-8 months (assuming HD DVD has a 6-8 month lead to the market and Blu-Ray hasn't narrowed it at all).

Is it just me or are both camps saying; "Don't buy a player yet, wait 6 months and then you'll get more on a disk!"

Sorry, I'm just basing that on the fairly simple fact that if an existing player could use the triple layer disks they would probably be crowing about people "not having to upgrade their players" - they're not, so you clearly do have to.

I'm still betting on Blu-Ray but I'm beginning to suspect that the "winner" will be irrelevant in an era of downloading content.

Wow, that's so.....ummmm...90s. Did I read that right? They want to glue a single layer DVD to the back of an HD DVD, so depending which way you stick it in your machine you get the normal or super duper HD version? Reminds me of double sided single layer DVD and VCD all those years ago.

Now if they stuck a DVD layer in front of the HD DVD layers so that normal players just say the old format, but your HD DVD player saw thru the old format to the new one *then* I'd be impressed.

Many reports, some from Toshiba engineers themselves, basically saying the backwards compatability for the new HD DVD discs is this.

Gen1 HD DVD - Not compatible

Gen2 HD DVD - Not compatible

Gen3 HD DVD - Compatible with firmware update.

Hmm, seems they just shat over most of their existing users.

Already here (sort of). My HD DVD of '300' has the regular DVD on one side and the HD version on the other. A great idea for homes that have just one HD player and a whole stack of DVD players.

51 GB sound suspiciously like a kid going "Oh yeah, well MY dad's disk has fifty PLUS ONE gigabytes!"

Two layers to become delaminated! Hope they provide a better return/replacement policy.

Sounds good to me. A lot of people are saying that downloads will make this unimportant. I'm not completely convinced. I can see that downloads may eventually become de-facto I don't see it happening anytime soon. Firstly, ADSL isn't fast enough to download an HD-DVD size movie + features. Secondly, if I've spent the week or so downloading that movie I probably want to keep it offline somewhere. Maybe with the size of harddrives now that's not so important. Most importantly, though, is that I want to play these films on my TV not on my PC monitor. I also don't want to have a PC under my TV for this. I want a stand-alone box that is dedicated to playing movies and does it well. At the moment, that's a standalone player for one of these formats. None of the studios seem to be focusing on downloadable content at the moment so I don't see how it's going to take off - legally.

This is just approval as a standard something that was developed and announced ages ago... actually, wasn't the quad layer 100GB version of Bluray announced just a few days after the triple layer HD DVD? Must be getting to a similar stage by now...

so far there are only recorders for Blu-ray .... (pc, i'm not interested in standalone recorders, unless i can connect them to my pc and burn from there) and they are priced outrageously ( 499 $ ... )

With the world moving to HD video ( and lots of new HD camcorders coming in the affordable price range ) this is becoming a big issue. You've shot some really cool footage on your latest vacation... now how can you show it on the tv ? you have to either hook up the camcorder or hook up the pc.

and if you want to give friends a copy then it's even a bigger problem.

i want a burner ! darn'it.

...until Tesco and Asda sell 'em.

And I can't see either supermarket selling both in parallel due to the confusion and subsequent hassle.

HD-DVD has had combo discs from day one. These are discs with HD-DVD on one side, and normal DVD on the other. This means you can start building your HD-DVD catalogue now, even if you have a standard DVD player. This is the format the new Star Trek: Original Series Remastered (with new CGI) is being released.

HD-DVD also has "twin" discs. This is a dual layer HD-DVD with HD-DVD on one layer and normal DVD on another layer. This means that unlike the combo disc, you don't have to flip it over to change between HD-DVD and DVD. This gives you a 15GB HD layer and a 4.7GB DVD layer.

Bluray has some serious yield problems at the moment - in order to increase yields, they have to reduce the capacity a wee bit (this is due to the spin coating - it can become uneven around the outer edges, and because of the high tolerences required for Bluray, it can make it harder for the laser to focus here. This is becuase Sony decided on a higher numerical aperture for the focusing lens on their blue laser pickup in order to cram in more capacity, which means the data layer has to be just 0.1mm from the surface of the disc, which needs new technology to protect it).

As NetFlix realized years ago, and as many system operators know in IT - the fastest bulk data transfer in the world is a shipping crate full of tapes or optical disks.

That's why YouTube streams dinky little videos, and DVD and it's decendants give you real video.

And if you just download video, not stream, well then, I hope you have a giant home PC (in terms of disk space). Or your own home NAS with RAID 5...cause you just can't back up a few terabytes. Oh, wait, you can...onto HD DVDs...

So who hasn't heard about holographic discs? If they're out in anywhere close to the predicted time period, then this whole format war will be nullified. Last I heard 300GB holo-discs were about 2 years away, and 1TB discs were just 3 years past that. In 2 years whichever format wins the current war will just be getting more popular than DVD, and it'll be obsolete. Unless some large corporations destroy holographic media development to protect their investments...

almost an even fight!

but current HD-DVD disc's versus Blu-Ray isn't a fair fight everybody needs more room as our digital lives expand exponetially, Space is the premium we require.

I went to my local video store, loads of blu-ray discs on the shelves, no HD-DVD, I left the shop wondering so I checked Blockbusters and Choices as well, both had a much greater range of Blu-Ray films, than HD-DVD Versions.(the ones around here did anyway)

Face it, HD-DVD is getting BetaMax-ed, I do wonder if three layers will save it, But I expect similar engineering issues raised by others about the Blu-Ray production process, Will reduce the amount of manufacturers capable of producing a three layer disc.

upto 3.9 terabytes (theoretical maximum)

your looking at several years before the common consumer could get their hands on a holographic drive and discs because they will of course be sold to large corporations with large storage needs for an extortionate price for quite awhile after release.

the actual readers could read these new disks

I'm hoping that HD-DVD will win the fight. What made me switch camps? Well... HD-DVD has no region locking. If you're in a country where good shows and movies are attainable only via imported discs, you'll know how that's important.

...always amazes me how little some people know and post on threads!

It's a good step forward, nice to see one of the key reasons i believe HD DVD will succeed and that is that the idea was passed to the governing body and awaiting approval, rather than just issued as per the BRA.

As for present gen players not necessarily being able to play it, i notice no-one mentions that no-one mentions that only the PS3 will be able to play v1.1 discs of BR (due out end of this month) no other current player can... then when v2 (if Sony make up their mind) god knows!

The Betamax reference could be poignant, think who made it and then think who makes the DVD formats.... though in this instance i personally don't believe that BR is the superior format.

Personally, I'm just curious as to where this Anonymous Vulture managed to find a Choices Video that wasn't closed down, let alone stocked plenty of Blu-Ray discs.