[chapel]

Some inventors have filed a patent for a new disc technology that will hold three different DVD formats. Those would be Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, and standard DVD/CD. The disc would work in any player that supports each format. Now movie studios can release their movies without choosing a side.

The patent application was filed by Wayne M. Smith, Alan Bell and Lewis S. Ostrover, who work for Warner Bros., according to an attorney who worked on it. Their corporate affiliations were not listed on the application filed with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office in December and published last month.

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 millimetres.

By using reflective films, the inventors say their disc would enable the lasers to read the top layer and "see through" to the lower one if necessary. Additional information also could be stored on the other side of the disc.

[syztem]

too expensive. too late in the game to start development and probably wont catch on for _years_

[chapel]

Well first off, You dont know how much it will cost. Secondly, it hasnt even been a year since the first HD-DVD player was released. Not only that, one of the guys that developed it works for Warner Brothers...

It has more than enough of a chance to make it big. I dont care about the disc, cause I dont have either format. What I do care is, that when I do decide to bite the bullet, that Im not going to be screwed down the road if one of them dies. Well this allows them to live peacefully, to coexist. I think this is the biggest and best way to handle the so called "war" of formats. A combo drive would have been okay, but then youre stuck with features you might not want. A disc is universal to whatever formats it supports... in this case, all of them.

[syztem]

you do realize it takes years for an optical disc standard to become viable for mass production. however, most of that time is probably paperwork such as the standards being decided and not so much the finalized medium, none the less if the cost of hd-dvd and blu-ray is already expensive, the cost of all three technologies on one disc isn't going to be ANY cheaper. especially with the production costs (content, not media).

however, with all obvious things aside, having something like that would be good for the early adopters. wouldn't make sense in the long run, because it essentially is a universal format.

[chapel]

Its not an optical disc standard, its an optical disc that supports 3 standard formats. If it doesnt require any special equipment, like recorders or readers, then it shouldnt require any more time to put out than someone making them.

It would make sense, because instead of people not knowing what to buy, there is no confusion. One disc that works in all your machines, seems like a great idea to me...

[syztem]

tell that to the movie studio who now has to make the movie and menu 3 times for each technology. well, nevermind thats no different than how it is now..

who cares, whenever you give customers any kind of decision to make, you lose a lot of possible sales.

[chapel]

This makes that decision nil. Because there is only one disc you have to buy.