We already reported about Toshiba and NEC's new DVD
recording technology called Advanced Optical Disc (AOD). This new standard
should increase the minimum capacity of a single-layer, single-sided disc to
about 15GB.
In Vancouver,
Canada the two firms behind AOD have now presented more details of the technology at
the Optical Data Storage 2003 conference:
 Importantly, the production of AOD discs does not require massive
upgrades for manufactures. Meanwhile, on the consumer side, the new discs
are readable using existing DVD players, a feature that Toshiba and NEC
are banking on in selling the new technology. The two are working with an
industry group called the DVD Forum to gain the support of its 215 member
companies.
 Meanwhile, nine companies, including Hitachi, LG Electronics,
Matsushita, Pioneer, Royal Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Thomson, are
working on their own DVD recordable format, known as Blu-ray. Unlike AOD,
Blu-ray does require DVD player upgrades, and with the price of DVD drives
dropping 33 percent in 2002, the manufactures are said to be looking for
the next wave of upgrades in order to cash in.
However, Blu-ray's main advantage is that it offers
even more capacity than AOD -- up to 50GB for certain dual layer,
read-only discs. |
It's not getting any easier for consumers to decide on which
format they should buy. First we had/have the DVD-R vs. DVD+R war
and now another possible war is about to start..
Source: ElectricNews.net
