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DVD Forum approves 51 GB single-sided triple-layer HD DVD disc
Posted on 10/09/07 16:18 by Jan Willem
The website Screendigest reports that the DVD Forum has approved the 51 GB single-sided triple-layer HD-DVD disc standard. Which also means that the format is available for production.A single sided triple-layer HD-DVD/DVD hybrid disc is expected to be standardized for the end of this year.
If the capacity of the formats was the real issue, then this would be a blow for Blu-ray. However the discussions here have shown that there are many reasons to pick each format. Will this time size really matter? Women always tell us it doesn't right?
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Is it really an advantage? Will the existing HD-DVD players read these new specifications? 
This message was edited at: 10-09-2007 17:00
I'm guessing they won't be able to read triple layer discs. However, I'm sure tomorrow's hardware will do it without any problems.
By
j4w4 (guest),
Mon 10 Sep 2007 20:16
I thought hd-dvd was 15gig and 30gig so how did they get to 51gig on triple layer?
Size is CRITICAL and this is great news. 30 GB is not enough.
I am a broadcast professional with a very discriminating eye for detail and image quality. HD DVD is beautiful but it is not free of compression artifacts (same for blu-ray) and anyone who can notice them will. It is MPEG4 after all... Having 50 GB to store larger/ less compressed video will definately help this, particularily for longer running films.
Maybe improving the MPEG4 / VC-1 encoding software & imroving the optimization for compression artifcats would help too like it did in the DVD industry, but increased size is still a better solution IMO.
I would expect a firmware update to allow these new discs to be read by current-gen players. 45 GB 3-layer discs were talked about before the 1st HD DVD player was released last year so the idea of being able to focus the laser for a 3rd layer was thought about and speculated to be possible by F/W updates. Speculated... lets cross our fingers and hope it becomes a reality.
I can't see them making 51 GB movie discs if they won't play in early adopters and Xbox 360 HD DVD players.
j4w4, they managed to squeeze 17 GB per layer giving 51 GB total capacity.
Personally, I am more interested in storage vs cost capacity. Right now, I have over 60 DVDs full of music that I have compressed in a lossless format and backed up. It would be nice to to reduce all of these discs down to only fraction of what I have now. At the moment, DVD IS the cheapest option I have to go with. Other storage mediums, either didn't hold as much or were far too expensive for me to get into.
On another note, I still haven't bought the equipment to play either format so I am not too concerned with all of these news releases. By the time I do get a television to play these formats, hopefully, the war will be over and a clear winner will be known. Until then, let them battle it out for it is only good the consumer.
IIRC Bluray already has 200GB discs (or they are in the works). Bluray just stores more data per layer so I think HD DVD will always have less storage space than bluray.
By
Itanium (guest),
Tue 11 Sep 2007 12:03
Why to grab a 51Gb 3-layer HD when you can get the same capacity on a more reliable and surely cheaper 2-layer Blu piece?
The size war is already lost for HD Team, whatever number of layers they achieve to put in a disc. The price war is the only one they can still battle for, and seems they aren’t making much progress in last months.
By
I_wanna_burn (guest),
Tue 11 Sep 2007 16:13
Are these RECORDABLE discs? I can't find any information that clarifies if they're HD DVD-R or just factory pressed movies.
By
I_WANNA_BURN (guest),
Tue 11 Sep 2007 16:17
(Opps, I forgot)
@j4w4
I'm guessing they did it like they squoze 700MB onto CDs. By simply writing the data a little smaller and a little closer together and a little bit closer to the edges they can just get up to 17GB per layer. It's like using a slightly smaller font to get more words on the page.
@DukeNukem
The issue is not that future hardware will read 3 layer discs. The issue is what will happen with current hardware? Will discs be released in 3-layer format when a lot of hardware at home will not read it? You already know the answer, don't you? 
@ johnzap
As I stated at the top of this thread, I believe that current hardware won't be able to play the 3-layer discs. I know that's a pessimistic view, but I believe that this will be the case. Maybe they can come up with a whiz-bang patch. I'm now talking out of my ass and haven't a clue what will happen.
Like all of you I'm impressed HD DVD could pull this off, but its really a downfall as they will not be compatible with the current hardware and HD DVD has almost zero support for burning media.
Blu-ray on the other hand has already finalized their 100GB disc which IS built within the playback spec and are working on finalizing the 200GB disc, yes, again within the playback spec.
We're also now up to 4X 50GB write once Blu-ray (thats 18MB/s, about the same speed as 16X DVD's) while HD DVD is still at 15GB write once at 1X.
Sorry HD DVD, too little too late.
It sure is NOT a blow for Blu-Ray. As Layers are BAD. And we should have less of these. Nothing worse than to master a layer change when burn a disc with *hrhr* homemade video.
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