The attempt to create a hybrid of DVD and CD has failed -- at least for now. The members of the international DVD Forum found in their tests that the playback of the discs manufactured by Warner isn't reliable enough for mass-market.

The hybrid discs were supposed to contain a CD layer of the usual 1.2 millimetre thickness, as well as a DVD layer at 0.6 mm. The test results on DVD players were quite discouraging -- half the DVD-Audio players played the Multi Format discs as plain Audio CDs, and a quarter of the players had even more serious problems. Nearly two-thirds of the DVD-Video players also played the discs as CDs, and a fifth of them had serious problems.

Panasonic spokesman Peter Weber told New Scientist: "It is premature to say that plans for a hybrid are dead. Work is continuing on other solutions."

The companies are now trying to create a two-sided hybrid disc. That might prove to be rather problematic, since the CD specifications require the clear plastic layer to be of certain thickness. Too thin layer would mean focusing problems for CD lasers. On the other hand too thick a disc would be incompatible with some players.

DVD Forum members are quite eager to come up with a solution, though, since the downwards compatible Super Audio CD (or SACD) is penetrating the market quite efficiently.

Source:
New Scientist