Dave Horvath
15 Jan 2007 6:18
In an attempt to steamroll their format into the basis of standarization for next generation DVDs, Toshiba has just submitted its latest creation. A triple layer HD-DVD capable of holding 51Gb worth of data. This is in addition to the previous single and dual layer HD-DVD disks with storage amounting to 15GB and 30GB of data, respectively. It appears they've taken direct aim at rival Sony's 50Gb Blu-Ray disk in hopes of wowing consumers with it's sheer size.
This increase was achieved by the ability to cram 17Gb worth of data to each layer, which is more than they had anticipated when they announced back in May of 2005 that they were in development of a 45Gb solution. Industry leaders state that the previous 30Gb capacity was more than enough to fit full 1080p movies plus loads of extras on one disk. From what can be seen, it appears that Toshiba has intiated a "mine's bigger than yours" contest.
The only catch in all this is current generation HD-DVD players will not be able to read data from these new larger capacity disks, so early adopters may be in for a shock when they find out they're stuck with "only" 30Gb capacities.
Source:
Register