Warner To Make HD-DVD And Blu-ray Hybrid Disc >

	2006/09/21 5:29:49: Posted by vividbreeze
	Warner Home Video seems to have the solution to the high definition DVD standard war. They have filed a patent for a single disc that can store regular DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray. This could even mean developers could create hybrid games just like pc/mac titles! >Link
	Labeled With  warner brothers blu-ray hd-dvd Comments [7]  | Rate this article: -- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10  | Avg. rating of 9.0

Video Game Manufactures that create multiplatform games should start using this. it would save them money in production costs, since they are only producing one line of discs, instead of one set for each system. I highly doubt many people purchase the same game for both the xbox 360 and the ps3, and then the consumers would have teh choice of which console to play it on. That would be amazing. Wont happen, but it should, there's really no reason as to why not.

This won't fly for long. We're talking one layer for DVD, one for Blu-Ray and one for HD-DVD. Even though all the Blu-Ray releases so far have fit on a single-layer, many HD-DVD and most SD-DVD are still two-layer. With most movies being two-hours long, I am sorry, but I find plenty of reason of "why not!" The new compression codecs for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray would help, but they can only do so much before we will see plenty of low quality transfers with pixelation and macro blocking (a problem that plagues broadcast HD).

This is pointless for games.

If you need more than 4.7 GB for a game then you're going to have to stamp multiple discs (since this new disc only supports 1 layer of DVD) for those people without next-gen optical drives.

If it takes up less than one 4.7GB then just put on DVD since all HD-DVD/BD read DVD anyways.

This is still good news for early adopters. And Doc, the DVD layer is on the reverse side, it will still be dual layer. If there isn't enough room on the Lowest Common Denominator, the HD-DVD layer, it's still cheaper to do this and pack in a second *bonus features* hybrid disc then release on all 3 formats. This idea makes plenty of sense... as long as the HD layers aren't too sensitive and read well in all players.

Kidkit, you are right and apprently I read through it too quickly. Unfortunately, this is no news for SD-DVD, but mediocre news for both HD formats. As I said before, problems will still arise from trying to fit a full length feature on each HD layer. Yes, that is why there are new compression codecs, but a video can only be compressed so much.

This poses another concern for me...the patent states that the disc is "slightly larger" [in thickness] than a DVD or CD. Remember Dual-Disc? Those were slightly larger and posed a problem for some players causing damage. Current players were not made for this Triple-layer disc in mind.

True.. but we are talking about 10 years in Optical Reader technology... Hopefully these Blue Lasers are good at what they do.

We shall see.