As reported this week, the DCA (Doug Carson & Associates) have announced they have successfully mastered the first 3X DVD ROM for HD DVD commercial use. What does that mean for the avid HD DVD fan? Well it basically means that there is a lower cost alternative to the HD DVD disc already in production, which is a win for the consumer.

The 3X DVD is simply written with the standard DVD red laser technology but combined with the same data structure and guidelines of an HD DVD, which allows for HD content using the AVC, VC1, and MPEG-2 codec’s along with AACS copy protection. The disc will only playback in an HD DVD player and the video quality may not be the same as HD DVD or have the same features available on current HD discs, but it is good alternative for manufacturers.

A couple of examples of where this low cost 3X HD DVD could really shine is with content originally shot in 720p or 1080i and or with 40-50 minutes worth of 1080p extras/supplemental materials i.e. trailers, cast interviews and behind the scenes featurettes. The supplemental 3X disc could be packaged along with the main feature disc allowing for longer play times and or lossless audio on the main disc with longer titles.

R.Hollis

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 22nd, 2007 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Disc Storage, HD-DVD news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.