HD-DVDs Successfully Mass Produced

Disc manufacturers Maxell and Verbatim said they have found a way to successfully mass-produce HD-DVDs on standard DVD-recordable production lines, an important breakthrough that would help ease the transition to the next-generation format.

Toshiba developed HD-DVD, which is one of two formats vying for supremacy in the race to bring high-definition video to DVD.

The two companies will start producing HD-DVDs in bulk next year around the same time compatible drives begin to appear in personal computers, and the first HD-DVD recorders hit the market.

In order to make mass production possible, scientists had to make changes to the organic dye in the DVD. In a standard DVD, it is this dye that stores the data. However, since the next generation format uses a blue laser rather than a red laser as with older DVDs, it required some changes to ensure that the disc would work correctly.

The result is a prototype HD-DVD that is single layer and write-once, and can hold up to 15 gigabytes of data.

"By combining our cumulative know-how in high-density optical disc technology with the breakthrough of the new dye, we have tested and proven the manufacturability of HD DVD-R discs," said Norio Ota, Executive Officer and General Manager of Development and Technology Division, Hitachi Maxell.

According to Hisashi Yamada, Chief Fellow of Toshiba's Digital Media Network Company, last year nearly 90 percent of the 1.4 billion recordable and rewriteable DVD disc market were write-once, and it believes that HD-DVD will follow a similar path.

"I am sure that proving an efficient mass production technology for HD DVD-R discs will provide a big boost for a smooth transition from DVD to HD DVD," he said.