New Disc Patent Won't End HDTV DVD War

Commentary
New Disc Patent Won't End HDTV DVD War
By Robert Smith
HD Observer

Washington, D.C. (September 25, 2006) -- Recent reports of a new patent for a triple format disc (DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray on the same disc) have suggested this may help ease the High-Definition TV DVD format war. (See: DVD Patent) A deeper analysis suggests that this is not the case.

First, it will take some time before we even know if this disc structure,developed by Warner Bros.' engineers is even feasible and compatible with current players. The equipment to press the discs will have to be created. By the time this new disc arrives, if it does, the format war may have taken a decisive turn.

Examining the actual proposal reveals a more serious problem. The disc will include one DVD layer (4.5GB), one HD DVD layer (15 GB) and one Blu-Ray
layer (25GB). Many current DVDs require two layer discs. Almost all current HD-DVD discs require two layers. While the larger Blu-Ray layer can support many films, the studios plan to take advantage of the double-layer Blu-Ray disks. This means that only a fraction of currently published films could easily use this disk format.

In particular, restricting HD DVD to only one layer would represent a huge compromise, either in quality, features, or films that could use the format. Most news reports seem to have missed the critical point that there is not enough space for each of the three formats on this over-crowded disk.

A triple format disk is likely to be more expensive to manufacture, and the studios would want to pass this extra cost along to consumers. There is a precedent for this.

Warner Bros. is currently using an existing "combo" format to ship a DVD version of a film on the same disk with an HD DVD version of the same film. Warner just announced it is using this format for Superman
Returns to be released later this fall; the HD DVD/DVD combo is priced at $39.95, while the Blu-Ray-only disk is $34.95. Bloggers and early adopters are hopping mad at having to pay $5 extra for the combo feature they don't
want. Higher pricing for the triple format disk would meet consumer resistance since most users would only want one format but would resent paying for all three.

Even if it proves feasible and pricing issues are resolved, does this answer the problem the customer has? The decision the customer is being asked to make is: Which format do I buy, HD DVD or Blu-Ray? It is clear that there isn't a reason to have both formats, and at $500 to $1000 each for the player, a mistake will prove costly.

The triple format disk might help soothe the pain of making the wrong decision, but basically doesn't change
the situation. The customer will realize that the studios will soon stop releasing content for the losing format, whether that content is on a triple format disk or another format.

Perhaps most importantly, the proposal to have triple format disks is likely to further complicate the entire already messy picture the consumer has of the format war. Even experienced technologists are having problems keeping track of all the software, features, and add-ons that are included or proposed for these formats. Warner's triple layer proposal just adds another wrinkle and reason to wait until things settle down.

This triple format disk proposal underscores the stupidity of the format war. What Warner intends to do is to make a single High-Definition encode of a film and then to press two virtually identical copies of that encode,
one on an HD DVD layer, the other on a Blu-Ray layer. Why, exactly, do we need to have two copies of exactly the same computer "file" on a disk? Can't we simply have one copy in a layer structure that all manufacturers adopt and support?

We still need for the industries involved to come to an agreement about this disk structure and a sharing of royalties.

Robert Smith is a HD Observer for TVPredictions.com and a vice president of engineering at a Palo Alto-based educational research company.

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