Digital Journal — In the war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, the customer comes out the loser. The public isn’t ready to replace their DVDs yet, and high-definition penetration has yet to reach saturation.
So it only makes sense that a triple-standard DVD would save the format war from devolving into a chaotic mess. Warner is on the case: Two of its top engineers, Alan Bell and Lewis Ostrover, filed a patent recently that would combine Blu-Ray, HD-DVD and DVD on a single disc.
According to New Scientist, “Warner’s plan is to create a disc with a Blu-ray top layer that works like a two-way mirror… It should also let enough light through for HD-DVD players to ignore the Blu-ray recording and find a second HD-DVD layer beneath.” A conventional DVD could be layered on the other side of the disc.
As expected, the new proposed format will cost more to produce. But isn’t a triple-standard disc more welcome than films released on three different formats?
But most companies aren’t listening to the wisdom of a triple-format theory. Instead, the rollouts keep on coming: Panasonic today announced the debut of its first Blu-ray player, costing $1,500. Sure, it can play standard DVDs but it’s a hard sell to convince home-theatre lovers to convert their video collection to Blu-ray.
Good luck, Panasonic. But we wish even better luck to the Warner engineers who want to reach the peak of this mountainous war by forcing all the formats to hold hands.
“All we are saying, is give triple-standard a chance!”
