3X DVD-ROM is the name of the technology which may become one of the HD DVD format’s strongest trumps in the battle against Blu-ray. 3X DVD-ROM is simply an optical media that can store not one but three different formats. The 3X DVD media is only compatible with HD DVD players but instead of only supporting the the high definition HD DVD format the discs can also hold the regular DVD format and the UDF 2.5 filesystem. Interestingly this is not a blue laser disc but just a red laser disc and thus the storage capacity is a bit limited; 9.4GB. But with the new compression technologies used by the HD DVD format there will be no problems fitting high definition video on to this limited space.
3X DVD-ROM is presented as a budget alternative to the fully featured HD DVD discs and with its broad format support and lower manufacturing costs is could become an interesting transition technology. We’re waiting for the first tests of the format to see what kind of video quality it can hold and what the prices of these discs will be.
