What would you say about an optical disc that can store a movie in three different formats, Blu-ray, HD DVD and DVD at the same time? Because that is precisely what two of Warner’s most respected engineers are working on at the moment. Alan Bell and Lewis Ostrover namely hope to be able to create a disc that will use the two blue laser formats reading of recorded material on the same side. Both Blu-ray and HD DVD use a blue laser with a wave length of 405 nanometer but the head of a Blu-ray player read at a depth of only 0.1mm while HD DVD goes down to 0.6mm where its data is stored.
Warner’s plan is simple in theory; a disc which contains both a Blu-ray and a HD DVD layer. The disc will allow the Blu-ray laser to reach it layer at 0.1mm but will still be reflective enough for the HD DVD laser to get down to 0.6mm where its layer is located. If you then combine this with a DVD layer on the other side you get an optical disc holding all three current movie formats.
The solution will be a disc which of course will be more expensive than a single media but should be cheaper than printing and shipping movies in three different formats, something which Warner will do on September 26 with the movie Lake House.
This new triple format technology looks very interesting and it may result in some more options for both us, the consumers, and the movie companies.
