DVD

Competitors and successors

There are two successors to DVD being developed by two different consortiums: Sony's Blu-ray Disc and Hitachi/Toshiba's HD-DVD.

Related Topics:
Blu-ray Disc - HD-DVD

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On November 18, 2003, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported the final standard of the Chinese government-sponsored Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD), and several patents for it.

Related Topics:
November 18 - 2003 - Xinhua - Enhanced Versatile Disc

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On November 19, 2003, the DVD Forum decided by a vote of eight to six that HD-DVD will be the HDTV successor to DVD.

Related Topics:
November 19 - 2003 - DVD Forum - HD-DVD - HDTV

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On April 15, 2004, in a co-op project with TOPPAN Printing Co., the electronic giant Sony Corp. successfully developed the paper disc, a storage medium that is made out of 51% paper and offers up to 25 GB of storage, about five times more than the standard 4.7 GB DVD. The disc can be easily cut with scissors and recycled, offering foolproof data security and an environment-friendly storage media.

Related Topics:
April 15 - 2004 - Paper disc

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As reported in a summer, 2005, issue of Popular Mechanics, it is not yet clear which technology will win the format war over DVD. HD-DVD discs contain less information than Blu-ray discs (15 vs 25 for singles layer,30-50 for dual layer), but Blu-ray requires changes in manufacturing machinery and techniques.

Related Topics:
Popular Mechanics - Format war

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This situation ? two new formats fighting as the successor to a format rapidly approaching obsoletion ? previously appeared as the "war of the speeds" in the record industry of the 1950s; see gramophone record for details of that situation. It was also, of course, the driver behind the VHS/Betamax war in consumer video recorders in the late 1970s.

Related Topics:
Gramophone record - VHS - Betamax

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