The Lion's Den

HD-DVD Approved

The inevitable introduction of a DVD format that can handle High Definition resolutions seems to be heating up with two competing formats. A short article at broadcastengineering.com states that the DVD Forum has approved HD DVDs:

HD DVDs will be able to record five times the amount of information of current DVDs. Today's DVD technology allows recording of about two hours of conventional analog TV programming while the new format can record more than two hours of digital TV programming.

The competing Blu-Ray format discs can store more than three hours of digital programming. However, Toshiba and NEC argued that their format can be priced about 20 percent lower than a comparable Blu-ray disc because the assembly lines for current DVDs can be adapted to make HD-DVD discs. That cannot be done with Blu-ray discs.