Toshiba establishes new standard – DVD Download

Japan’s electronics giant Toshiba spent a lot of money to develop a technology that turned out to be not that useful as they originally planned. Some features which can be found on HD DVD players, upscaling for example, can perfectly fit into standard DVD players. Other features, like web-enabled content are not that applicable.

Photo: Toshiba establishes new standard – DVD Download

Now Toshiba hopes to establish such a standard as DVD Download. The corporation has already approved the logo for it at its recent meeting in June.

HD DVD or High-Definition Digital Versatile Disc is a high-density optical disc format designed for the storage of data and high-definition video. HD DVD was designed principally by Toshiba, and was envisaged to be the successor to the standard DVD format. However, in February 2008, Toshiba abandoned the format, announcing it would no longer develop or manufacture HD DVD players.

HD DVD is derived from the same underlying technologies as DVD. Since all variants except the 3× DVD employed a blue laser with a shorter wavelength, it can store about 3¼ times as much data per layer as its predecessor (maximum capacity: 15 GB per layer instead of 4.7 GB per layer).

Much like the VHS vs. Betamax format war during the late 1970s and early 1980s, HD DVD was in a "format war" with rival format Blu-ray Disc to determine which of the two formats would become the leading carrier for high-definition content to consumers. In 2008, major content manufacturers and key retailers began withdrawing their support for the format. Toshiba's withdrawal from the format ended the high definition optical disc format war, effectively making rival Blu-ray the dominant format for high definition video discs. The HD DVD Promotion Group dissolved on March 28, 2008 .