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Toshiba develops high-capacity HD DVD disc

Leader: High-capacity HD DVD discs have been developed by Toshiba and demoed at CES last week. Will they be backward compatible, though?

In an attempt to add fuel to the fire of the high-def format war, Toshiba recently announced that it has developed a new, high-capacity HD DVD disc. The disc will not only have higher storage capacity than older HD DVD discs, but it also tops out competing Blu-ray discs as well.

Toshiba's new HD DVD-ROM is a triple-layer disc and is capable of storing 17GB of data per layer. That adds up to a total capacity of 51GB, a mere 1GB more than Blu-ray's 50GB disc storage limit. Toshiba claims that the disc will be able to hold up to 7 hours of high-definition video and that the company hopes to "secure approval of the new disc by the DVD Forum within this year." The disc was demoed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week, and is expected to be available on shelves after it receives approval, later this year.

The disc's physical structure will remain the same as current HD DVD discs: two 0.6mm discs bonded together, back-to-back. However, it's not clear whether these new discs will be backward compatible with older HD DVD players—Toshiba is remaining conveniently tight-lipped on the topic. As this announcement is just an announcement at this point, there will be plenty of time to speculate before the discs hit the shelves. However, if they are not backward compatible with older players, early adopters (seemingly the only ones buying next-gen players at this point) are unlikely to be amused, and therefore unlikely to buy movies on these high-capacity discs for a while.