Quad-layer DVD to become third HD format?

The home entertainment market is still wrestling with having two HD optical formats, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc, but soon it will have to deal with another. UK-based New Medium Enterprises (NME) has developed the Versatile Multilayer Disc (VMD), a new optical-based format capable of storing 20GB of data.

Unlike HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc, VMD is a red-laser technology that achieves its storage capacity by using a greater number of layers. VMD is precisely the same size and thickness as DVD. However, while DVD technology utilizes two layers of a disc, VMD technology has conceived multi-layering, where up to 5GB can easily be stored on each layer.

New Medium Enterprises said that in January 2007 that it secured worldwide patents surrounding its technology that provides up to eight information layers on each side of a disc. NME patents filed in 2004 cover the principles of NME's “modified 2P process,” which involves producing more than two layers on a single-sided disc, and allow for the replication of multilayer discs with the production yield and subsequent production costs comparable to current DVD production. The patent also covers the general set-up of a VMD production line and method of playing-back multilayer discs.