Liggy and Sviox used our news submit to tell us that that a new development in the DVD recordable area has been announced by the DVD+RW Alliance. This might bring the current DVD format war in a totally different perspective. The new dual layer technology will make it possible that a whopping 8.5 GB of data can be stored on the discs while remaining compatible with current DVD players. Philips has developed this technology in cooperation with Mitsubishi Kagaku Media, better known by their Verbatim brand and has put a lot of effort in the compatibilty of the media which is still an issue in the current DVD-RW vs DVD+RW format war.
|  Compatibility has been achieved through the use of a thin silver-alloy as reflector material in the upper layer giving a reflectivity from the layer of at least 18% in compliance with the dual-layer DVD-ROM standard. In addition, the transmission of the upper recording layer is greater than 50% to allow for read-out and recording of the lower recording layer. This layer has high power sensitivity since the upper layer absorbs and reflects part of the incoming light. It also has a much higher reflectivity (> 50%) which after double transmission through the upper layer also results in an apparent layer reflectivity (at the disc surface) of at least 18%. These high transmission and reflectivity values have been achieved through careful optimization of the dye material and deposition, groove shapes and silver deposition. In addition to optimizing reflectivity, other parameters such as signal amplitude and tracking signals were also optimized to ensure full compatibility with current DVD standards.
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The technology and products should become available as early as 2004. More information on this exciting development can be found here. A powerpoint presentation that explains the technology more in depth can be downloaded here.
Source: DVDRW.com
