FVD officially released

Taiwan's government-sponsored digital video standard, FVD (forward versatile disc), has been released officially today by the country's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).

The new format will add more confusion to the already crowded digital video standard jungle. The specifications of the new disc use traditional red laser, just like CDs and DVDs do, and the two released formats will feature storage space of 6GB for single-layer disc and 11GB for a dual-layer disc. Its difficult to understand what the format tries to achieve, as China has already released their blue laser -based EVD specs, DVD Forum is trying to figure out final pieces in their upcoming HD-DVD puzzle and Blu-Ray is already available in various markets as a blue laser product with storage capacity of 25GB and more. As a comparison, traditional single-layer DVDs hold 4.38GB of data, only appx. 1.6GB less than the Taiwanese standard does.

However, ITRI claims that it has a support of Microsoft for its standard and plans to roll out FVD-based players and other products to store shelves by the end of this year.

More information:

DigiTimes
DVD-Recordable

Written by: Petteri Pyyny @ 6 Apr 2004 11:20

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5 comments

Vular

If only they had released this sooner.....It's the perfect step up from single layer DVDs but in this day in age steps take to long and people use elevators, but you never know what might happen.

6.4.2004 14:44 #1

pcshateme

if they can be used with a single layer burner, thats cool, cause a dvd after taking out unwanted audio will fits perfectly onto a 6GB disc.

6.4.2004 18:32 #2

dRD

pcshateme: They wont be compatible with DVD players or burners or drives. You need to purchase new burner, player and drive in order to use the FVD discs.

7.4.2004 13:36 #3

pcshateme

well than ill wait for dual layer like the rest of us

7.4.2004 13:45 #4

richardhg

Background: Microsoft has been quietly validating its WMV-HD format The Taiwanese manufacturers of DVD players have been paying royalties (about $1.4 billion a year) for the right to manufacture DVD players, and they don't want to be in the same boat with HD. MSoft has cut a deal with these guys for much lower royalty payments. At the same time, while Toshiba and Sony squabble about HD formats, MSoft and Taiwan are already in production. Later this year, the XBox 360 will also support FVD formats. Meanwhile, as part of Windows Media Player (from MP9 onwards) PC's can already play this format. MSoft has persuaded Artisan to release WMV HD disks in certain standard DVD releases: the re-release of Terminator 2, Step Into Liquid, standing inthe shadows of Motown, etc. which have all be out for over a year. You need a 3 gig pentium to playthem: the compression format takes a lot of horsepower to decompress. What this means for the studios? the WMV-HD format will be a viable HD platform very quickly. meanwhile, HP has just unveiled a new HD recording capability for their Windows Media Center Edition (MCE) machines: they will capture HD broadcasts off the airwaves and burn them to DVD. One guess whose format: WMV HD, which is a standard part of Windows MCE. So this is all part of MSoft with their fast boots on getting into every aspect of HD with a MSoft face. Problem is, they won't be supporting anybody else's formats. But the studios won't care, as long as there is a bulk market, and the disks are hard to pirate. The new FVD players are expected to go on sale in Taiwan for $181 in the next few months, and that price will include 10 free movies.

25.5.2005 08:42 #5

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