Taiwanese researchers unveil FVD optical disc format

Taiwanese researchers demonstrated a homegrown optical disc format, FVD (Forward Versatile Disc), on Monday. They developed the format to provide a cheaper way of storing high-definition video on a single optical disc.

Researchers at the Optoelectronics and Systems Laboratories (OES) of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Hsinchu, Taiwan, are behind the FVD format. It's the latest addition to an alphabet soup of optical disc formats that use red-laser technology, including DVD and EVD (Enhanced Versatile Disc).

The first players based on the FVD format will go on sale during the second half of this year, said Yung-Sheng Liu, vice president and general director of OES, during an interview on Monday.

Most new high-capacity optical disc formats, such as Blu-ray Disc, use blue lasers rather than red lasers. Blue light has a shorter wavelength than red light. This means that blue lasers can make marks on a disc that are smaller than those possible using a red laser, allowing blue laser disc formats to store more information.

However, that greater capacity comes at a price. Blue laser optical systems are more expensive than red laser systems, which are widely available and found in DVD and CD-ROM drives, Liu said.

"We believe (FVD) is better. Better means that you are providing the same quality but you are also using a less expensive, perhaps more easily manufactured machine," Liu said. "In the next couple of years, even if the price of blue lasers drops it will certainly be more expensive than the red laser, that's for sure," he said.

The first version of the new format, called FVD-1, can hold 5.4G bytes of data on a single-sided, single-layer disc and 9.8G bytes on a single-sided dual-layer disc. A second version of the format, FVD-2, will offer more capacity. A single-sided single-layer FVD-2 disc can hold 6G bytes and a single-sided, dual-layer disc can hold 11G bytes of data.

Standard DVDs hold around 4.7G bytes of data and the EVD format, developed by researchers in China, can hold around 9G bytes of data.

Unlike DVD and EVD, FVD supports Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media Video (WMV) 9 and Windows Media Audio (WMA) 9 Professional codecs. Using the WMV 9 codec, FVD-1 discs can hold up to 135 minutes of high-definition video, enough to encode most Hollywood movies on a single disc, Liu said.

Neither DVD nor EVD can hold more than two hours of high-definition video on a single disc, he said.

Several Taiwanese hardware makers have lined up to support the introduction of FVD.

Ritek Corp., CMC Magnetics Corp., Prodisc Technology Inc. and U-Tech Media Corp. will manufacture the discs, including recordable and rewritable versions, ITRI said. LiteOn Technology Corp., BenQ Corp., Mustek Inc. and Quanta Storage Inc. will manufacture playback devices, it said.

Though the company said that FVD hardware will go on sale during the second half of the year, Liu did not specify in which markets it would be launched and would not disclose prices.

ITRI hopes to see FVD adopted by users in the U.S., Europe and China. The first content providers to support FVD will all be Taiwanese companies, Liu said, adding that ITRI is hoping to enlist the support of international content providers.

"We are talking with some global content companies, including Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Inc.," Liu said.