Getting ready for the format wars to end, Warner has taken it upon itself to create a disc that would allow all three formats on one disc, a technology that could allow studios to put out their movies on one disc that could play on any player, be it Blu-ray, HD DVD, or even regular DVD.
A pair of Warner engineers have been working on a way to get all three formats to hold hands on a single disc, and have recently filed a patent to that effect. This is made possible by the fact that Blu-ray uses a 405nm laser to read its 0.1mm deep info layer, while HD DVD uses the same blue laser wavelength at the depth of 0.6mm. The hybrid disc works by making the Blu-ray layer act like a two way mirror, reflecting enough light for Blu-ray playback, but letting enough light through for HD DVD operation. As for DVD, that layer can be found on the flip side of the disc.
The problem of course with something like this would be the cost ot print these discs, but it would be better than having to buy each movie three times, or having a collection of Blu-ray movies and then seeing HD DVD win the format wars.
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