Red Laser HD DVD

December 2, 2002 — A red laser–based Advanced Optical Disc (AOD) format system developed by Toshiba and NEC has been chosen by the DVD Forum as the standard for next-generation high-definition DVD players. The DVD Forum will develop AOD specs and publish them in the spring, according to the Nikkei news service. NEC said it would release AOD drives for PCs next year. Toshiba plans to market AOD home recorders in 2004.

The announcement was made in mid-November by the 212-member DVD Forum, and indicates the group's abandonment of attempts to combine red laser technology with the Blu-ray Disc format developed and backed by Hitachi, LG, Matsushita, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Thomson. Blu-ray supporters may still proceed with the development of that format.

Thank you very much for this informative press release from Toshiba. It seems that the Red laser technology is much cheaper to manufacture and hence savings on the part of the consumer. I just hope there would not be any technology wars from the manufacturers similar to the VHS-Beta wars.