http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20060426PR210.html
Lite-On IT has landed PC-use FVD (forward versatile disc) orders from a leading US-based distributor with shipment slated to start in June, said Derray Huang, deputy general director of the Opto-electronics and Systems Laboratories (OES) at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).
FVD is a red-laser high-definition DVD format developed by Taiwan as an alternative to blue laser HD DVD and Blu-ray disc (BD) high-definition DVD formats.
When FVD technology debuted last year, OES general director Yung-sheng Liu claimed. FVD can attain resolutions of 1920×1080 and storage capacities of 5.4-6GB for single layer and 9.8-11GB for a double layer disc.
With more support coming from US and European distributors, Huang said more Taiwan players are joining to promote the Taiwan-developed optical disc standard. Albatron Technology, Kolin, Ya Hsin Industrial are all promoting FVD products, he pointed out.
Annual FVD shipments are expected to reach 2-3 million units in 2006 and five million units in 2007, Huang added.
FVD manufacturing had been contracted to BenQ’s optical disc drive (ODD) unit, but its ODD unit was recently acquired by Lite-On IT, which will now conduct manufacturing, Huang noted.
By applying Microsoft’s WMV-9 (Window Media Video-9) compression technology, 135 minutes of high definition content can be stored on a single layer FVD disc, according to the Taiwan Advanced Optical Storage Research Alliance.
Unlike Blu-ray and HD DVD, I'll actually probably buy an FVD drive when they come out.
