Description
This article is from the DVD Formats
FAQ, by jtfrog@usa.net (Jim Taylor) with numerous
contributions by others.
3.3.1 When will double-sided, dual-layer discs (DVD-18) be available?
The first commercial DVD-18 title, The Stand, was released in October 1999.
It will still take a while for these super-size discs to become common. A
DVD-18 requires a completely different way of creating two layers. A
single-sided, dual-layer disc (DVD-9) is produced by putting one data layer
on each substrate and gluing the halves together with transparent adhesive
so that the pickup laser can read both layers from one side. But in order
to get four layers, each substrate needs to hold two. This requires
stamping a second data layer on top of the first, a much more complicated
prospect. Even after new equipment is developed and installed in production
lines, the yield (number of usable discs compared to bad discs) will be
quite low until the process is fine tuned.
WAMO and others continue to announce progress with DVD-18 processes, but
given how long it took for production of dual-layer, single-sided discs to
become practical, it will take even longer before the yields of DS/DL discs
can meet the replication demands of mainstream movie distribution,
especially since low yields mean higher replication costs. In the interim
we'll see DVD-14s (two layers on one side, one layer on the other side),
since they're a little easier to produce.
(My prediction in this FAQ, as of December 1998, was that we wouldn't see
commercial DVD-18 discs until fall 1999, in spite of many rumors that they
would appear sooner.)
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