Barry Fox

摘要

At last! DualDisc is coming to the UK'. In fact - as our news story tells - DD is coming to the whole of Europe. But so far only one company, independent Silverline 5.1 Entertainment, is committed to the launch, and only ten titles - with American NTSC video content but no regional coding -are slated. Considerable confusion surrounds the claimed support from majors Sony/BMG, Universal, Warner and EMI. After test marketing of DualDisc in Boston and Seattle in February 2004, the 'flipper' concept (a half-thickness DVD bonded back to back to a thinner-than-usual CD) got the official go-ahead from the DVD Forum's Steering Committee last June and was formally launched by all the major record labels in the USA in October. The ratified revision to the DVD standard is called 'single thin layer disc'. After complaints from Philips the CD logo is not used. Like conventional CDs and DVDs, flippers have a maximum allowable thickness of 1.5mm, but whereas the factories that make CDs and DVDs are aiming for 1.2mm, flipper presses are aiming for just below 1.5mm. So there is little tolerance when it comes to manufacturing.