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| DualDiscs
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The news that hybrid CD/DVD-Audio discs had become a reality
in the form of DualDisc, immediately had industry commentators
speculating upon the origin of the technologies involved, High
Fidelity Review included. For more information on DualDisc,
its test markets and exclusive quotes from the labels involved,
see Part One of this feature.
The key to any successful hybrid is its thickness - a disc that can be loaded
into a player but then jams the eject mechanism isn't going to be a big hit with
consumers, and this issue is often cited by the uninformed journalist as a reason
why the hybrid concept would fail. However, while disc thickness was once a stumbling
block, DVD Plus overcame the problem almost three years ago. For a disc to be
within specification, it can be no thicker than 1.5mm, but DVD Plus titles, with
a CD layer on one side and the equivalent of a DVD-5 on the other, are typically
1.48mm (affording approximately 98% compatibility with all players) and second-generation
technology will allow DVD Plus to be, in the words of the company itself, "100%" compatible.
Many readers will be familiar with DVD Plus. Based in Germany, the organisation
licenses its hybrid technology to disc replication companies, and with some success,
according to their own figures, seventy titles have been released worldwide.
It seemed a logical conclusion therefore, that this would be the technology employed
by BMG, EMI, Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music Group to bring DualDisc
to market.
It was to Phil Carson, President of the North American Divison of DVD Plus, to
whom I turned for his thoughts regarding the launch of DualDisc, fully expecting
an enthusiastic statement from a man whose technology was on the brink of major
label support, but nothing could have been further from the truth.
Mr. Carson was, to put things mildly, furious at the news, and it wasn’t long
before he had passed me on to Dieter Dierks, Chief Executive Officer and founder
of DVD Plus International, who just happens to be the owner of the DVD Plus patent.
The Reaction from DVD Plus
"I have not seen the 'DualDiscs’ in question," Mr.
Dierks said (they are only available in the Boston and Seattle
areas), "but
from the description I have, they appear remarkably similar
to DVD Plus. In fact, if they are optically read hybrid invertible
discs, they would appear to infringe upon a patent that has
already been granted to me in all EEC markets, and other countries.
If this disc is manufactured as reported, no company will be
able to release such product where the patent is certified."
But what about the United States, the market where DualDiscs are being tested?
"In the USA, they are running a very real risk since the [DVD Plus] patent
has the protection of a pending status there. Currently, the exclusive replicator
of DVD Plus to the latest specification (1.43mm) is Digital Valley in France.
Digital Valley make a perfect disc that plays everywhere and we are very interested
to see if it proves to be the case that the majors have copied our invention,
and how well they have done so."
DVD Plus discs circulated at MIDEM, manufactured on Singulus machines
by Digital Valley caused quite a stir. It seems odd therefore, that five major
record labels would launch a format that uses currently patented technologies,
were they not aware of DVD Plus?
"It is worth noting that the highest levels at all of the
majors participating in Dualdisc were certainly aware of my patent position and
our DVD Plus discs," Mr.
Dierks continued. "My partner, Phil Carson, visited many
of them personally. For example, after visiting WEA in late 2002, we received
an E-mail from Jim Caparro commenting that 'this is the future of the physical disc’.
At the time, Jim was CEO of the WEA group. Indeed, there is an agreement signed
in April 2000 between WEA and me regarding the development of DVD Plus discs.
EMI should perhaps have talked to their German office where they would have had
enthusiastic reports of sales of the Herbert Gronemeyer double DVD Plus set that
has sold over two hundred and fifty thousand copies."
Indeed, the suggestion from some quarters is that Mr. Dierks actually developed
DVD Plus while employed by WMG, so one can understand his annoyance.
"By inventing and patenting the concept of a hybrid invertible
disc, DVD Plus has led the industry in developing new technology, and we started
it years ago. If DualDisc truly is theft of DVD Plus, a technology that is clearly
my property, I shall be talking to our lawyers and examining the possibility
that the majors have conspired to defraud us."
Serious stuff. If a lawsuit does transpire (something that DVD Plus has threatened
in the past regarding hybrid CD/DVD discs), we will keep you posted, but those
involved with DualDisc who would provide us with on-the-record reactions are
having none of it.
Warner Music Group was the first to respond: "There are
no patent issues that prevent WMG from releasing DualDiscs," their representative
told us. Not much to misinterpret there!
DualDisc Technology
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selection of DualDiscs from Warner Music Group
and Sony Music. |
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Perhaps the situation would become a little clearer if we knew where the DualDisc
technology did come from?
Cinram is replicating the discs currently on sale in the U.S., so we approached
them for a reaction to Mr. Dierks’ claim. "There are
no patent issues that prevent Cinram from manufacturing DualDiscs for its customers," a
Cinram spokesperson told High Fidelity Review.
And what about reports of the disc content capabilities being compromised to
reduce thickness? "DualDisc has the standard DVD layer thickness
on one side and a slightly thinner than normal CD on the other." Cinram
informed us. "The
DVD capacity is equivalent to a standard single layer DVD at 4.7GB, and the CD
layer can hold approximately the same amount of data as a regular CD."
The DualDisc format’s major flaw, one that has been widely overlooked,
must therefore be the lack of storage space on the DVD side, a 4.7Gb disc can
hold approximately seventy minutes of six-channel 96kHz 24-bit audio compressed
using Meridian Lossless Packing together with a DVD-Video compatible Dolby Digital
mix, but that doesn’t leave any room for a high-resolution stereo track
and only a limited number of supplementary features could be included.
The choice for producers is going to be a difficult one, use DualDisc to add
a CD compatible layer and dispense with any thoughts of including a high-resolution
stereo mix, or use existing DVD-9 (or DVD-18) technology and abandon the idea
of Compact Disc backward compatibility.
The Test Markets
Dieter Derks doesn’t see much value in a disc that gives
consumers a CD layer together with high-resolution audio. "It
is difficult to justify the WEA concept of using the hybrid
disc exclusively to present two forms of audio," he commented "It
is a secondary and limited use of cutting edge technology. The primary use must
be to give the consumer the added value and excitement of a video element on
the same disc as an audio product that can be enjoyed for years. We could have
saved these majors the trouble of test marketing as we have already sold two
million DVD Plus discs in our test-marketing phase in Australia and Europe."
What he perhaps overlooks is that Compact Disc audio is not something we want
to "enjoy for years", the attraction of DualDisc, for the readership of High
Fidelity Review at least, must be as a technology that can deliver high-resolution
audio with CD backward-compatibility, just in case one wants to listen to the
disc in the car or down on the beach.
Meanwhile, DVD Plus marches on. "I am delighted to note
that Rounder Records have made an agreement with Public Television’s flagship New York station,
WNET, to release a selection of the wonderful films created by American Masters
on some of the most important artists in music, and they will be on DVD Plus
The audio side of these discs will most likely carry 'best-of’ compilations
and wherever possible some unique gems."
"I suppose I should be flattered that one of the artists
that these majors have chosen to launch a technology that they appear to be mistakenly
claiming as their own, is an artist signed by my DVD Plus colleague Phil Carson
almost thirty years back. AC/DC always led the way in hard rock and it’s wonderful that they’re
included on what seems to be our technology."
Stuart M. Robinson - 11/02/2004
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