Special Coverage: HD DVD

By the Numbers: Comparing DVD and HD DVD Specifications

  DVD HD DVD Disc Diameter 120mm 120mm Disc Thickness 0.6mm x2 0.6mm x2 Track Pitch 0.74µm 0.40µm Min. Pit Length 0.40µm 0.20µm Beam-Spot Size 1.32µm 0.53µm Lens Numerical Aperture (NA) 650nm 405nm Working Distance 1.7mm 1.7mm Capacity Single-layer: 4.7GB
Dual-layer: 8.5GB Single-layer (ROM): 15GB
Dual-layer (ROM): 30GB
Single-layer (Rewritable): 20GB
Dual-layer (Rewritable): >32GB Maximum Data Transfer Rate 10.08Mbps 36.55Mbps Video Codecs MPEG-2 MPEG-2, H.264, VC-1 Audio Codecs Dolby Digital, DTS, PCM, MLP Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD (optional), DTS (various), MLP, PCM Maximum Duration of SD Material** Single-layer: 2.25 hours*
Dual-layer: 4.5 hours* Single-layer (H.264 @ 1Mbps): 24 hours
Dual-layer (H.264 @ 1Mbps): 47 hours Maximum Duration of HD Material** N/A (HD on DVD using VC-1 is possible, but not part of DVD spec) Single-layer (adv. codec @ 12Mbps): 165 minutes
Dual-layer (adv. codec @ 12Mbps): 330 minutes
Single-layer (adv. codec @ 8.5Mbps): 226 minutes
Dual-layer (adv. codec @ 8.5Mbps): 452 minutes

Notes
Track Pitch: Distance between adjacent turns in the spiral track.
Min. Pit Length: Minimum length of data region (pit).
Beam-spot size: Diameter of laser beam.
Lens Numerical Aperture: Measure of how tightly the laser beam can be focused.
Laser Wavelength: Wavelength of laser light.
Working Distance: Clearance between pickup head and disc surface.

*Maximum duration of SD material on DVD is highly dependent on the bit rate and specific MPEG-2 encoder used, so these numbers are very rough estimates based on typical bit rates.

**The figures given for maximum duration of SD and HD material on HD DVD include audio information, but the bandwidth required for the audio portion is not included in the specified bit rates.

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