Cushing (OK) - High definition home video does not necessarily translate into HD DVD or Blu-ray. As the two formats continue to battle each other, another high definition format has quietly surfaced. Sonopress announced that it has replicated the first 3x DVDs with HD capability last week.

What makes the 3x DVD, a format that is backed by the DVD forum that also promotes the HD DVD format, especially interesting is the fact that it uses the same technology foundation as regular DVDs. First announced in June 2005, the media will be available in single-layer (4.7 GB) and dual-layer (9.4 GB) formats and leverage red 650 nm wavelength lasers as compared to the HD DVD's / Blu-ray's blue 405 nm lasers.

However, the 3x DVD is intended for HD video use only, enabling the storage of up to 2.6 hours of AVC MPEG4 (H.264) or VC1 encoded video with a data rate of 8 Mb/s. A 30 GB HD DVD can store about 8 hours of 8 Mb/s HD video.

While the 3x DVD is based on the same physical format as the DVD (DVD9) and will use the UDF 2.5 file format, the media will only be able to me played in devices that support the HD DVD format, due to the integration of AACS (Advanced Access Content System) copy protection.