Toshiba continues to assert its HD DVD as the DVD format of the future, with the news that it is developing a 45GB HD-DVD Disc. The new capacity would eliminate the advantages held by rival format Blu-ray, the brainchild of Sony.

The new HD-DVD format would support three separate layers of data on a disc, with each layer holding 15GB. Toshiba also announced a new dual-layer disc that holds 30GB on one side and 8.5GB in the original DVD format on the other.

Whilst the competition between the two next gen DVD formats may well be annoying and perplexing for the movie industry, with Walt Disney and Twentieth Century Fox backing Blu-ray, while others including Warner Bros. will utilize HD-DVD, things all look sweet and rosy for software companies Apple and Microsoft, who will have codec support for whatever format comes out on top.