Just when you thought that the whole DVD format war thing could not get any worse, TDK has announced that it has developed a prototype Blu-Ray Disc that can hold 100GB of data. The new disk has a capacity of twice that of competing formats and will record at twice the speed (72Mbit/s, double the 36Mbit/s rate for current Blu-ray Discs.)
Just in case you don't know, the next generation of DVD will use a blue-laser technology that permits much higher storage capacities. This will facilitate high-definition video and many other enhancements. The problem is that there are two main competing formats, Blu-Ray from Sony and HD DVD from Toshiba. History has shown us (VHS vs Betamax) that one format will eventually win, and that that winning format need not necessarily be the best one technically. There have been talks to try to establish a common ground by which competing formats might be unified, but so far these talks have come to nothing and even broken down.
With TDK's entry into the playing field, it could cause more disagreements between the companies.
It has already been reported that the negotiations between Sony and Toshiba have failed. With TDK's announcement, the situation is likely to get worse.