HD DVD

Short for High Density Digital Versatile Disc, HD DVD is a high definition DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) standard jointly developed by NEC and Toshiba as a replacement for DVD. The first HD DVD player was released by Toshiba in Japan on March 31, 2006. A few months later, an HD DVD optical drive was released as the model Qosmio 35. HD DVD discs can hold 15 GB per layer, which is more than three times what the traditional DVD can at only 4.7 GB.

The HD DVD technology was backed by Intel, Microsoft, RCA, Sanyo, and Toshiba, but eventually lost the format war against Blu-ray discs. In February 19, 2008, Toshiba officially announced it would no longer manufacture HD DVD players or discs.

Blu-ray, CD terms, Computer abbreviations, EVD, HD, HDTV, Optical disc