FVD

FVD stands for Forward Versatile Disc, a Taiwanese optical disc format made to compete with Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD.

FVD was developed by Opto-Electronics and Systems (OES) laboratories, a division of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and the Advanced Optical Storage Research Alliance (AOSRA). A major difference between it and other next generation formats is FVD can be read using red lasers, like those used to read the current DVD format. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD both use blue lasers, which allow them to store data at higher densities resulting in much higher storage capacity per disc.

The FVD specification allows for up to three layers. Each layer can have 5.4GB of storage, as opposed to DVD's 4.7GB per layer. A FVD disc with three layers holds just over 15GB.

The format's backers claim this capacity if sufficient for 135 minutes of 1080i video content. FVD video content is encoded in Microsoft 's WMV HD format.

The format is being pitched mainly at the Taiwanese and other Asian markets but its backers would like to see it adopted in the West too.