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The engineers at Warner Brothers have filed a patent for the solution to what appears to be an insurmountable compatibility problem between the two formats - they store their information in 'pits' on the disks at different depths. Blue-ray discs store information only 0.1 millimetres from the surface while HD DVD discs store it at 0.6 millimetres.

The team has overcome

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the problem by coming up with what is being termed a 'multilayer dual optical disk'. The hybrid disk would have one layer of data in the standard CD or DVD format, a second layer able to play one high-capacity format and a third layer for the other high-capacity format. By the use of reflective films, the team claim their new disk allows the lasers to read the top layer and 'see through' to the lower one.

The solution seems similar to the triple layered DVD from Toshiba announced just a week ago. However, while for commercial reasons, Toshiba only developed the third layer to boost the capacity of its own HD DVD format, the Warner Brothers team has taken the logical next step and turned the third layer over to Blu-Ray.

If the solution takes off, it could provide a boost for the high definition DVD industry. The fierce battle between the two formats means customers having to choose between them or adopting a wait-and-see attitude. The chance of lift off for high definition DVD would certainly look much rosier, with an investment in an expensive blue laser player not wasting through a lack of compatible titles.