Most of us who like movies have kept up with technology and purchase DVDs nowadays. Two new patents — one for an application and the other solving a technical problem — not only make it possible for movie studios to save money, but also allow consumers to not have to worry about buying the right DVD for their player. Yet the technological breakthrough is shaping up to create a ruckus for DVD and electronics manufacturers.

Movie studios love it when new formats are introduced because they get to re-release old titles from their catalogs and once again generate revenue from them. Betamax, VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, UMD — a myriad of formats have come and gone. The latest “big thing” in home entertainment is high-definition DVD. Consumers are being forced to choose between two competing high-def DVD formats: BluRay, backed by Sony; and HD DVD, supported by Toshiba. While it’s too early to tell who the winner will be, a British company’s manufacturing breakthrough might end the whole format war before it’s even really begun, as this Reuters piece alludes to.

The company, New Medium Enterprises (NME), has solved a technical production problem that makes it possible to produce a cheap multiple-layer DVD disc containing one film in different, competing formats. By putting the same film on a single disc in the two competing formats, movie studios can save money and consumers do not have to worry if they are buying the right disc for their player, according to Reuters.

The technological breakthrough comes a mere week after three employees at movie studio Warner Bros. filed a patent for the application of multiple formats on a single DVD disc, as we pointed out last Friday (Item 6).

According to NME Chief Technology Officer Eugene Levich: “There’s no collision between Warner and us. They patent the application, we are patenting the technology. These are complementary patents.”

Also, there are production costs to be saved with this process:

The production costs of a multi-layer DVD using the new NME technology are estimated to be around 9 cents, compared with the 6 cents for a standard single-layer play-back DVD, according to Dutch company ODMS, one of the world’s leading makers of production lines for optical discs.

“We were very skeptical when NME approached us. We have experience with producing dual layer recordable DVD discs and the yield is below 50 percent. But their technology gives a much higher yield and also brings other cost savings,” said ODMS Chief Executive Jadranko Dovic.

ODMS said it will have the first prototype production line using NME’s technology running by early 2007. NME has created DVD discs with up to 10 different layers that remain readable. It has created its own player, but it is willing to license the technology to consumer electronics manufacturers.

Digital Journal has also picked up on the news and is having a blast poking fun at both Sony and Toshiba:

Since Hollywood studios have staked their positions at either the Blu-ray or HD-DVD side, NME’s announcement will surely rattle their cages. No longer will merely two formats compete for high-def customers — now a third option can lure attention away from the conflict soaking up media headlines. And if NME succeeds where the others have failed, expect the rules of the home-theatre business to be completely rewritten.

I think Digital Journal has hit the nail on the head. And the timing really couldn’t be worse for Sony, which is trying to convince gamers to plunk down some $600 on November 17 for its next-generation game console, the PlayStation 3 (PS3), which also supports Blu-Ray. While I doubt the PS3 will be collecting dust on retail shelves, it just adds more fuel to the fire of Nintendo, whose innovative (and less expensive) gaming console Wii (pronounced “we”), has been stealing all of the headlines as of late.

By the end of this year, we should have a better idea of how these developing format wars are going to end. But for now, as Digital Journal perfectly stated: Looks like Toshiba and Sony now have a new public NME.