DualDisc Enters Europe After Partial Settlement of Patent Issue
DualDisc will make its European debut today (Mon.) on schedule, as a result of a last-minute deal between DualDisc stalwart 5.1 Entertainment and DVDplus International, which holds patent monopoly to hybrid DVD/CD technology in Europe. The 5.1 labels are cleared for landing in the EU following a licensing agreement posted Fri., in which 5.1 Chmn. John Trickett and DVDplus inventor and principal Dieter Dierks pledged mutual cooperation to develop and promote the flipper-disc concept.
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Under the terms disclosed, 5.1 will use the DualDisc trademark for its hybrids, which can be made at DVDplus- licensed replicators such as Sony DADC in Austria -- or at non-DVDplus plants in Europe or elsewhere. Most 5.1 DualDiscs for Europe will be made at Sony DADC there, Trickett told Consumer Electronics Daily. In addition, the company has the option to export DualDiscs from replicators that aren’t in the territories were the DVDplus patent is in force, such as the U.S. and Asia. The Dierks’ patent also has been granted in Australia but remains pending in the U.S. and Japan.
Any DualDisc’s 5.1 imports to the EU likely will be titles that run more than 60 min. on the side playable by CD-Audio hardware -- the current maximum for that flipper owing to the optical properties of the thinner-than- standard CD-audio side. Hybrids made with the proprietary DVDplus process can run 74-78 min. on CD hardware. The 5.1 labels -- Silverline, immergent and Myutopia -- already have plus-60 min. titles on the market, produced at a replicator Trickett declined to identify. Most known DualDisc replicators can’t or won’t produce longer DualDiscs playable in CD hardware due to the expense of the polycarbonates and some extra steps in the replication process needed to ensure high yields. Those majors include Cinram, Sony DADC worldwide and Sonopress in the U.S.
So far, the peace-pipe between DualDisc and DVDplus has been shared only between Trickett and Dierks -- not surprising, as each are music-devotees who run small companies compared with the more bureaucratic major labels. Giants EMI, Universal and Warner will need to make licensing arrangements with DVDplus before they can market DualDiscs in Europe. Sony Music and DVDplus already have buried the hatchet -- after some sniping behind their respective backs -- when Sony DADC took a DVDplus license for Europe earlier this year.
From the look of things, 5.1 and DVDplus are strolling into the music industry’s unsettled future as allies, much as Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains did in Casablanca.
Today’s DualDisc menu from 5.1 offers an eclectic slate of titles from all genres, including Jane Monheit’s Come Dream With ME. That album by the young jazz chanteuse already has gotten extensive airplay in the U.K., Trickett told us and our European correspondent confirms. After today’s initial titles, 5.1 plans to release about 10 DualDiscs per month in Europe, Trickett said.