Now that the dust from the format war between Sony’s Blu-ray and Toshiba’s HD DVD has settled, it’s time for Sony to conquer the whole market with its army of HD ideas. The Blu-ray format was supported by many companies in the industry during the great war of 06/07, crucially top Hollywood studio Warner Brothers. With success in their camp, Sony will soon be launching their new disc: the micro-BD.

On first glance the major difference between the two discs will be the actual size. Unlike the Blu-ray, it’s new brother the micro-BD, will be about half the size, which will mean it's the same as Sony’s UMD disc used in the gaming world. The other difference is in the wavelength. The micro-BD will again be a little smaller but only by 30 nanometres. This is more important than you might think because one of the big selling points of the new disc is that this wavelength difference means it can store up to 75GBs on just two layers, and maybe even 25 extra GBs if another layer is added at a later date.

The new, more advanced disc differs from the Blu-ray, so they won't be compatible with current Blu-ray players. However, new micro-BD players will be able to play Blu-rays when they come out, so it’ll be worth buying one of them too. For those of you who are keen on the gaming world then you’ll be pleased to hear that the micro-BD is being planned for use on Sony’s new portable PSP2, which is due in our shops in the next year or so in order to compete with the Nintendo DSi.

It will be interesting to see how the two brothers from the same family will fare in their own little format war. It’s not something Sony will be worried about, but they’ll certainly be intrigued. When the public decide whether they prefer the Blu-ray or the micro-BD, then Sony are likely to put the other one to bed.