Green half-thickness DVDs - do they really work?
With society’s growing occupation with ‘going green’, people are starting to ask what the bulk DVD duplication industry can do to help the cause. Thus the half-thickness ‘green’ DVD, or ‘EcoDisc’, was invented.
Just like a normal disc, this DVD can store audio, visual and text information on it, yet unlike the standard disc it comes at only half the thickness (0.6mm instead of 1.2mm), using less resources in its creation and saving on plastic, emissions and thus allowing the bulk DVD duplication industry to help the environment. This effect is created because a normal disc is two separate halves glued together, while the EcoDisc has only one half, no glue and special clamps and rings to assist the disc player in clamping it properly. The absence of the adhesive used in normal discs is another environmental plus, as the glue gives off toxic fumes.
But do these EcoDiscs actually work?
So far, the bulk DVD duplication centers manufacturing these discs have been keeping quiet about which discs exactly are EcoDiscs so it is quite hard to tell, but several magazines have given away EcoDiscs as free gifts and some consumers had issues getting them to work in ordinary disc players. The half-thickness can seriously compromise the disc player and a disc can become stuck in a player which does not have an ejecting disc-drawer (like the ones you normally find in cars or in mac computers).
Aside from this, the much of the bulk DVD duplication industry is up in arms: They claim these discs are a serious compromise of DVD standards and licensees have been notified that manufacturing sub-standard discs will cause them to have their licenses taken away.
So while the verdict is still out on half-thickness DVDs, the evidence is not looking promising for them! While I agree that going green is all for the good, we need to make sure that the products created in this cause should be fully tested and work very well in all circumstances before they are put out onto the market!