A Japanese company have announced the launch of a hybrid Blu-ray/DVD format in the New Year, allowing people to play their movies in both Blu-ray and regular DVD players.

The disc comprises of a blue laser top layer (25GB), underneath which are 2 DVD layers (8.5GB). They are separated by a semi-reflective film that reflects blue light but lets the red light lasers of DVD players to pass through.

The new disc Blu-ray/DVD format has been created by Infiniti Storage Media and uses hybrid disc technology developed a few years ago by JVC. The advantage of Infinitis new HD format is that the company has put both technologies on the same side – so there is no need to turn the disk over to select the DVD or Blu-ray content.

The first movie released on this format will be “Code Blue emergency helicopter Blu-ray BOX” – one would have thought that the Dark Knight, Iron Man or one of the big blockbuster movies would have been a better bet. We suspect that there may well be more announcements at the CES Show in January – stay tuned for more CES news!