The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a research body supported by Taiwan's government is preparing to demonstrate the Forward Versatile Disc (FVD)–a new optical disk format for storing high-definition video–developed by ITRI's Opto electronics, Systems Laboratories and the Advanced Optical Storage Research Association, a part of ITRI organized group of 29 Taiwanese companies.

The new format is said to have been designed especially for consumer-electronics applications. ITRI officials plan to demonstrate two versions of the FVD format: a single-sided, single-layer disk (6GB capacity) and a single-sided, dual-layer disc (11GB capacity). As a point of reference, DVD discs can hold around 4.7GB of data.

One of the key differences between other formats and the new FVD standard is that other high-capacity optical disc formats need to make use of blue lasers, while FVD is based on the same red laser technology that is used with CDs and DVDs. Blue light has a shorter wavelength than the red light used with the CD and DVD disc formats. Blue lasers can therefore make a smaller spot on the surface of a disc, allowing more data to fit onto their surface area. Around 25GB of data can be stored in a single-sided Blu-ray disc.

Another high-capacity disc format using red laser technology is the EVD (Enhanced Versatile Disc) format, developed in China. A single EVD disc carries a capacity of 9GB. The ITRI expects companies to eventually announce DVD players also supporting FVD.