July 18, 2003. Copyright 2003. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

DVDs -- 48-hours from trash can

LONDON, July 18, Graphic News: ÒThis disc will self-destruct in 48 hours.Ó That is the warning Buena Vista Home Entertainment will issue when it begins to test-market a non-returnable DVD in America next month.

This DVD, known as EZ-D to its makers, Flexplay Technologies of New York, can be played for 48 hours after being removed from its air-tight cover. It will then self-destruct -- not in a puff of smoke like a secret message in a ÒMission: ImpossibleÓ movie -- but by a chemical reaction which turns its surface opaque, making it impossible for the laser in a disc player to read the data beneath.

Flexplay and Buena Vista hope the technology will open up a wider video-rental market since it can sell the EZ-D almost anywhere without setting up a system for the discs to be returned. 

ÒWeÕve developed a new type of DVD that can be sold at any point of sale that your imagination can think of,Ó said Art LeBlanc, president of Flexplay. ÒIt brings an unprecedented level of convenience [for] people who find renting inconvenient.Ó It can be ordered along with a home delivery dinner or picked up at a supermarket checkout.

Flexplay developed the EZ-D in collaboration with General Electric, which specially tweaked a version of its famous Lexan polycarbonate plastic. John Dineen, a vice-president at General Electric who is in charge of Lexan, said the manufacturing process can be modified so that a disc remains playable for periods longer or shorter than 48 hours. This means EZ-Ds could be used for a variety of time-dependent applications. In addition an EZ-D will stay in pristine condition in its case for a year.

Lexan was invented in 1953 by Dr. Daniel Fox. After conducting a series of experiments while working on a project to develop new wire insulation material for General Electric, Fox found himself with a gooey substance that hardened in a beaker. Despite his best efforts, he found he could not break or destroy the material. Lexan polycarbonate was born and has since become ubiquitous. It is found in car panels, computer cases and even astronautsÕ visors, as well as in CDs and DVDs.

The original version of Lexan consists of chains of a single small molecule -- a so-called monomer -- linked together by a particular sort of chemical bond. It is the molecular structure of the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the monomer that gives Lexan its optical clarity, vital for the laser beam in a DVD player to read the digital dips and bumps which encode a movie.

The polycarbonate used in the EZ-D, by contrast, is a type known as a co-polymer, in which two different monomers form alternating links of the chain. General Electric will not reveal which monomers or chemical bonds are involved, but once exposed to the air a chemical reaction with oxygen causes the  colour of the surface of the polycarbonate to darken, blocking transmission of laser light and making the disc unreadable.

Buena Vista Home Entertainment, says that the first movies in the trial will include ÒSignsÓ (starring Mel Gibson), ÒThe RecruitÓ (Al Pacino ) and ÒThe Hot ChickÓ (Rob Schneider).
/ENDS

Sources: General Electric, Flexplay, Buena Vista Home Entertainment