HP announces DVD+RW drive

[Dr Mordrid]

4.7 gigs, erasable, 2.4x write, 8x read.

$599 for the drive, $15.99 per blank disk list. Disks are more expensive than DVD-R, but IMO rewriteability makes the price more palatable.

First availableity will be at Best Buy, Circuit City and CompUSA.

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-6909288.html?tag=tp_pr

Dr. Mordrid

[Vidgal]

It's only August, but my Christmas list is complete!

[Dr Mordrid]

I dunno. I think it'll take a while for the format war to settle. 'til then....

Dr. Mordrid

[BrianP]

Hmm, no DVD-R writability? I'd prefer to have DVD-R and +/-RW. Looks like the Pioneer A03 is still the one I'll be homing in on. But this will help lower prices overall so that's a Good Thing.

[Vidgal]

I know the format war is still raging, but as long as what I write plays in most newer, standalone DVD players, I would be happy. Am I missing something? I guess if the format I chose loses the war, I would soon run out of media, like the diehard fans of Sony beta. There were fewer and fewer tapes and then -- GONE.

[BrianP]

As long as some or most of the drives still feature DVD-R, I think recordable DVD will follow the same path as the CD-R evolution. Dirt cheap for record-once media, with the rewritable media becoming an afterthought.

That's what I'd prefer since that leaves out the guessing of what rewritable format will win. But I'm sure that's the last thing the major technology players want. After all they want their format to be the the one. That's why it makes sense (business-wise) for more drives to come out like the HP that only burn in one format -- a rewritable format.

[Jkun]

misunderstanding

Think there's a misunderstanding here: both DVD-R as proponed by Pioneer & allies AND DVD+RW as put forth by Philips & allies can both write a DVD-R format and a DVD-RW format.

It's just that the discs aren't compatible between systems (slightly different format)

So both can write and rewrite. That means the $15 price is high, if it's for an R disc.

BTW, who's building the drives for HP? From what I hear, Philips isn't ready yet for mass production. Has Sony finished their drive?

*edit* woops, my bad, seems HP will only support RW for now. The +RW spec however supports R, so I guess, like with the Pioneer in the beginning only supporting R, a Bios update will fix that

$15 for a RW disc is nice

If reliability is like CD-RW, however, I'll pass...Too many discs gone bad, too many data corruption errors

J-kun

[wkulecz]

Check this out!

http://www.dvdplusrw.org/video/comparison.html#10

Is it true? On paper DVD+RW has always looked the best, but if what this site says about DVD-RW is true Pioneer will be in a world of hurt soon.

Confusion reins as its not clear how any of this applies to DVD-R.

All I really care about is compatability with *existing* DVD players. The A03 DVD-R lists I've seen are dissappointly short. Best Buy here has a compatabilty warning next to the $800 boxes sitting in the shelf.

--wally.

[Dr Mordrid]

DVD+RW does sound tempting, if for nothing else but rewriteability.

Still, that blurb was on a page with a self-serving bent: it's the page of the consortium pushing the standard. As such I wonder about some of their claims.

ex: they state that DVD-R cannot do "Index picture menu on DVD player" ... "text only" and that DVD-R cannot do VBR.

Interesting points;

1. Sonic *recommends* DVD-R for use with DVDiT!. Odd for software whose whole purpose is creating picture menued DVD's.

2. Sonic says DVDiT! supports without any qualification for recorder type;

"MPEG-2 bit-rate Constant bit-rate (CBR) or variable bit-rate (VBR) 2.0 ‹ 8.3/9.4 Mbps"

3. Ulead says:

Ulead DVD Plug-in now supports Pioneer DVR-A03 and Panasonic DVD-RAM/R drives. Download this free patch to make professional-quality DVDs complete with menus and scene selection right from your Pioneer or Panasonic burner.

Much of the rest of their claims reflect the fact that DVD-R is a write-once technology. They ignore the fact that the DVD-R burners are upgradable to DVD-R *and* DVD-RW by way of a firmware update (if the ones on the shelf already aren't).

Hmmm........

Dr. Mordrid

[Jkun]

Rubbish!

That site is not only like the Doc says a proponent of DVD+RW, they are also putting blatant lies on that site!

DVD-R/RW is _the same_ as DVD+RW (once that supports R later on) as far as capabilities go. They are just different enough in disc format to be incompatible with each other but not with the DVD-Videodisc standard.

Except that the +RW standard IS NOT SUPPORTED by the DVD Forum, and DVD-RW is. +RW is a rogue standard.

So basically what that means is that future standalone DVD players will make sure they can play DVD-RW, but are by no means obliged to do so for +RW! The DVD+RW guys on the other hand will continually have to keep their standard updated to make sure they remain some compatibility with standalone players.

Whatever happens, the Pioneer standard will survive as it is part of DVD Spec now, so even if the +RW system would become prevalent in the PC market, you'd still have support. Not so sure if that would be tha case for +RW, as the proponents there are only Philips and Sony (remember Video2000 and Betamax ). But they have gathered licencees in the traditional CD_RW market (Yamaha, Ricoh) so who knows?

All that is certain is that competition is good for prices

BTW, Doc, my Pioneer came with RW capability out of the box. Works fine! Discs a bit expensive though, about $25 (Euro price, incl 21% salestax)

Jkun

[wkulecz]

Optical R/W storage is at best a niche product for the forseeable future -- compare its media $$/GB with 80GB maxtor hard drives. The cost of the optical drives more than pays fo the "carriers" to convert IDE hard drives into removables if you insist.

Bottom line is I don't care a rodents backside about DVD-RW, DVD+RW or DVD-RAM.

What I care about is which technology supports the most existing DVD players with MPEG2 video. If all three create the exact same DVD-R format with the same incompatabilities, then I'll buy based on drive cost, software bundle, and write speed.

If MPEG2 video on DVD+RW plays in stand-alone DVD players that A03 DVD-R media doesn't, then I'm extreamly intrested in it. If not, and it doesn't support DVD-R, its DOA.

If none offers a clear advantage of compatibility with existing DVD players I think the one with the cheapest media cost will win. I could be wrong, but I thought I saw an article that a couple of the big media producing companies were on-board for DVD+RW which could end up being the deciding factor.

OTOH this market confusion could queer the whole deal :-(

--wally.

[BrianP]

Yeah, what Wally said.

A question though about the different drives. The DVD+RW propoganda webpage goes into a spiel about how the -RW drives use CBR while the +RW drives use VBR, and how the latter is so much superior. First, how much truth is in that assertion? And second, would a -RW recorder like the A03 also be recording DVD-Rs with CBR? Would it matter?

[Jkun]

Originally posted by BrianP
Yeah, what Wally said.

A question though about the different drives. The DVD+RW propoganda webpage goes into a spiel about how the -RW drives use CBR while the +RW drives use VBR, and how the latter is so much superior. First, how much truth is in that assertion? And second, would a -RW recorder like the A03 also be recording DVD-Rs with CBR? Would it matter?

Like I said, rubbish

CBR/VBR has to do with the MPEG encoder and is totally independant of the drive.

If you have a standalone recorder, things will be dependant on the implementation of the vendor. Both systems on disc level are the same, both can store streams in VBR or CBR. No difference if you have a RW or R disc either, and that too goes for both formats.

The site mentioned above is really spreading disinformation to a level that's screaming for a lawsuit.


J-kun