recordable DVD standard finally decided on?

[dZeus]

if this is what it looks like it is, then the manufacturers opted for a standard that can't be readed back on current hardware (hmmmmmm ).

http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/news.jsp?news=technology&an=

http://www.matsushita.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/en020219-4/en020219-4.html

[Jammrock]

Speaking of DVD standards...the HD-DVD blue laser standard has been defined now:

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-839895.html

Jammrock

[xortam]

This looks interesting. Blu-ray Disc will finally meet my backup and HDTV storage needs. I wonder when the device and media pricing will drop to an acceptable level. Regardless, this should be much cheaper then the current technique of using removable HDDs.

[paulw]

Hmm. Will stuff writen with this new process be backward compatable with existing DVD players/ CD players or is it a ploy to get us all to buy new products?? If the later... No thanx..

[landrover]

As far as I know the format wil NOT be backwards compatible, so we all have to start all over again.

landrover

[wkulecz]

Yawn. ~25GB per disk for how much per disk?? add a new drive to the cost. Totally worthless for back up with 120GB IDE drives going for <$200. Add in $15 for a carrier ($25 for the first one that mates with your computer) and there's your cost and time efficient backup system.

--wally.

[xortam]

Removable HDDs are adequate for a single backup and perhaps a handful of HDTV captures but this will be a nice solution if you want to build a TV/film library and maintain more complete backup schemes. Removable HDDs will be more affordable for sharing among several PCs until Blu-ray compatible DVD and CD players become commodities.

[Jon P. Inghram]

Hopefully the new HD-DVD players will still read regular DVD's fine... while it's annoying to have to buy a new player, having all your old DVD's become useless would be far, far worse.

[Dr Mordrid]

I dunno about how fast I'd jump on the blue laser bandwagon.

There are competing formats already plus there is a move among some deck makers to use ISO MPEG-4 to fit HD content onto existing 650nm disks. This allows them to delay investing in 405nm technology as long as possible. Some, like APEX, are moving towards M$ WMV in the short term and M$ Corona in the long term.

In either case the consumer gets the knife by having to upgrade their decks to a new video or hardware system.

I'd probably wait for the dust to settle and the prices to drop to sensible levels.

Dr. Mordrid

[Jon P. Inghram]

And of course, the day after you buy your brand spanking new HD-DVD player they'll release specs on the new UHD (uber high def) DVD format that'll hold 400,000 TB per side of a 1" disk. (Or something to that effect).

[Dr Mordrid]

And I'll be quite happy with my investment until all the early adopters pay off the R&D

Dr. Mordrid

[paulw]

Well it just got made obsolete

"Japanese company Optware will commercialize an optical disc that can store more than 1 terabyte of data, and an associated disc player, later this year, the company said earlier this week."

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,85184,tk,dn022002X,00.asp

[xortam]

The Optware technology is much more than I need and probably much more expensive then most users would be willing to spend. Some day maybe.

I remember speculation about holographic storage back in 1973. The access time was the limiting factor which made it impractical then.

[Brian Ellis]

Don't get excited, chaps. Even if it became the norm, remember all the mechanics etc. will have to become 60% more precise. This will therefore perforce be more expensive. And just think how long it will take you to burn a disk, probably at 1 x, assuming that HDVD-R/RW discs become available. As for backwards compatibility, it will be no great shakes to have a dual-laser system, the same way that a modern DVD deck will read CDs. Whether there will be triple laser systems to read all formats, well, we'll have to wait and see, won't we?

However, I'll probably be sucking dandelions by the roots long before HDTV and, consequently, HDVDs become a reality.

[xortam]

I have a couple friends that have been recording and sharing OTA HDTV for quite a while now. They both use the HiPix card for capture and decode while storing the MPEG2 stream on removable HDDs.

There aren't but a handful of customers in the world that would have a need for terabyte storage discs but I would hope that the technology would be used to offer less capable and less expensive solutions.