Even though DVD recorders reached 16x for record-once media about a year ago, rewritable speeds are still being improved on, with the DVD+RW Alliance forecasting the introduction of drives with 8xDVD+RW performance and 8x DVD+RW media for the 2nd quarter, followed by the possibility of 16x DVD+RW performance drives and media in the Autumn. 16x DVD+R DL speeds are likely at a later stage due to the 8x DVD+R DL specification only recently reaching version 0.9.
Currently, pretty much all new PC DVD recorders support DVD+R/RW and same with DVD+R/RW. Of new set-top DVD recorders, 58% support DVD+RW and 33% support DVD-RW, while some makes support both. Going by the market's media sales, DVD-R accounts for 42%, followed by DVD+R accounting for 41%, DVD+RW accounting for 9%, DVD-RW accounting for 5% and DVD-RAM accounting for the remaining 3%.
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The same timeframe could see the arrival of 16x DVD+R dual-layer (DL) drives and media, the organisation announced this week at CeBIT in an update of its roadmap. Well, it's certainly possible given the progress made in Alliance members' R&D labs, the organisation's chief, Philips Optical Storage Strategic Marketing Manager Frank Simonis, said, though he would not be drawn on a precise timetable for the roll-out of the two speed bumps. In fact, 16x DL is probably further away. The 8x DL spec. has only recently reached version 0.9, sufficient to allow hardware and media companies to begin developing commercial products. Simonis forecast the arrival of recorders around the middle of the year. Read the full article here. |
With a roughly equal market share for DVD+R and DVD-R record-once media, it looks like both formats are here to stay for the foreseeable future. However, when it comes to rewritable media, it looks like DVD+RW will likely win due to many advantages and benefits over the DVD-RW. Then again, DVD-RAM still seems to keep up a small market share even though very few PC DVD-ROM drives support it, let alone DVD players.
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Source: The Register - Storage
