DVD+RW alliance skips 12x speed

March 19, 2004

With 8x speed DVD-Burners currently out and 16x from BenQ, LiteOn, Philips, Pioneer and Sony expected for July 2004, the DVD+RW Alliance is not going to make specifications for 12x burners, like the announced Plextor PX-712.

For this high recording speed, writing strategies for burners have to be adapted. Laser power has to be raised to 50 mW (from 30 mW for 8x) and the pits must be in some kind of castle form, where the laser heats the dye stronger at the beginning and the end of the dye than in the middle. But 16x media will still be compatible to slower burners. Among the first manufacturers of these high speed media, will be Maxell, Mitsubishi (MKM), Philips, Ricoh and Sony. But it's not sure they will be ready in July - it will probably take a little longer.

Meanwhile Plextor and LG announced 12x DVD burners for May. While Plextor will allow 12x speed for some 8x media, LG is more conservative and only allows writing at certified speed. The new LG burner will be able to write to DVD-RAM at 5x and the corean manufacturer considers the possibility to turn off the automatic verify. Support for dual-layer recordables for both manufacturers is not clear yet.

While many manufacturers still have problems creating reliable results on every media with 8x speed, they are already planing for 12x and 16x. I don't think that we can expect good results at these speeds from the beginning.

If you like to discuss this topic, our Recording Hardware Forum might be the right place for you.

Source: Heise.de