One of the most populair DVD recorders at the moment is the Pioneer A03, but because of the high price there are probably only a few lucky CD Freaks that have bought this drive. Besides that we have reported earlier that the drive is rather picky with media it will at 2 speed.
Pioneer is now launching a new model, the Pioneer A04. According to Pioneer the drive will perform better and will be cheaper, but will still only support the DVD-R and DVD-RW formats. Multi format support would according to Pioneer make the drive too expensive.
Similar to the A03, the A04 will be able to read and write to DVD-R, DVD-RW (DVD-rewritable), CD-R and CD-RW discs. But the A04 drive will be smaller, will be able to read DVD-R and CD-R faster, and will record to discs more reliably, according to the company. Pioneer's A03 drive can be found in Apple, Sony and Compaq PCs. |
High prices on drives and media have been one of the main hurdles preventing DVD-recordable drives from becoming a mass-market phenomenon to date, although the picture is rapidly changing. The 4.7GB storage capacity of DVD discs makes them a good media for storing clips of home videos, which tend to be large files. Digital video and photography are also continuing to grow in popularity, inherently raising the desire for recordable DVD among consumers.
The A04 drive will be half as expensive as the A03 when it first came out last year for around $1,000. The A04 will be available later this year.
Source: ZDnet.co.uk
