Prodisc has developed a disc that can hold 4.9GB of data

May 25, 2005

PCWorld reports that Prodisc has developed a 4.9GB DVD-R disc, earlier
also BeAll announced that it had developed a disc with extra capacity.
Unfortunately the technology means that the disc is less compatible with
existing drives.

The disc
has a capacity of 4.9GB, versus 4.7GB for a conventional DVD-R. The extra
capacity was realized by reducing the gap between the successive turns of
the disc's spiral recording track. By reducing the gap, also called the
track pitch, a longer track can be fitted onto the disc and so more data
can be stored.

Because the track pitch has been changed, the new
disc won't be compatible with all current DVD drives. Fifteen drives from
major drive makers offer full support for the disc, which means allowing
storage of up to 4.9GB, says Bryan Huang of Prodisc's storage media
research and development department.

Among drives that are compatible with the disc are
popular drives such as the BenQ DW1620, LG's GSA-4082B, GSA-4120B, LiteOn
SOHW-1613S, Pioneer DVR-107 and 108, Plextor's PX-708A and PX-712A and Samsung's
SH-W08A. Read more about this in this
article. Discuss this new media in our Media
Forum.

Source: PCworld.com