AfterDawn: Tech news

Dual layer DVD+R technology announced

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 03 Oct 2003 1:32 User comments (20)

Dual layer DVD+R technology announced Philips and Mitsubishi Kagaku Media have managed to achieve something that most people who knew something about technical specifications of DVD discs had considered to be, not impossible, but too expensive and too complicated to develop.
Companies jointly announced today that they've managed to create a dual layer DVD+R disc and that its specifications should be ready by the end of the year. Companies said that the driving force behind the development was to create a dual layer disc that would be as much compatible as possible with existing stand-alone DVD players and DVD-ROM drives.

What does this mean then? It means basically that once these discs and burners supporting these discs hit the market -- with acceptable price tag, software tools meant for shrinking DVD-Video discs to fit on one single-layer DVDR disc become virtually useless. It means that any commercial DVD-Video disc, including DVD-9 discs, will fit to one blank disc without re-encoding the video or stripping out unwanted material from the disc. Couple of things have to be noted: current DVD+R recorders wont be able to burn dual layer discs and all existing DVD-ROM, DVD-R and DVD+R drives should be able to read these dual layer discs with no problems at all.



Philips says that first recorders and discs will be available sometime in 2004. This also puts huge pressure to DVD Forum, which supports the competing DVD-R format, to develop dual layer solution for DVD-R discs as well.

More information:

Forbes.com
DVDRW.com

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20 user comments

13.10.2003 18:39

Nice, but now i'll have to copy all my DVD's again.

24.10.2003 03:11

Guess I´ll be postponing my purchase of a recordable DVD-drive then.

34.10.2003 17:09

This is interesting. However, i feel that Philips and Mitsibushi are barking up the wrong tree. While they are developing Dual Layer discs to enable a mere 8-9GB of data to be put on one disc, other companies such as Sony and Matsushita (panasonic) are developing and have developed far higher capacity discs, such as the Blu Ray compatible 23GB Discs. Sony plan to have a 50GB disc available by around mid 2005 for their own Blue Laser systems. However, the problem with these formats is the backward compatibility with normal DVD Movies. Normal DVD movies use Red laser systems, which the blue laser systems cant read. The only advantage i see of Dual layer DVD's is purely for backing up current movies. Since current does not mean within the year, i thin that these two companies have jumped on the band-wagon a little too late. I for one, would rather purcahse a new home DVD player and upgrade to a Blue Laser system with the possibility of True high quality DVD discs for large screens and true 24/96 sound for audiophile hifi systems. thats what i want. Thats what will be coming i think.

44.10.2003 18:41

Well I wouldnt imagine that with something revolutionary on the order of 23GB/50+GB per disc, people would whine about backwards compatibility lol :-)

55.10.2003 04:00

They probably would though. What needs to be addressed in systems such as the Blu Ray and sony equivalent, is the need for two laser systems in each standalone. I dont know whether this can be combined in the one drawer or whether it means having to seperate DVD drawers, but whatever the case, the ability to play the pre-recorded and bought DVD's is an essential selling point of any system.

65.10.2003 09:18
fedrive
Inactive

USA Patented UV/BLUE Atomic Holographic Storage now in development will start at 10 terabytes or 6,840 TV hours/ 1 year of continuous video recording !!! http://www.colossalstorage.net

75.10.2003 09:55

Well, this is bad. I have to wait longer to burn my $3500 on a new AThlon 64 and this. T.T I can't wait anymore!!!!! ARRGHH!! *goes and spends $3500 on ice-cream*

85.10.2003 10:13

Quote:
USA Patented UV/BLUE Atomic Holographic Storage now in development will start at 10 terabytes or 6,840 TV hours/ 1 year of continuous video recording !!!
We know already, you always bring it up.

95.10.2003 18:03

Its been in development for years already. I doubt we'll see it anytime soon.

106.10.2003 22:17

It really doesn't matter when it comes out the drives will be unaffordable for normal people like us. I can beat you that the dries will start out at $1000 and the disc will probably run around 20 bucks. Maybe in four years the prices will be more down to earth but by then we will all forget about dvds and move to bluray

118.10.2003 00:20

I think i'll be happy with my backups for a few years yet (only 32" widescreen tv), the compression onto single dvd-r (in most cases) is fine with no visible degradation. And the extras are unwanted anyway.. Hopefully single layered dvd-rs will come down in price now?

1230.11.2003 11:33

Don't count on waiting for blu-laser(forget about blu-ray;not compatibility with red laser DVD players). It may be around now in Japan but that's because HDTV is prevalent there(which is & will be the MAIN selling point of blue laser!)...so count on it in 2006(when HD is mandatory to adopt) and probably not viable(because of expense) until '07! Better buy that dual layer DVD!

132.3.2004 13:22

Hi i dont know if anyone's interested but have you heard the latest from pioneer? According to a Japanese A/V news site, Pioneer has demonstrated dual-layer DVD-R burning at the CES expo in Las Vegas, using the existing single-layer DVDR drive, Pioneer A06/106. According to the article, Pioneer used only a modified firmware to achieve the dual-layer burning with no needs to modify the hardware itself at all. Any thoughts? is it a wind up? if not i wonder how much the firmware upgrade will cost! rest assured it WONT be free!

142.3.2004 13:45

Its not a wind up and i posted that news story the week after it was demoed in Vegas, on this forum. Philips have already said that they will be releasing frimware upgrade that will allow users to burn dual layer discs on some of their current drives. The drawback is the speed of 2.4x. If this isnt addressed, i cant see me waiting for 1 hour to burn a movie thats for sure. On the Blue Laser front, it is going to be a reality, a probably withing the next year we'll be using them. Microsoft is now in on it, the DVD forum has chosen a format to support, and it has been mentioned that machines may well come with both Blue and Red laser systems in order to give backward compatibility with users current DVD collections.

152.3.2004 13:57
pcshateme
Inactive

actualy it was a dual layer +R a -R dual layer is impossible- (different makeup) and i have a 2.4x burner- it only takes 25 minutes- and the DVD-9 burner burns at 2.4x REALATIVE to the disc. kind of like how 2.4x DVDR amounts to 12x with cd-r. also bluray WILL be the future- the problem is i think that joe shmo wont get his hands on it for at least 2 years- and it wont be the norm for like 4 years- kinda like dvd came out in 97- but it took till about 2000-2001 for it to be as common as a VCR was in the mid 90s. and they WILL need a dual laser system- techies like us will buy a bluray player- but it will piss off the average consumer who already has like 200 DVDs. I mean Joe 6pack would be pissed that his movie collection is no longer useable.

163.3.2004 08:16

Not sure who said it ws -R. I dont think Blu Ray will be the only future. It certainly wasnt accepted by the DVD Forum as their future, but who really knows for sure eh...

173.3.2004 09:47
pcshateme
Inactive

well dvd+r isnt a member of the forum and look at how successful it is. and there will be other formats other than bluray- but think of this- will joe 6 pack want to have to check the "requirements" on the back of each movie he rents to see if its compatible with his player?

183.3.2004 10:08

Of course not, but thats relevant to all future mediums. With Microsoft supporting HD DVD in the form mentioned by the DVD Forum, then my guess is it will be most common. DVD+R is succesful, but -R still is used more due to the price difference of media (results were pre-Christmas). Actually there are four main rivals of Blu Ray, Sony has developed two of them (partly).

193.3.2004 10:16
pcshateme
Inactive

what are they?

203.3.2004 11:08

Toshiba/NEC have AOD,a Blue Laser version (this is the one the DVD Forum has approved), there is Blue Ray, there is Sony's other Blue Laser syste, (not sure if its been named yet), and i cant remember the name of the fourth. There is also in developed (its been in development for years) the disc that will allow 100,000GB on one using Ultra Violet or something. Dont know what the story is with it.

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