Faster write speed DVD drives unveiled

DVD-R/RW (DVD recordable/rewritable) drives are getting faster. Several hardware makers are unveiling drives that write DVD-R discs at up to 4X normal playback speed, and DVD-RW discs at 2X speed. However, the industry is currently watching how the market trend goes, since the drives are still relatively expensive and not many compatible discs are available, yet.

Pioneer Corp. showed two new DVD-R/RW drives that support the higher write speeds at World PC Expo 2002, which opened here Wednesday.

"Writing 4.7G bytes of data on an optical disc takes time and so does editing the same volume of video," said Yoshihiro Watanuki, a product planner at the Business Systems Division of Pioneer. "The faster the write speed is, the better for users."

With a 4X speed DVD-R, an hour of high quality video can be recorded within about 17 minutes, he said.

Pioneer's DVR-A05-J internal drive, which can also write CD-R at 16X speed and CD-RW at 8X speed, is expected to go on sale by the end of October at around ¥35,000 (US$281) worldwide, according to Pioneer spokesman Akira Munetoh.

The company is also planning to roll out an external model with an IEEE1394a interface in December. This model, the DVR-S502, is expected to be priced at under ¥50,000. The company has no plans to launch it outside Japan, Munetoh said.

Pioneer's drive is one of the first to offer the faster write speed. Sony Corp., last week, unveiled the DRU-500A that can write DVD-R at 4X speed and DVD-RW at 2X speed. This product also writes the competing formats DVD+R and DVD+RW, and is priced at around ¥48,000. Sony's external model is expected to be out on Nov. 23.

TEAC Corp. will supply a 4X and 2X write speed DVD-R/RW drive, the DV-W50E, to PC makers for inclusion in their products. The drive is expected to be adopted in PCs that will come out worldwide by the end of this year, said Hiroaki Sasagawa, a representative for the Data Storage Products Division at TEAC.

"At the beginning, the drive will cost more than the conventional speed drive, but it should go down soon," Sasagawa said.

From the end of this year, users can expect to see many PCs with a DVD drive, he said. Adoption of DVD-R/RW drives with 4X and 2X write speeds depends on the availability of compatible media. TEAC expects the drives to become mainstream early next year.

Among the few compatible discs expected to be available soon are Pioneer's. The company plans to release 4X DVD-R discs and 2X DVD-RW discs by the end of October, around the same time it releases its drive, Pioneer's Watanuki said. The discs are expected to be slightly more expensive than conventional write speed discs, he said.

Taiyo Yuden Co. Ltd. will follow Pioneer, unveiling 4X speed DVD-R and 2X speed DVD-RW discs in November. The price will be around ¥800 to ¥900 for the 4X DVD-R discs, compared with about ¥600 for its current 2X DVD-R discs.

Hitachi Maxell Ltd., a recording media maker, which provides DVD discs in all the five formats, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM, is also developing 4X DVD-R discs, but has no plan for commercialization yet, said Hisaaki Mutsuzaki of Hitachi Maxell's business planning department.

The company is not rushing to unveil a 4X DVD-R disc because there is no demand yet. Drives that can write at 4X speed are still expensive, and there are not many available, Mutsuzaki said.

While the DVD-R format can now write at up to 4X speed, the fastest write speed of the competing DVD+R format is slower at 2.4X.

Ricoh Co. Ltd., a DVD+R/RW developer, is working on the development of a DVD+R/RW drive and disc with a write speed of 4X, said a Ricoh engineer. The company has no plan for its commercialization, yet.

Ricoh is one of the six companies -- the others are Hewlett-Packard Co., Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV, Sony Corp., Yamaha Corp. and Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. -- that have formed an alliance to promote the DVD+R/RW format.

Yamaha also exhibited the prototype of its first DVD+R/RW at World PC Expo. The company is currently developing 4X write speed technology for DVD+R.

The other format, DVD-RAM, is supported by the DVD Forum, along with the DVD-R/RW format. Makers such as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. manufacture compliant products with a maximum write speed of 2X.