Looking forward to more powerful DVD's

Why do we need a DVD burner? Of course, to create our own DVDs, to copy an existing DVD or to save data. But, like most other technologies, there are varying standards.

According to a recent report by South China Morning Post, Hitachi, for example, has announced a DVD format that can hold up to 200 movie titles. Luckily the company plans to begin its marketing in 2007. Otherwise, we will have more confusion in choosing a device to burn our own DVDs.

In the computer industry, an alliance called DVD-RW has been forged between the companies concerned with the adoption of rewriteable DVD-ROM as well as the proliferation of DVD recorders. These companies include familiar names such as Dell, HP, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Verbatim, Philips, Ricoh, Sony, Thomson and Yamaha.

Microsoft has also announced that it will support all major DVD formats in its next generation of Windows. This will simplify creating DVDs on our PCs in the future. However, since we can also write a tremendous amount of data on a single DVD platter, it can also serve as a reliable backup medium for the entire hard disk.

Because there are multiple standards found in DVDs, it is important that you check the compatibility of the DVD writer that you want to add to your computer with the DVD player in your living room.

Five of the most widely accepted formats are the HD-DVD-9, NG- DVD, Blue HD-DVD-1, Blu-ray and Blue HD-DVD-2. There are definitely other standards, too. A single layer DVD can hold up to 27 GB of data, while a dual layer DVD can hold a whopping 50 GB amount of data. Currently a number of vendors have offered their after-market DVD-RW drives, including AOpen, Benq, HP, LiteOn, Philips, Plextor and Ricoh. These devices can also write and rewrite CD- ROMs as well, and therefore the values that the vendor gives can be quite confusing. They usually indicate DVD+R write speed, DVD+RW rewrite speed, DVD read speed, CD-R write speed, CD-RW rewrite speed, CD read speed.

What features should you look for when hunting for a DVD- writer for your PC? Among other considerations, and because it is a large-capacity storage medium, the ability to format it in the background would be a time-saver. You also need to find a device that allows you to edit videos that are already stored on the disc. It would be nice to have the ability to mix data and video on a single disc, as well. Finally, you will also want to make sure that you can write multiple sessions on a single disc.

To ensure compatibility, check out the compatibility list available from the vendors such as HP and Ricoh. Make use of DVD- RW Alliance Compatibility Overview, too (www.dvdrw.com/compatoverview.html).

DVD came out in 1997. Six years may not be enough to reach maturity. Better software is being developed, and the firmware for the burners is constantly updated. Therefore, you will have to experiment to really get the feel of it. Also, as it has not yet reached the economies of scale of CD-RW drives, a DVD-RW drive still costs a fortune. -- Zatni Arbi

Upcoming Topics

CDMA phones are coming Digital pens to compete with Tablet PCs Roundup of MP3 players