TOKYO — Prototypes of DVD+RW drives and recorders that use a 12-cm optical disk were demonstrated here this month by a group of seven companies. Claiming better compatibility with the existing DVD read-only infrastructure than rival formats, the group plans to carve out its share of a consumer market already occupied by the DVD-RAM, DVD-RW and DVD-R/RW recording formats. Recorders based on the new 4.7-Gbyte standard for rewritable DVD disks will be launched this summer, followed by drives for PCs this fall.
Hewlett-Packard, Mitsubishi Chemical (Verbatim), Ricoh, Royal Philips Electronics, Sony, Thomson Multimedia and Yamaha Corp. make up the group.
"Seven companies together hold 70 to 80 percent share in the CD-RW market. Based on this advantage, we are going to promote DVD+RW," said Jun Doi, group manager of the Recording Material Division at Mitsubishi Chemical.
In the consumer sector, Philips is the most active, with the completion of a video recorder prototype, and it plans to market the final design this summer, said Chris Buma, program manager of Disc Recording at Philips Consumer Electronics. Philips is also preparing to market drives.
Also on the drive front, Ricoh will introduce this fall a DVD+RW drive that can write to CD-R and CD-RW disks as well as DVD+RW disks.
The DVD+RW group emphasized that its format is compatible with existing DVD-ROM drives and DVD-Video players without any modification. The group estimated that nearly 90 million units of DVD-ROM drives and DVD-Video players were installed worldwide last year, and the total will jump to more than 170 million units this year.
Just as the rapid expansion of the CD-R/RW drive market was supported by the widely spread CD-ROM drive infrastructure, the companies intend to promote the DVD+RW format as the recordable format with the highest compatibility with DVD read-only drives and players.
During the prototype demonstrations, disks recorded by Philips' DVD+RW video recorder and Ricoh's DVD+RW drive showed that they could be played back by players and drives already on the market. DVD-Video players and PC built-in DVD-ROM drives from Matsushita and Sharp were used in the demonstrations.
The DVD+RW format was first proposed as a 3-Gbyte rewritable disk system in 1997 by the original six backers of the DVD+RW standard, excluding Thomson. In November 1998, the group announced a 4.7-Gbyte version that would pursue full compatibility with the DVD-ROM format. Thomson joined the group at the end of last year.
The group pointed out that DVD-RAM systems required heavy modifications on the drive and player sides. The first-generation DVD+RW 3-Gbyte system, however, also required software modifications on the drive side. The DVD+RW disk had a 2-kbyte linking loss between two contiguously written pieces of information, and that linking loss made the disk incompatible with existing read-only players and drives. When the group upgraded the format to the 4.7-Gbyte version, they devised a way to omit the 2-kbyte link loss.
And now for DVD-RW
Similarly, the DVD-RW format, which evolved from DVD-R, has a "zero link" that connects the previously recorded area and the next recorded area without loss, via a pre-bit address. The first-generation DVD-RW recorder, however, was also not fully compatible with DVD-Video players.
Pioneer made the second-generation DVD-RW recorder, introduced last December and dubbed the DVR-2000, fully compatible with existing DVD-Video players. The recorder can record on DVD-R disks and has a DVD-Video recording mode.
The DVD-RW group formed the RW Products Promotion Initiative (RWPPI) last May and now has 43 companies as members. Though the timing has not been decided, Pioneer also intends to introduce DVD-RW drives.
Since Sony is a member of both the RWPPI and the DVD+RW groups, the company plans to use both formats. For the European market, where DVD+RW will be promoted strongly, Sony also plans to introduce DVD+RW.
For the Japanese market, where Pioneer and several other companies are already promoting DVD-RW format recorders, Sony also aims to introduce a DVD-RW recorder. "Sony intends to introduce a recorder that can write and read in both DVD+RW and DVD-RW formats," said Toru Takeda, general manager of technological strategy and development at Sony Core Technology & Network Co. "The difference between DVD+RW and DVD-RW is trifling when compared to the difference with DVD-RAM," said Takeda. Just changing firmware and a slight modification of the LSI — just about several percent of the total gates — will ensure compatibility between DVD+RW and DVD-RW, said Takeda.
When consumers go to the store to purchase a videodisk recorder or a recordable drive, which format will they choose? "Whether DVD-RAM, DVD-RW or DVD+RW is a trivial matter," said Reiji Asakura, a respected pundit in the digital audio and video world who has written several DVD-related books. "In the near future, consumers will first store video data in hard-disk drives. Then they will output some video titles that they don't want to delete to disks. In this sense, how many times the disk can rewrite is not important. The fact that the disk can play anywhere — that it is compatible with DVD-ROM player/drives — is essential. In this term, DVD-R recorders will be the in the mainstream. Like the case of CD-R, the DVD-R disk will be less expensive than other disks."
