In 2001, DVD Alliance released the
DVD+RW format, which is not only backwards compatible with existing devices, but also has many other attributes that make it the most versatile DVD format.
"
DVD+RW is the format of choice for consumers, and that means providing product when the market is ready and when the technology can deliver what the market demands," said Robert van Eijk, general manager of Philips Optical Storage North America.
DVD+RW also supplies the "record button" on the DVD player, meeting a critical user expectation.
The new plus-minus drives traverse the record-and-play formats of both DVD-RW and
DVD+RW. Supported by NEC, Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.
The DVD FLLC does not control the
DVD+RW format, or the write-one-time version, DVD+R.
The new HP DVD Writer 3100i drive will read and write to
DVD+RW discs, which have 3 GB of storage capacity--equivalent to 100 minutes of high-quality digital video or 2,000 floppy disks, the company says.
The first was presented by the
DVD+RW Alliance for the plus ("+") format and given the formal name "Double Layer." The DVD Forum followed with its own standard for the dash format ("-"), which it dubbed "Dual Layer." For now, drives are only available in write-once formats called DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL.
With the introduction of recordable and rewritable DVD technologies including rewriteable DVD-RAM, recordable DVD-R or DVD+R, and rewriteable DVD-RW and
DVD+RW, 4.7GB and 9.4GB disc capacities are realized, and a new terabyte storage solution has appeared.
Battling it out are DVD-RAM and the similarly named
DVD+RW and DVD-RW.
Customers purchasing the new product can write directly to DVD-R, DVD-RW and
DVD+RW discs.
The latest episode of the DVD soap opera played out in early June when Hewlett-Packard and Sony announced that they had started shipping their version of a rewritable DVD device: the
DVD+RW drive.
Sony has also added stand-alone recording support for DVD-R and DVD-RW discs, in addition to DVD+R, DVD+R double layer (DL) and
DVD+RW discs, providing an array of media options.
