Consumer demand for greater amounts of
removable storage options has prompted the industry to develop methods
of recording DVDs. Currently, there are four different methods of DVD
recording. Each of these technologies is vying to be the standard for
recordable DVD:
- DVD-R – DVD-R (recordable) is similar to CD-R
technology in that it allows the media to be written one time
only. This method is most often used for DVD authoring and is not
very practical for consumers due to the price of drives (U.S. $2000
or more) and media (U.S. $20 per disc). Even though price is a
drawback for this technology, compatibility is not. Most DVDROM
drives and stand-alone players can read DVD-R discs. DVD-R discs
can hold 4.7GB of data per side.
- DVD-RAM – Using the Random Access Memory
(RAM) technology
allows users to write and overwrite discs 100,000 times. DVD-RAM
uses phase-change technology similar to CD-RW drives and stores
4.7GB of information on each side of the disc. DVD-RAM drives are
priced below U.S. $1000 with media costs of U.S. $15 per disc.
Compatibility is an issue with DVD-RAM drives and most of these
drives require the use of a cartridge-based disc while recording.
- DVD-RW – The DVD-RW (re-writable) is a technology
designed to address compatibility and re-recording issues. Geared
more towards general-use than authoring, DVD-RW uses a "caddy
less" system and allows users to rewrite information on the
media to approximately 1000 times. The media is compatible with
most DVD-ROM drives and stand-alone players on the market today.
The drive uses a sequential recording technology used primarily
for streaming media. DVD-RW is capable of writing 4.7GB of
information to each side of a disc.
- DVD+RW – DVD+RW is the latest DVD recording technology.
Many major corporations including Hewlett-Packard back DVD+RW. As with DVD-RW,
the technology is both compatible with existing hardware and is
easily written to multiple times. The major advantage of DVD+RW is
the ability to use a variable bit-rate when encoding certain types
of media (such as streaming video). The major industry backing of
this format coupled with the affordability of the drive (less than
U.S. $600) should find DVD+RW as the standard DVD recording format
in the near future.
|
|
