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DVD's Next Big Leaps

Just when you think it's safe to go out and purchase a DVD burner, new technology shows up--three kinds in this case. The most innocuous new twist is 12X recordable--a speed jump that will save time but otherwise won't rock your world. Contending for the earthshaking technology award are soon-to-be-released dual-layer, double-capacity DVD+R and a still-over-the-horizon product based on blue laser technology called high-def DVD. Blue laser promises massively greater capacity and faster speeds, but as is usual with DVD, a war is brewing over the high-def format.

(For a summary of current and upcoming DVD formats, see the chart, "Making Sense of DVD.")

Dual-layer recordable DVD drives and media (also known as double-layer in the DVD+R format) possess roughly twice the capacity of current 4.7GB media and can hold an entire high-bit-rate, 8.5GB DVD-9 commercial movie. For consumers, that means comfortably fitting 3 hours or more of high-quality video on one disc. But our informal tests suggest that dual-layer discs may be incompatible with at least some current players and burners.

We tried out a $199 internal version of Sony's DRU-700A, a dual-layer, 8.5GB recordable drive that also writes single-layer DVD±R at 8X, DVD±R/RW at 4X, CD-R at 40X, and CD-RW at 24X. (The external version will sell for about $299.)

The DRU-700A easily handled our more mundane tests. Using a vendor-bundled version of Nero software, it wrote dual-layer discs flawlessly in a hair over 45 minutes for a full disc. We couldn't detect any layer-switch lag when playing back the movie we burned, on either the Sony DRU-700A or JVC's XV-N55SL DVD player.

But several caveats are in order. A relatively minor one is that dual-layer DVD+R writing proceeds at only 2.4X, so it requires about 45 minutes to write a full disc. (When using DL DVD+R, you must write a full disc to obtain the proper reflectivity on both layers.)

More important, dual-layer discs will reach store shelves slowly--and will temporarily return us to the $10-a-disc days last seen with the first 1X DVD-R burners, says Verbatim spokesman Andy Marken. As more suppliers come on line, prices will probably drop drastically, but single-layer media will continue to be cheaper for the foreseeable future.

The most serious problem, however, is incompatibility with existing players and drives. Our state-of-the-art DVD burners from Plextor (the PX-712A and PX-708A) and Memorex (the True 8X) wouldn't recognize video that we burned onto a preproduction DL disc, and only four of the twelve DVD players that we tried to use would play it. Firmware upgrades should fix the burner problem on new models, and Marken says that the goal for production-level media is 90 percent compatibility.

Benq, Lite-On, Memorex, and Pioneer each plan to release a DL drive within the next couple of months; those drives, like the Sony, will support dual-layer for DVD+R. In addition, some existing drives may add DL write support via firmware upgrades. Consult your drive's maker to be sure. The competing write-once format, DVD-R, should go dual-layer by the end of June, when the DVD Forum is expected to ratify the new specification.

Despite receiving considerable press attention, blue-laser DVD is hardly poised to take over from today's DVD technology. Even the most optimistic analysts don't expect blue laser to have more than a minor market impact for at least five years. But the battle is on over whose format will win the hearts and minds of Hollywood--not to mention a boatload of future royalties.

Of numerous combatants, just two formats appear headed for the big showdown: the DVD Forum's HD-DVD, created by Toshiba and NEC, and Sony's Blu-ray, which is supported by practically everyone else. China is going its own way with EVD (Enhanced Versatile Disc), yet another standard, but the impact of EVD in other countries is uncertain.

In comparison to the red-light lasers used in current CD and DVD products, blue-light lasers possess a shorter wavelength--405 nanometers versus red laser's 650 nanometers. That translates into speedier pulses and smaller marks that are positioned closer together, yielding greater capacity and faster speeds. One beneficiary will be HDTV, which offers up to 1125 lines of resolution and up to 19.4-megabits-per-second transfer rates. Two hours of material transmitted at this speed requires just over 19GB of storage, far more than single- or dual-layer discs now offer.

The DVD Forum, NEC, and Toshiba claim that HD-DVD, which increases the capacity of DVD from 4.7GB to 15GB per layer, is easier to implement and could be brought to market more quickly and less expensively because it doesn't necessitate a complete retooling of existing assembly lines. In fact, NEC has already announced production of a dual red/blue laser read/write head (but no accompanying drive) that is backward-compatible.

Nevertheless, since single-layer HD-DVD capacity falls short of the minimum requirement for handling 17.5GB HDTV--as does the 15GB EVD standard--the DVD Forum is accommodating compression schemes besides today's tried-and-true MPEG-2: the MPEG-4-compliant H.264 and Microsoft's Windows Media 9. Both permit compression ratios higher than MPEG-2 at similar quality, but would require the DVD player manufacturers to pay additional royalties.

Sony and others argue that a clean break with older technology will result in greater capacity; Blu-ray offers from 23.3GB to 27GB per layer, easily exceeding HDTV requirements. Not surprisingly, Blu-ray is sticking with MPEG-2, although its creators haven't ruled out using other codecs.

Neither the HD-DVD nor the Blu-ray spec is graven in stone yet. To muddy the spec waters further, MPEG-4 playback is already appearing on some current DVD players such as NextWave's TW-3108 and Technosonic's MP-101. If adopted by other players and recorders, MPEG-4 may become a de facto specification.

The high-definition DVD fight is a minor story for now. The difference in quality between high-res DVD and current DVD is too small to give users a reason to upgrade until HD content becomes more widely available. Few people own TVs capable of showing off the higher resolution. And the new format's copy protection system will be far tougher than the weak one in current DVDs (see "Copyright Cops Crack Down on DVD").

That said, the first blue-laser product is already on sale--Sony's 23GB-per-layer Professional Disc for Data. At $2996 for an internal SCSI-3 drive and $3300 for an external USB 2.0/SCSI-3 version, it's a business backup option only, and the $45 discs it writes are not compatible with other types of drives. We were unable to obtain one for testing, but its availability suggests that blue-laser DVD will make its debut via data applications and the prosumer video market.

Finally, though it's an incremental improvement, our first taste of 12X recordable was sweet. Plextor's $200 PX-712A (our World Class winner in the rewritable DVD drive category; see page 90) burns discs at 12X and doesn't even need yet-to-be-released 12X DVD+R media to manage the trick: It wrote a full movie in just over 6 minutes (at 12X) using Taiyo Yuden 8X DVD+R discs that Plextor provided. (Go to Plextor's site to see a list of 12X-writable 8X media.) The PX-712A burns DVD-R discs at 8X, DVD±RW at 4X, CD-R at 48X, and CD-RW at 24X, too.

Another pleasant note: Plextor has finally decided to bundle its PlexTools burning and drive configuration utility. The utility lets you raise the PX-712A's maximum DVD video read speed from 2X to 16X for an entire computing session, so you no longer have to do it manually each time you rip.

The dual-layer drives from Benq, Lite-On, Memorex, and Pioneer will boast 16X DVD±R speeds as well--but don't expect media for them to ship until some time this fall.

Though there are clouds of confusion on DVD's horizon, your choice for the moment is fairly clear. The 12X drives will save you time and won't bust your budget. Sadly, the compatibility of dual-layer discs with current hardware is suspect, and the high initial price of discs means you may want to steer clear of the technology for the immediate future.

New DVD technologies promise faster write speeds and higher disc capacities. Here's how the DVD landscape looks so far.

n/a = Not available; drives and media have not been released. FOOTNOTES: ¹ Average price when bought in quantity. ² Dual-layer discs are coming this winter. ³ Specification is still a work in progress. ⁴ Listed X rating is based on current DVD standards and may not appear on product when sold. CHART NOTE: 1X for DVD = 1.38 MBps, 1X for DVD-RAM = 720 KBps.