DVD Scene Is Set for Confusion
NEW YORK (AP) via NewsEdge Corporation -
By year’s end, consumers will be able to record
their own DVDs at home _ reaping the benefits
of vastly more capacity and improved quality in
digital images, sounds and video.
Yet, typically, manufacturers have been unable
to unite on a singe standard for discs and
players, which could cause considerable
head-scratching this holiday shopping season.
Which to buy: DVD-RAM, DVD-RW or DVD+RW?
Read-only DVDs, or digital versatile discs, broke
through as a consumer product last holiday
season and analysts say the rewritable kind
could easily be one of this year’s hot items.
With one important caveat:
“Things are extremely confused with all the
standards that we have,'’ said analyst Tom
Edwards at research group NPD Intellect.
This week’s PC Expo trade show was a
battleground for competing groups of electronics
manufacturers.
Hitachi, Toshiba and Panasonic said they would
ship stand-alone recorders in a few months that
use DVD-RAM. Such drives have been available
for computers since early 1999, but the group is
now trying to move it into the consumer
electronics arena.
By the end of the year, the recorders will cost
$500 to $600, said Panasonic spokesman Andy
Marken. By contrast, regular DVD players are
expected to cost $100 by Thanksgiving time,
Edwards said.
The DVD-RAM standard has large manufacturers
and software developers behind it and the
advantage of being first to market.
However, the discs produced by a DVD-RAM
recorder can’t be played in the DVD players that
have been sold so far. They require
“RAM-capable'’ DVD players, which a Hitachi
spokesman promised would be on sale shortly.
DVD+RW, a format backed by Hewlett-Packard,
Ricoh, Philips and Yamaha, doesn’t have the
same problem. The discs can be played in
existing DVD players.
But there’s a drawback: the stand-alone
recorders are likely to be a bit more expensive,
and the computer drives won’t be out until next
year.
Research group IDC Corp. estimates that 70
million DVD players and drives will be sold by
year’s end.
“The key will be video compatibility and
backwards compatibility,'’ said John Spofford of
Hewlett-Packard.
Philips is bringing out a stand-alone recorder by
the end of the year for about $1,000.
Users will be able to connect it to a cable or
antenna to record TV signals, or plug video
cameras into it. At full DVD quality, each disc will
hold about two hours of footage, or 4 hours at a
quality setting closer to VHS.
For a third alternative, there’s DVD-RW,
derisively called “DVD minus RW'’ by DVD+RW
backers. DVD-RW was created by Pioneer. The
recorders are already on sale in Japan, and
Pioneer hopes to start selling them in the United
States by the fourth quarter.
Pioneer executives said the first recorders would
be geared towards home theater enthusiasts and
would cost about $3,000.
The DVD-RW discs will be playable in Pioneer
DVD players and some players from other
manufacturers. The recorders will also be able to
use write-once DVDs, which could be played on
any DVD player.
It is likely that DVD-RW and DVD-RAM will be
compatible in some way, since both formats are
sanctioned by the DVD Forum, a standards
association of 230 companies.
The most acrimonious fight seems to be brewing
between the DVD Forum supporters and the
DVD+RW manufacturers.
“As far as who is going to win, I couldn’t tell
you,'’ said Edwards.
It’s not impossible that more than one standard
will coexist, Edwards said.
However, it’s just as possible that the fight will
shape up to be like the showdown between
Betamax and VHS over VCR video tapes.
Hitachi demonstrated a video camera that
records on smaller DVD-RAMs which for now
can’t be played back on anything but DVD-RAM
capable players.
“When it gets to that point, and the customer
comes home and puts the disc in the DVD player,
and it doesn’t work, there’s going to be a
problem,'’ said Edwards.