New dual layers dvd burner

[onephatmugen]

If you just bought a DVD-burning drive for your computer and think that for once you're current with the latest and greatest, it's disappointment time. Manufacturers are soon launching drives that can store double the amount of data on a disc.

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Sony Electronics says it will be shipping drives in about two months that accept blank DVDs with two data layers. Philips Electronics will start selling a similar drive in Europe in April, but is not saying when it will be available in the United States.



The write-once discs can store up to 8.5 gigabytes of data, or about 4 hours of DVD-quality movies, twice the capacity of regular blank DVDs. This means capacities for computer-burned DVDs are catching up with prerecorded movie DVDs, many of which are already dual-layer.



The new technology is sure to appeal to those who back up or copy movie DVDs, since they often have to reduce image quality or remove special features to fit a copied movie onto a single-layer disc. With a dual-layer drive, an exact copy on a single disc should be possible.



(The software used to copy encrypted movie DVDs is illegal in the United States, according to recent court rulings.)



The two layers of the new discs are accessed from the same side — there is no need to flip the disc over to record to the second layer. Instead, a laser beam shines through the first layer to record on the second.



Sony will sell an internal drive for $230 and an external one for $330. They will be marketed only for Windows PCs, but the external one should work on Macintosh (news (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=%22Macintosh%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw) - web sites (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?cs=nw&p=Macintosh)) computers with the proper third-party software.



Philips will sell two internal drives with somewhat different features, both for PCs. U.S. prices have not been set.



The drives will be able to burn regular write-once and rewritable DVDs and CDs as well.



The Sony and Philips drives will use somewhat different discs. Sony calls its variant DVD-R DL. The Philips equivalent is DVD+R DL. Both disc types should be readable in standard DVD drives and players.



Sony estimates the blank discs will cost $5 to $6. Philips does not have an estimate yet.



The dual-layer discs will be slower to burn than single-layer discs — the drives will be rated as burning at 2.4 times faster than playback speed, versus eight times for single-layer discs.

A full 8.5 gigabytes will take about 45 minutes to burn

[Jesterrace]

Yup seen a few posts on this. However if you just bought a single layered DVD Burner then you aren't going to be disappointed. 1. It is still going to be 3 or 4 months down the road before these burners are released. 2. The initial cost of the writers will be $250-$300 whereas you can pick up a nice Pioneer 107 from newegg right now for $125 shipped. 3. It is new technology and there will almost certainly be firmware/media issues to be sorted out. 4. As mentioned dual-layered media will run $5-$6 a disc while a quality single-layered disc (ie Ritek DVD-R) runs just under $1 a disc, I realize there are definite benefits to a dual-layered disc but you need to stop and ask yourself if you are really going to be burning any large number of dual-layered discs after they first come out. When you start doing the math you understand that the real expense is not the burner but the media. Don't get me wrong, dual-layered burners will be great but I think that people are overlooking the facts listed above. IMO if my current burner failed me, I would not hesitate to buy a brand new single-layered burner because I know that even if I used it for only a year, I would more than recover my investment in it. In a year's time: 1. They will have had a chance to work out any media/firmware issues with dual-layered burners. 2. Faster Burners will be out 3. The media will probably cost half as much.

[Billy_Black]

I would tend to agree that the current drives and media will still be viable choices with the best price/performance for the buck. The NEC 2500 can be had for $93 delivered and RitekG03's in 100 spindles for $.69 each delivered. For me, a movie only, pop in the backup and have it start playing (don't want menus or special features) kind of guy the current technology is more than adequate, with pretty good compatability amonst computers, drives, OS's and programs (data and video). With a little luck the media will get even cheaper as I also use lot's of discs for data storage. I do wish -RAM had become more popular as these discs are still a bit pricey and only a few burners support this highly useful tecnology. And once again we see more formats and more compatability issues that will have to be ironed out. I've settled into a rhythm (media, burner, programs and tecniques) that produces the results I seek with the least amount of effort, problems and cost.

[NotAHacker]

I have to say and this doesn't happen to often I agree with Jesterrace. http://66.197.142.137/forums/images/smilies/biggthumpup.gif I say lets wait and see. I say let everyone else be stupid and run out and buy one of the first ones and in the end end up with a piece of ****!!! http://66.197.142.137/forums/images/smilies/insane.gif Dam for all we know some of the first media could be like some of the junk - media we have now. Burn data today that you can't read six months from now!! No thanks I'm not going to be stupid I'll wait.
http://66.197.142.137/forums/images/smilies/director.gif Don't do it!!!