will DVD writers be mainstream in 2003?

[jtan]

what do you think?

i'm still thinking whether i should get one, are they worth the cost? they cost more in per megabyte basis compared to CD-RW drives.

and popular CD-RW drives manufacturers don't have DVD writers yet...

[Rudy]

you should consider if you have the following needs:

1) You do a lot of digital video for family or business.
2) You need to distribute 4gb of data frequently and your users have dvd readers.
3) You need to archive 4gb files and you do not want to archive that data in hard drives (cheaper).

Therefore in my case I only do it because of digital video, they are worth due to the quality of a dvd compared to a vcd.

[Kennyshin]

what do you think?

i'm still thinking whether i should get one, are they worth the cost? they cost more in per megabyte basis compared to CD-RW drives.

and popular CD-RW drives manufacturers don't have DVD writers yet...

Really? Sony, HP, Ricoh, Philips, Samsung, LG, TEAC, NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi, Verbatim, IO DATA, Cendyne, Pioneer, and many many others have DVD writers. Some Taiwanese companies have also introduced DVD-R and DVD+R writers. LiteOn is a bit late but it will in a few months (or already have maybe on the lab.) Plextor is also late but Plextor does not make DVD players, DVD drives, and DVD media like some others do and it will also soon release some.

Cost per MB - compare Ritek DVD-R media vs. Ritek CD-R media, Ritek DVD-RW media vs. Ritek CD-RW media, Verbatim CD-R media vs. Verbatim DVD+R media, Ritek CD-RW media vs. Ritek DVD-RAM media. DVD media are now cheaper.

[VEFF]

what do you think?

i'm still thinking whether i should get one, are they worth the cost? they cost more in per megabyte basis compared to CD-RW drives.

and popular CD-RW drives manufacturers don't have DVD writers yet...

Actually that is no longer true.
DVD-Rs now cost LESS per megabyte.
You can get 100 DVD-Rs for as low as $60 without any rebates.
That is equivalent to 600 CD-Rs.... Try getting 600 CD-Rs for $60 without rebates

[CignaXI]

I think you should wait more as new and faster chips are comming out. This technology still need to mature a little bit more. So if you aren't in a hurry of storing 4gb of data then you should wait.

[Kennyshin]

I think you should wait more as new and faster chips are comming out. This technology still need to mature a little bit more. So if you aren't in a hurry of storing 4gb of data then you should wait.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=6881

1.5 terabyte DVD on way

2010 target date

By INQUIRER staff: Monday 23 December 2002, 08:02

JAPANESE WIRE the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that a coalition of academics and electronics combine are designing an optical disk that will eventually be able to store 1.5TB (terabytes) of data.
Although we're unlikely to see such devices until 2010, the consortium, which includes Matsushita, Ricoh, Pioneer, Mitsubishi, and three universities, is plunging $25 million into an R&D project which will start in Spring of 2003.

Reports said that optical disk will use "3D" optical technology likely to use a technique which stores the data in multiple layers.

It will also be backwards compatible with standard DVDs, the reports said, with its storage ability equivalent to around 300 DVDs using the current format. µ

* BY 2010, according to senior Intel architects, a CPU will have processing power equivalent to the brain of a bumble bee.

[TheWizard]

That is equivalent to 600 CD-Rs.... Try getting 600 CD-Rs for $60 without rebates

Were you around for the deal on HP media at Sears? It wasn't too long ago; 50-packs of HP (TY) media for $4.97 each. It was a clearance item, so there were no rebates attached. Buy 12 of those spindles (equivalent to 600 CD's) and the final cost excluding tax comes to under $60. I'm not trying to start an argument, but since I'm a loyal CD-R burner, I need to stick up for the inferior CD-R.

While these deals don't come around often, they do come around, proving that one can buy 600 CD-R's for $60 without rebates. Another good place to look for bulk CD's for cheap is eBay, although you need to be brave for several reasons:

1. That you catch a break and beat all other bidders for 600 CD-R's at a price of $60 or less
2. That you trust the seller of the CD's
3. That you trust the CD's you will receive are of good quality

[aznsound]

i think DVD's will become mainstream if the writers fall below $150... of course there's always something better coming out in the future, but DVD's are out now and some people have the need to archive information as big as 4.7gigs at a time... i'll worry about the new stuff when it comes out... i'll probably buy that too... all these spending never ends...

[Kennyshin]

i think DVD's will become mainstream if the writers fall below $150... of course there's always something better coming out in the future, but DVD's are out now and some people have the need to archive information as big as 4.7gigs at a time... i'll worry about the new stuff when it comes out... i'll probably buy that too... all these spending never ends...

Some DVD-R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM drives fell to $150 or less months ago. It depends on how you define mainstream.

Both the media manufacturers and retailers earn more profits from DVD media than CD media even when they sell DVD-R for $0.5 per disk and DVD-RW for $0.8 (which is cheaper than 700MB 10x CD-RW in many regions).

My opinion is that DVD recordable drives and media have already become mainstream when the drives became available for about $500 in Europe, Japan, and North America and the 4.7GB media for under $5. This is mainly a CDR site forum where most people have already CD-R drives and have used hundreds and thousands of CD-R media and accustomed to $50 drives and $0.1 media.

Is PC a mainstream item for the 21st century people? It also depends on where and what groups of people you look at. As far as I know, about 90% of people in the world don't have one. Is Athlon mainstream? Both the revenues and profits from DVD writers (including recordable drives and media for PC use) are bigger than those from Athlon processors.

Those people who have not used CD-R that often but are deeply involved with digital video and own digital camcorder seem to accept DVD writers more easily. Maybe that is also why HDTV and xDSL seem to take forever to be adopted by 200 million people in the US. (50Mbps VDSL will become mainstream from January here though not for me.)

[VEFF]

That is equivalent to 600 CD-Rs.... Try getting 600 CD-Rs for $60 without rebates

Were you around for the deal on HP media at Sears? It wasn't too long ago; 50-packs of HP (TY) media for $4.97 each. It was a clearance item, so there were no rebates attached. Buy 12 of those spindles (equivalent to 600 CD's) and the final cost excluding tax comes to under $60. I'm not trying to start an argument, but since I'm a loyal CD-R burner, I need to stick up for the inferior CD-R.

While these deals don't come around often, they do come around, proving that one can buy 600 CD-R's for $60 without rebates. Another good place to look for bulk CD's for cheap is eBay, although you need to be brave for several reasons:

1. That you catch a break and beat all other bidders for 600 CD-R's at a price of $60 or less
2. That you trust the seller of the CD's
3. That you trust the CD's you will receive are of good quality

LOL. No hard feelings (about the "not wanting to start an argument" comment). I think it is just a good dialogue.

I used to be a loyal CD burner.
I did hear about that deal, but that was a one-time clearance.
DVD-Rs can be had for $60 for a 100, any day of the week. Although I personally would spend more and get better quality or newly released 4X DVD-R media - I didn't buy a DRU-500A to burn at 2X.

BUT, besides price, DVD media is supposed to last much longer, and more importantly, you can keep your entire collection in 1/6 of the space!
That is what really attracts me to it.
I can store 6 CDs worth of MP3s on a single DVD-R!!!
There are now home DVD players that can play MP3 DVD-R discs!
Less disc swapping...

Happy holidays!

[TheWizard]

No doubt DVD is more practical. You mention that it is "supposed" to last longer than CD-R. Only time will tell.

Hey, anybody know what happened to mini-discs? They were supposed to be the next wave of the future. They took off in Asia, but barely penetrated the US market.

[aznsound]

that's probably because people in the US didn't want to pay for new mini disc gadgets if there is really no advantage over the current cd's... since cd's and mini discs have the same capacity...

[Kennyshin]

that's probably because people in the US didn't want to pay for new mini disc gadgets if there is really no advantage over the current cd's... since cd's and mini discs have the same capacity...

An example: Saehan, once one of the largest CD-R manufacturers in South Korea and part of Samsung as well (not sure about this now), gave up CD-R manufacturing and instead switched to MD. Profits, of course.

A lot of people around me still have MD players, mostly from Sony or Sharp. They were popular in the 90s.

CD players -> MD players -> MP3/WMA/ASF/OGG/CD players based on either CD-R/CD-RW/CD Audio or rewritable memory (CF mainly) -> maybe DVD or DataPlay or whatever...

MD has no advantage over CD because they have the same capacity? That's like saying DVD has no advantage over CD because DVD-Video offers two hours of movie just like VCD.

Personally, I never bought an MD player mainly because of unrealistic media cost. But I bought five MP3 CD players in 2000 and early 2001, not for myself, including two iRiver, again mainly because I had several CD-R writers then and media cost was something like 20 hours of WMA 64K audio for $0.2.

[aznsound]

what i meant was MD stores the same amount of data as existing CD's... i don't think a lot of people are willing to pay for new MD equipment if they already have CD stuff... DVD's have a lot more storage than CD's... which to most, would justify new equipment...

[Kennyshin]

what i meant was MD stores the same amount of data as existing CD's... i don't think a lot of people are willing to pay for new MD equipment if they already have CD stuff... DVD's have a lot more storage than CD's... which to most, would justify new equipment...

It's been more than 10 years ago I first read about MD developed and commercialized by Sony. I knew what you meant by saying MD and CD have the same capacity.

A lot of people paid money for new MD equipment (usually players and recorders integrated into one tiny, sexy, and portable machine relatively easy to use by the end users) even when they already had CD players and CD writers.

MD is for Mini Disc, not High Definition or Blue Lase and DVD is for Digital Versatile Disc. People who bought MD paid money usually because it is physically much smaller than CD and MD is somewhat different from either CD Audio (mostly "pressed" in factories) or CD-R (mostly used in a PC). People who buy DVD-Video titles pay money usually because they offer higher resolution in both audio and video than Video CD.

Anyway, as I said before, MD is mainly a 1990s technology. Lots of companies including Philips and iRiver have announced portable audio and video player and PC data storage products based on blue and violet laser and other technologies in 2002.