Site created 12/15/97.		page updated: 12/8/97 Re-Writable DVD Drives Early Next Year? It seems, based on a flurry of press releases surrounding the recent Comdex show in Las Vegas, that a number of manufacturers are planning to introduce various forms of recordable DVD next year. In fact, Pioneer expects to begin shipping the first DVD-R hardware and media (the DVR-S101 and DVS-V3950S), as soon as late December. It has also approached the DVD Forum Working Group with plans for its own version of the rewritable DVD-R/W system, based on DVD-R and DVD-ROM specifications. In addition, Hewlett-Packard, Philips Electronics, Sony, Mitsubishi, Ricoh and Yamaha demonstrated their own version of phase-change rewritable DVD-R/W equipment and discs at the Comdex show. As many of you know, this group of manufacturers recently broke away from the recordable DVD standard originally agreed upon by the DVD Forum. The divisive issue appears to be Sony's desire that DVD-R and DVD-R/W products maintain compatibility with current CD-R media. Format wars aside, keep in mind that these first recordable DVD devices will be VERY expensive (Pioneer's DVDR-S101 ships with a U.S. list price of $16,995). They are also designed for data storage only. Those dreaming of recordable DVD players for home video applications will have a while to wait… perhaps as long as 2-3 years. The reason? MPEG-2 encoding of video sources requires a great deal of human intervention to ensure the highest quality picture. It will be some time, before developments in recordable DVD hardware and software allow for the necessary sophistication to automate this process. It will take longer still for the capability to appear in a compact unit, that is as affordable to consumers as today's VCRs.
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