Philips launches world's fastest DVD burner
June 22, 2004
Reuters Technology News

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Philips Electronics has launched the world's first 16-speed DVD writer, which can burn a disc in less than six minutes, the Dutch group said on Tuesday.
U.S. computer maker Dell will be the first customer for the new DVD burner, sources familiar with the Philips activity told Reuters. Philips and Dell have a partnership to supply each other with products.

Philips said it planned to produce 600,000 of the devices every month. Computer makers will pay between 80 and 90 euros ($97-$109) per DVD writer when buying in large quantities, while consumers will have to pay around 180 euros.

The product, which has two layers that take the maximum storage capacity up to 8.5 gigabytes or four hours of DVD quality video, will be a mainstream feature in personal computers by the end of 2004, Philips said. Until now, eight-speed burners were at the top of the range.

DVDs were designed to store film and video. With the advent of digital video cameras and still cameras, consumers are increasingly interested in editing their videos on a personal computer, then burning them on a DVD for storage or for sending to other people.

Philips' optical storage unit, which was also the first with an eight-speed DVD burner last September, returned to profitability in 2003 after heavy losses as a result of Asian competition.

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

Asian makers adopt Plus format, boost output
March 1, 2004
Global Sources

"...Hong Kong is home to around five manufacturers of DVD recorders, Taiwan 10 and mainland China around 20. These numbers will grow due to the interest from mid-range and high-end makers, who see a product that has a still-high technology content. High-tech companies in Taiwan have set foot on the market, combining strengths in quality control and cost management. Hong Kong companies are also optimistic about demand and supply, as the market is still fresh, while mainland China DVD player makers see recorders as a lucrative new niche to diversify into..."

"DVD+RW dominant - The DVD+RW/RW (or DVD plus) format has gained a wider acceptance than DVD-R/RW (or DVD minus) in markets worldwide. In Europe, DVD+RW products have captured a 76 percent share of the DVD market, while DVD-RW and DVD-RAM have 14 percent and 10 percent, respectively. In the United States, DVD+RW has a 72 percent market share, while 19 percent goes to DVD-RW and 9 percent to DVD-RAM.

Most makers contacted have adopted DVD plus. Wu Xiang-chun, a representative from the overseas division of Amoi, pointed out that a uniform standard will boost the industry. Wu predicted that the format debate will be settled by year's end..."

Read full story at Global Sources

DVD+RW Recorders flooding market at ever lower prices
November 24, 2003
Consumer Electronics Daily

Although it was Johnny-come-lately to the home DVD-recorder derby, in pricing and SKUs the DVD+RW format is quickly outpacing its early-entry DVD-RAM and DVD-RW rivals in the run-up to year-end holiday selling. And, with prices already tracking as low as $299 on the U.S. retail scene, DVD+RW is shaping up to be the odds-on favorite in the stretch run in the CE industry's increasingly important 4th quarter. That performance is being replicated on the PC side, where DVD+RW burners and combos with DVD-RW capability have broken the $100 price point for add-ons and dominate the turf for build-ins even in sub-$1,000 PCs. Meanwhile, DVD-RAM in PCs increasingly seems an also-ran, selling as an aftermarket add-on only and virtually never seen as a build-in with mass-marketed PCs.

In a pre-Thanksgiving "Black Friday" count, DVD+RW home decks were available from 8 brands representing at least a dozen SKUs. Pricing is a movable feast, depending on the retail deal-du-jour, but has hit as low as $299 for Go-Video's R6530 and typically runs below $400 on more-sophisticated decks. Those include RCA's DRC8000N, available for $339 at Sam's Club. The RCA model has 8-hour recording and Gemstar's Guide+ one-touch programmable time-shifting, rarities shared only with the top-shelf Philips DVDR80, which sells for about $500 but adds an IEEE-1394 input for making digital-to-digital dubs from digital camcorders. The RCA model, like all China-sourced sub-$400 DVD+RW decks, offers only analog S-Video input. Latecomer PC brand Gateway recently busted the IEEE-1394-ready price-point with a $349 DVD+RW deck sourced in China, a move industry observers contend will force Philips, Thomson and other high-profile brands to match such step-up value, even at the cost of margin. Typically, a digital IEEE-1394 jack adds $80-$100 to the retail sticker, at about $35-$50 cost at the manufacturing level, including royalties.

The pickings are slimmer on the home deck front for DVD-RAM and DVD-RW. Panasonic remains the visible champion of price-competitive DVD-RAM-only decks: Its DMR-E50K is the lone battleship against the DVD+RW onslaught, selling in the $350-$400 range, with the IEEE-1394-equipped DMR-E60 not far behind. Samsung quietly hangs in around $400 with a DVD-RAM-only home deck. Toshiba also is a DVD-RAM inventor and contender, but has abandoned DVD-only recording. Like Panasonic, it's staking out the high ground with value-added, PVR-like DVD-RAM/hard disc combos. Such combos have yet to be offered by the DVD+RW camp, which seems to be leveraging the low-cost and "cookie-cutter" Philips "reference design" to concentrate its ammunition on the entry-level segment and thereby build market share. Meanwhile, the DVD+RW camp has multipurpose recorders coming, executives in-the-know told us. In the DVD-RW format, Pioneer is the only brand running a foot race against the arrows. Sharp, on paper at least, has DVD-RW decks, but from launch-to-date has hidden its light under a bushel. Each company, like its DVD-RAM brethren in the DVD Forum-blessed DVD-RAM camp, has shifted emphasis away from single-function DVD recorders to more sophisticated PVR-like combos with hard disc recording and switchable fixed-disc/removable-media dubbing.

Bottom-line? Here's the tale-of-the-tape from research firm NPD: The DVD-RAM format for home DVD recorders had 58.9% market share in retail sellthrough to consumers through Sept., compared with 40.1% for DVD+RW. DVD-RW showed at 1%. More to the point, 80% of DVD burners are sold as build-ins with PCs, and with DVD+RW stalwarts Dell and Hewlett-Packard the 800-lb. gorillas in PC sales, 2/3 of all PCs shipped with DVD drives have dedicated DVD+RW burners aboard - that's +RW exclusively, not dual-format burners. Also per NPD, blank media sales for the DVD+RW rose to 55% market share through July, with the formerly dominant DVD-RW slipping to 44%. DVD-RAM blank media accounted for 1% in retail sellthrough, NPD said. The think tank's sales input lacks heavy hitters such as Wal-Mart, which especially through its Sam's Club does high-end CE and PC sales and consistently has the lowest prices we've found on home DVD recorders. But NPD's sellthrough research does cover most leading CE and PC chains. Sources in China told us at least 3 additional brands sourced there would be air-freighting DVD+RW home decks and PC burners to U.S. retail for the holiday rush.

Article reprinted with permission of Warren Communications News,
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The products will be based on the DVD+R format championed by Philips, HP, and other members of the DVD+RW Alliance.

Philips will follow up, probably in the second half, with a home recorder that records onto the dual-layer DVD+R discs, which almost double the capacity of single-layer DVD+R discs to 8.5GB from 4.7GB. The write-once discs match the capacity of prerecorded dual-layer DVDs and are readable by existing DVD drives and movie players."

Read full story at TWICE

Apple moves to support DVD+RW format
October 13, 2003
CNet.com
By Ina Fried

"After years of backing only one format in the recordable DVD format war, Apple Computer is adding limited support of a rival format into its operating system.

Apple, a longtime supporter of the DVD-R format, confirmed Monday that it is adding support for DVD+R and DVD+RW into the Macintosh operating system with Panther, the new version of Mac OS X that ships next week."

Read full story at CNet.com