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Sony DRU-500A Review
An anonymous reader writes "Just found a nice review of the Sony DRU-500A" This looks
to be damn solid DVD burner. It's amazing how much prices on these things have
come down. It might be time for me to make my epic film starring CowboyNeal, Samzenpus and Hemos in a moving story about Love, Friendship, and Growing Up in the Face of Adversity. I probably should write a script or something before I start filming. Or not.
Unlike CD burners, DVD drives will never catch on, much like zip drives never did.
DVDs were created to be obsolete, and within a few years, when Blu-Ray technologies are creating 30GB+ disks, a DVD burner will be one of those devices that will make someone say "You bought an expensive computer 4 years ago, and that device was overpriced crap", much like we view zip drives today.
Compared to what capacity we truly need for video and storage, DVDs are weak, and their burners and discs are too expensive, incompatible, and slow to be of any practical use in the near future.
CDs at least are dirt cheap -- almost free with rebates -- and I got my 32x burner used for $15. There are never any compatibility problems, and they're a universal format for both audio and video.
Title says it all.. Burns them at 4x (if the media is available), and reads them at 2x.
CD Burning speed of 24x is nice tho.
The law is a weapon of the government, not a protection for the likes of you. Surely you understand that.
I was actually waiting for this drive, but mainly because of this story and others about Sony's dirty tricks with DRM, I'm waiting for another drive.
I don't care about copying CDs or DVDs, but I do care when my system hangs when I want to listen to a CD/see a DVD while (in between) working...
Is anyone aware of drives like this from other vendors?
Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant."
Isn't Sony one of the big content producers that has their knickers in a knot over piracy? I wonder what kind of content protection features this drive might have that Sony isn't anxious to advertise.
omg only 7 comments and their server is already choking!
/.'ed in 5 minutes or so:
;) (I couldn't resist it to open the case ;)
;)
;)):
;)
:(
;). Don't blame the drive for that!
here is the review since this will be
Sony DRU-500A DVD-R/+R review
DVD recording is gradually catching on with consumers, but confusion over the two leading formats, DVD+RW and DVD-RW, has hampered sales. Analysts say potential buyers don't want to buy an expensive device--often costing upwards of $500--that could soon become a market also-ran.
Sony's solution is simple: the consumer electronics giant will sell an internal and an external PC drive that reads and writes to DVD+RW/+R and DVD-RW/-R discs.
Now, the drive is available... and time to be tested.
The specifications for this drive (source: sony.com):
2.4X max. DVD+R Write; 2.4X max. DVD+RW Write; 4X max. DVD-R Write; 2X max. DVD-RW Write; 8X max. DVD-ROM Read 4X, 12X, 16X, 24Xmax. CD-R Write; 4X, 10X max. CD-RW Write, 32X max. CD-ROM Read Random Access Time:
DVD: 200ms
CD: 160ms
Buffer Memory: 8MB
Buffer Underrun Protection Technology
Supported disc format: DVD-ROM, DVD R, DVD RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM (XA), Video CD, Photo CD (multi-session), CD Text, CD Extra and others.
Software Contents:
Veritas RecordNow: Recording Software
Vertias DLA: Packet Writing Software
Sonic MyDVD: DVD Authoring Software
Cyberlink PowerDVD: DVD-Video Playing software
Vertias Simple Back-Up: Back-Up and Disaster recovery software
MusicMatch Jukebox: Play, Record, and Organize your personal music.
System Requirements:
Pentium III 400 Mhz (MyDVD: Pentium III 700 Mhz) or faster PC recommended.
Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows XP Home or Professional
64 MB of RAM (MyDVD: 128 MB) and 1 GB (MyDVD: 5 GB) free HDD space is recommended.
But how is this drive really? Does it perform as promised? Does it write any media? Does it read discs well? We will see in this review if Sony has done it!
I just received the drive (finally!). My drive was ordered from Retail Express (Resellers only).
The drive comes in a retail box. This box includes the drive (duh!), an Sony DVD+RW disc (4.7Gb), some paperwork (Quickstart guide, both drive and software, a user guide of the drive, some information about specific OS versions / DVD media and some warranty information.) Also included is an IDE flatcable, and some software. The software comes on 2 discs, supporting many languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch and on the second disc: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Swedish, Portuguese, Korean and Japanese. I couldn't find any mouning screws...... For me not a problem, i have many of them, but maybe i'm just unlucky and will they usally with the drive, i don't know.
On the front of the drive there are off course the symbols of the standards the drive can write: DVD R/RW, Compact Disc Rewritable (high-speed) and a DVD+RW logo. There is only 1 button on the drive: Eject. A very light push is enough to eject the tray.
There is 1 led on the front, and an emergency hole. (to open the tray by hand). No headphones or volume or whatever, just plain basic.
On the back of the drive the connectors: a power supply connector, an IDE connector,the usual master/slave jumpers, a digital output, and an analog audio-out. Nothing new, just as any drive. The recorder does not have any specific cooling. (no fans like the Pioneer A04 for example)
The inside of the drive looks also just simple, like any drive
Sony DRU-500A - Software
The drive comes with some Recording software and tools. All software is bundled with the retail version of the recorder and supports multiple languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch and on the second disc: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Swedish, Portuguese, Korean and Japanese.
These include Veritas Record Now, Veritas DLA, Veritas Simple Backup, MusicMatch Jukebox, Sonic MyDVD and Cyberlink PowerDVD. Also contains the disc both software manual and user guide in HTML format. Online manuals and guides are also in multiple languages.
VERITAS RecordNow
RecordNow is the main CD/DVD mastering program included with the DRU-500A. Along with the ability to make backup copies of CD's and DVD's, this program allows the user to starting creating their own custom discs within minutes thanks to some easy to follow wizards.
The version of the included program is 4.50
Sony will allow users to download a free upgrade to RecordNow DX sometime in November.
VERITAS Simple Backup
Simple Backup is a fast and easy way to backup your computer. The interface allows you to backup and restore your entire system thanks to its easy to follow wizards.
The full system backup protects your computer's data and registry at the click of a button. If you don't need to backup everything, you can manually select the files and folders you want to protect through the custom backup. Simple Backup also offers more advanced backup features like compression and spanning. With the built in compression option, you can fit up to 1.2GB of data onto a CD.
Arcsoft ShowBiz
For video editing duties, Sony has included Showbiz from Arcsoft. ShowBiz allows you to drag and drop your video footage directly onto the editing timeline. From here you can add transitions, background music, special effects or custom text.
Once you're done you can customize the sample rate and frame size and export your video to AVI or MPEG format. You can also turn it into a QuickTime or Windows Media movie to get it ready for internet streaming. Otherwise, you can export it to a MyDVD project for further customization.
Sonic MyDVD 4.0
MyDVD allows you to create your own VCD's and DVD's quickly and easily. Sonic has revamped the interface for version 4.0. Right from the start, MyDVD gives you a variety of options including the ability to create a DVD, a Video CD or edit video.
The main interface is very different from what we saw on earlier versions of MyDVD. The "toolbar" is gone and has been replaced by a much nicer layout. The main functions of MyDVD are still easily accessible. From here you can start new projects, open existing projects or save the one you're currently working on.
Adding movie clips to your current project is as easy as drag and drop. MyDVD lets you take any MPEG-1, MPEG-2, AVI or QuickTime video clip and add it to your project. Of course there is a trade off here. Even with a fairly fast computer, MyDVD can take a good amount of time to convert the clips into a usable format. MyDVD also allows you to make your own custom menus and will even let you add your own pictures, icons and sound effects. Unfortunately, version 4.0 still doesn't let you place the menu icons where you want them.
Need to capture some video clips from your VCR or other video source? No problem, MyDVD can do that too. You can also start the record direct-to-Disc wizard from here. This wizard allows you to easily transfer video directly from a DV camcorder to disc if you have the right hardware.
MusicMatch Jukebox 7.1
This is a popular utility to create, manage and organize all sorts of multimedia audio files, including MP3s. Once you've created the perfect play list they can then be burned to CD.
Unfortunately the number of burns is limited to only five. Once you've gone beyond this, you will need to upgrade to MusicMatch Jukebox Plus.
CyberLink PowerDVD 4.0 XP
CyberLink's PowerDVD is one of the more popular software DVD players on the market now. PowerDVD offers a complete set of navigation commands, including advanced features like multi-angle viewing, multi-language and subtitle selection, digital zoom and even parental control. As the name might suggest, version PowerDVD 4.0 XP fully supports Windows XP. It is also compatible with files created by Microsoft's Windows Media products.
The PowerDVD version on the disc is for Sony only. It won't install on a system without a Sony DVDRom
Sony DRU-500A - Installation
The drive is easy to install, just like any CD writer or DVD player or whatever. Simply set the master/slave jumper, and connect the power and IDE cable, and optionally the audio connector(s). The testsystem (Gigabyte 8IDML, Intel Celeron 1700, 256Mb, 30Gb 7200rpm, WinXP Pro SP1) recognizes the drive as a DVD-R station. Windows accepted the drive without problems, and automaticly turned on DMA for the drive. Next step: Run Nero Infotool (1.03.2) to see what the drive supports. As you see, the drive seems to support overburning also. We will test this later.
As you can see, the drive supports almost all functions
Nero (version 5.5.9.17) is installed on the test PC.
The Veritas Recordnow software recognizes the drive also offcourse (it's bundled with the recorder). The program works, but I won't recommend to install it. It only can copy 1:1, and make a new complilation. That's all, only the very basic functions.
I prefer Nero. The latest version (5.5.9.17) does support the Sony DRU-500A.
Sony DRU-500A - Reading CDs
Now its time to do some tests. How does this drive perform while reading a normal CD? I used Nero CD speed to do this tests.
Pressed CDs
The first test: Read a pressed CD (the CD that came with the drive, containing the software)
As you can see, the drive performs very good, at the end the 32x speed is reached. The avarage speed while reading is 24.44x as you can see. This is a little slower than the Philips DVDRW228 (as tested on dvdwriters.co.uk. However, using CAV, the drive is able to reach it's maximum speed of 32x, while the Philips couldn't get >28x.
The seek times have been tested also:
Random seek: 193 ms
1/3 seek: 211 ms
Full seek: 268 ms
The spin-up time of the drive is reported at 2.93 seconds. Spin-down time is 3.37 seconds.
The load-eject test:
Eject time: 1.46 seconds
Load time: 1.32 seconds
Recognation time: 7.16 seconds
Recorded CDs (CD-R)
The same test as above. This time using a CDR disk. (A new Platinum 80-min, with a fresh-burned NFS HP2 ISO, recorded on my 12x Sanyo writer)
As you can see, the drive reads without problems and does perform simular to a pressed CD.
Audio CD (DAE)
What does this drive do with an audio CD? How does extract audio cd's? Time to test!
The read speed of the drive is very good. It is faster than the Philips 228 DVDRW, and faster than the Pioneer A04. The Pioneer A05 performs almost equal at this point. The drive does not support reading CD Text, however, i'm not sure about it, since the CD which is used in this test didn't have CD-Text on it. (i couldn't burn it with nero cdspeed).
The read speed of an audio CD (an old MTV Audio CD, Pressed (but not legal
Also here: Very good results. The drive reads audio cd at an avarage speed of 23.79x
CDRW
Reading CDRW is offcourse not a problem for the drive.
Sony DRU-500A - Reading DVDs
The drive should read DVDs at a speed of 8x. Now we will see if the drive really can do this.
Pressed DVDs
In this test i will try to read a pressed DVD. (Twilight 74)
As you can see, the drive starts at 3.3x, and ends at 8.01x. So reading pressed DVD's is no problem for the drive, only the CPU load goes up to 80% @ 8x reading.
Recorded DVDs
Now the same test as above, but this time a recorded DVD (A copy of a MP3 Collection DVD. Burned on an Arita DVD-R with a Pioneer A03 writer)
This is bad... As already mentioned on some forums, the drive seems to be locked at 2x max... It just won't read DVD-R above 2x. The drive can write DVD-R at 4x (with the right media offcourse) but can't read it that fast
Pressed DVD-Video
Reading a DVD movie: Payback. Region 2, DVD-5 format (Single Sided, single layer)
Also bad performance. The drive won't read above 2x. Enough for playing a movie, but way too slow for ripping or whatever. DVD-Video (pressed) has also been tested with SmartRipper, but also: 2x max reading
Lets hope Sony will fix this issue with a firmwareupdate.
For this moment (and maybe forever) an additional DVD-Rom is not a bad idea.
DVD+RW
The last DVD read test: How does the drive read a DVD+RW disc? (The one which is included with the drive)
The drive reads DVD+RW disc at the same speed as it can write them: 2.5x. The error on the end is due to a bad record, i have screwed my DVD+RW and don't have another one to test it again
Sony DRU-500A - Recording CD-R
The drive has a recording speed of 24x. This is faster than the Philips, Pioneer, or any other DVD writer. Now the drive will be a real replacer for your current writer. The Pioneer for example records only at 8x, so you most likely will need/want an additional writer for the normal CDs. This Sony has solved this, by writing CD-R at 24x. Not as fast as the current recorders (40/48x) but most of the time fast enough.
Recording CD-R
Writing an image from the harddisk to a Platinum CDR (40x certified).
Writing goes ok. Nero (5.5.9.17) supports the drive. As you can see, the CD was finished in 3min 45.
Recording CD-R - CLV speed
See how the recorder actually records. (using Z-CLV)
As you can see above, the Sony DRU-500A writer uses Z-CLV to record a disk. Starting at 16x, going 20x, and finish the CD at 24x.
Recording CD-R - Overburning
What does the Sony DRU-500A think of big CDs? 90min, 99min, and even 100min? This test will see what it does. I used some white-label 100min CD-R for this test. Nero CDSpeed identicates the media as "Plasmon"
The drive is not good at overburning. As you can see, the Sony can only overburn up to 80.42.53... Not that much, but not a real problem.
Recording CDRW
The Sony is able to rewrite CDRWs at a speed of 10x using high-speed media.
Nero rewrites the disk at 10x without problems. The full cd is written at 10x.
Sony DRU-500A - Recording DVD-R / DVD-RW
The drive supports both DVD-R and DVD+R standards. At DVD-R, Sony supports up to 4x write speed.
Time to test the performance while recording DVD-R.
All tests are done by burning about 4.3Gb from another data-DVD in a LG 16x DVDRom. (Twilight 76). No image file is used, recordings are on-the-fly
The drive has a medialock. This means: The drive determines its max recording speed which should be used for the specific media. The Pioneer has also this lock, but with a hacked firmware you can force a recording at 2x, while the media isn't 2x approved. For the Sony... at the moment no hacked firmware.
Thats Write! DVD-R Spindel
As you can see, the drive detects the disc as a 1x DVD-R, and records it succesfully at 1x.
Princo 1-2x DVD-R DVD-Box
This disc is succesfully written at 2x.
I did also test some other media:
Nashua DVD-R
Thats Write! DVD-R DVD-Box
Arita DVD-R DVD-Box
They all recorded at 1x.... For this moment, the Princo DVD-R is the only one which is able to record at 2x.
I'm going to test more brands later this week, and hope to find some 4x media (if they are already available)
Recording DVD-RW
I don't have any DVD-RW disc at the moment, so this test will be added whenever i have them
keep it simple.
http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid= 154&page=Features
The law is a weapon of the government, not a protection for the likes of you. Surely you understand that.
Very nice drive, will burn a 4GB DVD+R disc in about 20 minutes, using about 5% CPU time on my Win2K Athlon 1700.
Some problems:
- the promised packet writing software (DLA) is not yet available.
- the included burning software will not burn an ISO image
- Using DVD-R media, I burned 3 coasters in a row. DVD+R has been 100% perfect so far.
I would say this is a state of the art drive that is well ahead of the software available to run it. Expect many more of these types of drives that support both DVD-R and DVD+R.
For $350, as a backup device alone, this thing is amazing.
I like it. I originally ordered one from Dell but they pushed my shipping date WAY back so I grabbed one at CompUSA three weeks ago. It works well and I've had no problems. I'm only using 1x media right now, except for the included DVD+RW disc.
The only issue right now is software support. Most apps don't support this drive, yet, but they should have updates out any day. Definately a good drive to cover all your bases.
I've used the discs in my notebook, XBox, and DVD player.
forgot to add the conclusion, here we go:
Sony DRU-500A - Conclusion
Sony has done a nice job with this drive. As you could see, there are good results with the drive. The software that came with the drive works, but i would suggest an other recording program. RecordNow is way to limited.
The bad side of the drive are the DVD read speeds. 2x DVD.... you will hate this if you try to rip a movie. If you just want to watch a DVD, than the 2x is enough. This low speed makes the drive very quit. However, i prefer faster reading speeds. Maybe Sony will come with a firmware upgrade. Till that time, i won't replace your DVD-Rom by this recorder and make sure you have an additional DVD-Rom when you need some DVD read speed.
The other dark side is not really the drive itself, but the availability of high-speed DVD media. I have only 1 brand which supports 2x at the moment, and haven't seen (or tested) any 4x certified media yet.
The CDR recording speed is good. At this point, the Sony is the fastest DVD recorder on the market with CDR speeds. The good-old Pioneer A04 records only at 8x, and the new A05 only at 16x. With it's 24x, the Sony wins this point.
For this moment, I can suggest this drive. It is almost the same price as the Pioneer A04, which has not such results, and is slower. Also does the Pioneer not support DVD+R/DVD+RW.
Maybe the new NEC combo drive will beat this Sony, but that will take some time, since that drive is delayed till somewhere in December or so.
Addictions
Concerning the media there are many questions and problems. Most media will work at only 1x (DVD-R). Older Verbatim 2x DVD-R discs are known to have problems with the Sony drive: See verbatim.com.
On the VCDHelp.com forum is a thread with some user experiences with various media.
Meanwhile, Pioneer has released it's A05 drive. This one records DVD-R at 4x. The drive seems to be available in Japan now. (see Akiba). The drive has a price of 29800 Yen. (about $240).
With this drive, Pioneer has also released 4x media (picture). This media is priced about 800 Yen, which equals to about 6,59 EUR. ($6,45). This price is found on a forum, so i don't know it for sure.
Let's hope the 4x media will become mainstream now, so I can test it with the Sony drive!
For all of you who already own this drive: At Sonic Japan you can register for a free upgrade to Sonic MyDVD as soon as it's available.
keep it simple.
While DVD burners have become much faster and much less expensive than they were a few years ago, they've still got a few rough edges to work out. DVD burners are still too slow and too expensive. And the multiple DVD blank formats don't help much, either. If DVD burner manufacturers don't get their shit together and bring their products up to snuff, they'll never take off.
The only reason I keep my Windows partition is so I can mount it like the bitch that it is.
With an external drive, you don't have to buy a new one with every new machine, you can move it between machines, you can put it in a more convenient location than the main CPU, and when DVDs become obsolete (as they will sooner or later), you can keep the drive around for a few more years without keeping a whole, obsolete computer.
A certain Andre H. (who, at times, is the official Linux IDE maintainer) told recently not to use Sony drives because they have certain firmware "properties" which make them unsuitable to copy copy-protected material. It may seem funny or irrelevant to you, but this means they play dirty tricks with your data.
I know its my wild imagination, but the test results sure sounded like pr0n to me.
Recognition Time 7.49 secs ( Time to know the gal)
Load Time 1.32 secs
Eject Time 1.44 secs
Elapsed Time 0.12 secs
Though I must say, the eject time is way too quick... I dont think this drive will find many female customers.
What's under yellowstone?
how often do you really need to burn like 8 cds for one project anyway?
How about monthly full backups of a large storage device? Daily incremental backups (everything changed since yesterday) and weekly differential backups (everything changed since the last full backup) only go so far. Eight CDs don't even total six gigabytes.
How about storage of digital video? It's big, and too-heavy compression will destroy its suitability for use in further editing.
Will I retire or break 10K?
If it's anything like their CD burners, then I don't want one. I have a 24x sony CD burner that refuses to burn data on cheaper, lower quality media, while the slower, 12x LG burner never complains abouth anything.
(no, I'm not trying to burn CDs at higher speeds than they were made for)
We did it again...
Although I wonder one thing...is today the "Sony is kewl, check out this bright shiny Sony object" day, or is this the "Sony is an evil member of the RIAA and the MPAA" day and we just forgot the schedule? :P
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
I probably should write a script or something before I start filming.
;)
Why bother? Hollywood never does.
Ethically, I think the parent poster has a point... Financially? Well, if Dude Where's My Car can turn a profit...
ok, I finally gotta troll here. Does anyone else recall SONY's affiliations with the *AA's? Not that it really matters to me; I use Plextor :)
(In other words, I voted with my wallet... and was a happy customer.)
Furthermore, I don't own -any- DVD's and the count of movies I have on VHS that were actually worth paying for (IMO) in the last 30 years can be done on one hand.
And ya know what? The reason for all that is the fact that I actually -DO- have a life instead of sitting around on my ass watching movies regardless of the medium.
'Nuff said
C|N>K
Does it work under linux. I would like to get this drive but I can't find any doc on if it works under linux or not.
Atto
I didn't use the preview button, so get over it!!!!
Mike
is here from CDRLabs.com
In his testing, he burned:
4.26 GB DVD-R at 1x in 59:13 (1257 KB/s)
4.21 GB DVD-R at 2x in 29:31 (2492 KB/s)
4.21 GB DVD+R at 2.5x in 27:58 (2631 KB/s)
4.25 GB DVD+RW at 2.5x in 22:10 (3351 KB/s)
So, the effective rates are somewhat less than the theoretical (probably because of extra time to write the TOC or close the disk) but they come fairly close. In any case, it's nowhere near 3 hours.
That only applies when accessing a drive using CAV, the burning here is done with CLV, so the rate is constant throughout the whole disk.
You can always re-do all your code better anyway the second time you recode it.
First buy the toys.
I don't know much about DVD technology, but I was under the impression that prerecorded DVD movie disks have a capacity of ~9GBs. If this is correct, when will we be seeing recorders (and disks) that will reach this recording capacity?
CowboyNeal, Samzenpus and Hemos in a moving story about Love, Friendship, and Growing Up in the Face of Adversity.
/. managed to do the BIG DOT.COM cash-in? With all this talk of "adversity" and stuff im a little curious.
/. editor chooses post...
This is NOT to sound like a troll, but really, can someone (anyone please) fill me in exactly w/r/t which of the Editors of
also, it would be interesting to know in order to contrast the content of the editorials && which stories each
I have one of the Sony DRU-500A drives back ordered at Dell (ughhh). I haven't had a had chance to R&D the specs on the new Pioneer drive. Does anyone have any opinions about the merits of one drive vs. the other??
Evolution: love it or leave it
At $1,500 AUD ($750 USD) for our external firewire DVD-R, DVD is still a *massive* improvement in every respect on 8mm DAT for our purposes:
- Cheaper
- Most PCs have DVD drives (most don't have Exabyte)
- Random access (convenience!)
- Longevity (unread tapes degrade)
- Robustness
- similar capacity
And I'm not goin to wait "a few years" years for Blu-Ray and then a few more years for the price of Blu-Ray to drop to a reasonable level, by that time I'll need boxes of CDs to backup my 50 Tb hard drive.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
If this is gonna be a porno, I am poking my eyes out now before it is too late.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
> how often do you really need to burn like 8 cds for one project anyway?
:-) Many /. users have multiple 80-120GB hard drives, RAID arrays, etc.--and that's on our *home* computers, not just at the office...
Look at the audience you're speaking to.
And I tell you, once you start downloading SVCDs and MP3s and games (God Bless USENET!), that hard drive space goes quickly. Sure, you could have 500 CD-Rs lying around--but that's inconvenient as hell. Better would be to have it on 60 DVDs, and even better would be to have it on hard drive arrays *backed up* to DVDs.
Not to mention home video recordings--what better way to store them long-term than on high-quality DVDs? Even DV tape is capable of degrading over time, especially with repeated viewings, because it's a tape-based format--whereas the optical DVD format is both more durable (esp. if you make multiple back-ups) and will definitely be long-lasting in terms of format readability since it has been adopted by the movie industry. I have wedding and birth film on DV just waiting for me to be able to afford a DVD-R/W recorder so I can transfer it to DVD and make copies to distribute to friends and family.
Let's face it--the time has come for the recordable DVD to go mainstream. Even set-top DVD recorders are available at Best Buy and Circuit City in the $800 range now, whereas they were $2000 and hard to find last year. In a couple more years they'll be replacing the VCR in most middle-income households, and only the low-income will still be using VCRs instead of DVDRs.
Chasing Amy
(We all chase Amy...)
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
> A DVD set top recorder is going to need to encode in real time,
> which means a fairly simple codec.
They all use MPEG-2 right now, because that's what a DVD is--an MPEG-2 encoded in a special format. I think some standalone DVD recorders can do MPEG-1, but I don't think anyone cares--that isn't standard and won't play back on most normal DVD players.
> This means no DIVX or XVID
There are already commercial MPEG-4 encoding chips available. They're trivial since everything is done in hardware--it's very simple to make an ASIC or similar that can do something with no effort than would strain a general-purpose CPU. They're just too expensive right now for consumer-level applications--exactly like items with hardware MPEG-2 encoders were a couple of years back.
> standard T120 VCR tapes can record a full 6 hours and they're
> dirt cheap and reusable.
The reason they're called T-120 tapes is because they last 120 minutes at the best quality; as you know they only last 6 hours if you use a mode like SLP/EP and don't mind having a *very* poor picture with black lines here and there every few frames. Only very cheap or very poor people, or people with bad eyesight, or people who intend to just time-shift and not keep the recorded program, use longer-play modes. I can't even do that for time-shifting programs, the picture's so bad.
Aside from which, that's what DVD-RW is for. Reusable. Perfect for time-shifting, while DVD-R is perfect for archiving. And you may not fit 6 hours of low-quality craptastic video on one without invovking a nonstandard (for DVD) MPEG-1 stream, but so what--just buy three, since they'll be cheaper than even the cheapest VHS tapes within the next 2 years. DVD-R and DVD-RW discs are destined to follow the same path CD-R and CD-RW discs did when they were a relative novelty in the consumer space--they started out expensive, they're getting cheaper, and in a few years they'll be available for pennies each. Today you can find excellent-quality Taiyo Yuden-made CD-Rs on sale at Best Buy for $5 per 50 after a main-in rebate, or $20 before the rebate--that is where DVD-Rs will be in five years.
Chasing Amy
(We all chase Amy...)
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
An alternative would be the also brand-new NEC ND-1100A: prices. Here's a news item at heise.de (German, translated by Google)
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
At least here (in Switzerland) you get DVD+R for about $3 (DVD-R is somewhat more expensive). This makes the per MB price already equal to CD-R price per MB. Soon more price drops are expected (currently DVD+R are only sold in jewel case, not yet as spindle) then DVD+R will actually be cheaper.
In a matter of months most people who buy a new drive shall rather buy a DVD+R(W) instead of CD-R.