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Dual Layer DVD+R Developed

Lucretian writes "And they said it couldn't be done... It appears that Philips has found a way to burn a dual layered DVD+R. Unlike other dual layered disks that have been developed, this one is also designed to be backwards compatible with current DVD players. Phillips will be demonstrating this new technology at CEATEC this coming week at the DVD+RW alliance booth. The DVDs will hold 8.5GB of data (4 hours of video) and are set to be released as soon as next year."

17 of 289 comments (clear)

  1. Still too small by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I've got two 200 GB hard drives full of MP3s and videos.

    Backing it up is simply impossible by any current means.

    1. Re:Still too small by Skapare · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Your backup should be two more 200 GB hard drives. If one of the original drives dies, restoring your data is quite fast. I do something like this, although with only a 120 GB and 80 GB drive. But one difference is I have a 2nd computer. The first few partitions on the 80 GB drives are my Slackware Linux system. The rest of the 80 GB drive and the entire 120 GB drive are all my data. Except for the root partition, I regularly rsync one machine to the other. Once every 2 or 3 months, I bring the backup machine up in full desktop mode just to be sure I haven't broken something. Otherwise it gets powered up every 2-3 days in server mode to accept the rsync connection and re-syncronize.

      --
      now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
  2. BlueRay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I personally am going to wait for the BlueRay to come down in price and go with that.

  3. Someone has to ask by Maskirovka · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Between the current speed advantage (8x vs 4x), and now the size advantage, is there any hope for the '-R' format?

  4. Hard Drive is probably more reliable by StellarEX · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I backed up about 100GB of data a few months ago on DVD+R, and they worked fine for a few months. Now most of them are giving me CRC errors when trying to read them in any drive. I deleted the data from my hard drive to save space like a fool. I might as well have just bought another hard drive to back them up for the cost of the DVD-R media and writing drive :/ They need to research more ways to make this media last rather than try to increase the size. 8GB of dammaged data isn't good for anyone...except maybe Soviet Russia.

    1. Re:Hard Drive is probably more reliable by Angram · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "I backed up about 100GB of data a few months ago on DVD+R, and they worked fine for a few months."

      Try a USB 2.0 external hard drive - you can't even tell the difference between it and an internal drive if you've got USB 2.0. I researched DVD+/-Rs and external drives last month, when I decided to ditch my physical CDs and rip them all to ogg files. Media like CDs and DVDs are just plain inferior, especially for my kind of usage - portable bulk storage that can be read from/written to on virtually any PC (though it's far slower on USB 1.1). DVDs/CDs just don't last as long as people think, and most other people can't even read from DVDs on their computers, much less write to them. While a hard drive won't decay as gracefully as DVDs (they won't all die the same day), it's more reliable and more convenient for most purposes. Considering that the DVDs "expire" eventually, the argument that it allows limitless storage is bunk.

      --

      GL
    2. Re:Hard Drive is probably more reliable by StellarEX · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, I used different media, actually the cheaper media ($2) seems to be more readable, i can recover about 70% of the data. The discs i spent the most on seem to be hardest to recover.

  5. Two things by ejaytee · · Score: 5, Interesting


    First, the movie industry will not like this at all, because virtually every movie will fit onto a single recordable DVD at full bitrate.

    Second, the Philips technical paper does say (as expected) that a new drive is required, with an objective lens that can focus into the two recording planes on a disc.

    My new DVD+R/W drive has just made reservations for the basement suite next to the 2X CDROM drive.

    1. Re:Two things by radixvir · · Score: 2, Interesting

      this is exactly what ive been waiting for....now you do not need to drop extras or recompress to get retail dvds on backups. this is great news! ill wait until second generation of these and then pick one up!

  6. DVD-R is the DVD-Forum standard by StandardCell · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't see how you can say that -R is going to be usurped simply because of speed issues. The fact is that they could make 8x double-layer DVD-Rs if the DVD-Forum decided to make them. Also, there are very few video applications that require the double-layer standard.

    The fact is this: if you want maximum compatibility today with DVD readers and players, including legacy devices, you must go with DVD-R. There was even a recent /. article about it. If someone is publishing a corporate or school training video, and the viewers have an old DVD player, the chances that it will play anything but a -R are slim. Particularly with schools, it is a challenge to be replacing capital equipment even as trivial as a DVD player when budgets are so tight these days. For that reason alone, the format can't and shouldn't go away completely for the foreseeable future. But the DVD-Forum had better respond in kind and in short order, because as time goes on things will change, and +R may yet usurp this.

    The other thing to remember is that you need to use good quality blanks with stable dyes (i.e. MAM-E/Mitsui Archive Gold, Verbatim Data Life) if you want to retain your data over the long term. Philips hasn't mass-produced these double-layer DVD+Rs yet, so we don't know about their longevity or even their real compatibility in the field. I'd take a more mature mass-storage technology over the bleeding edge, even if it meant dealing with more physical media.

    1. Re:DVD-R is the DVD-Forum standard by DrEldarion · · Score: 2, Interesting

      DVD-R can only play on about 5% more players than DVD+R (according to DVDRHelp.com), and even the cheapest $40 players today can play DVD+R and RWs.

      5% isn't very significant, and the figure is shrinking constantly as new players are being put out, and old players start breaking and not being sold anymore.

      As long as DVD-R stays behind technilogically (and stays more expensive, both the players and the media tend to cost more), DVD+R has a real chance of winning.

      -- Dr. Eldarion --

    2. Re:DVD-R is the DVD-Forum standard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      DVD-R is the DVD-Forum standard

      And that means what? Absolutely nothing. DVD-R basically old CD-R technology retrofitted to DVD-ROM technology. The result is more coasters than the DVD+R standard and requiring the user to decide to burn discs TAO, DAO, or SAO (choices that are irrelevant for DVD+R media users). Plus DVD+R's video editing standard is much more sane than DVD-R's. Not to mention originally DVD-R's would not be able to store video today had it not been for the competition it got from DVD+R. DVD-R is a horrid technology that will soon die. At least DVD-Rs will be readable in DVD+R drives, unlike Betamax and VHS cassettes.

  7. "They said it couldn't be done.." by miketang16 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I find the whole idea that people actually continue to say this phrase, absurd. In this day and age, things that were deemed impossible are being done every day. Of course this has happened throughout the ages, not just currently, but it seems more prevelant now. This is the reason I laugh my ass off when some company comes out with an "uncrackable" security mechanism.

    --
    -------
    "In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
    -- George Orwell
  8. What I'd like to see... by zedenne · · Score: 3, Interesting

    i have one of those mini-cd mp3 players.

    a mini-cd stores up to 180MB or about 25% of a standard cd.

    i find this really useful for storing utilities and such, config docs, encrypted password files etc as they are small enought to fit in a jeans pocket.

    now if we had a dual-layered mini-dvd i could get over 2Gb of data in my pocket!

    that would be cool.

    you could then pretty much fit a whole distribution on a business card!

  9. hdd vs. dvd by IAR80 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Probably the new 8.5GB drives will cost you an arm and a leg and media will be prohibitive as well. Right know you can get a samsung ide drive of 160GB 7200rpm less than 100$. The cost per GB is not mutch higher of that of the DVDs and with DVDs you have spenf money on the burner as well. More than that the reliability of the drive is much greater, you can write and erase from as mutch as you like, speed is mutch better and to add on top it is more compact (160Gb means arround 35 dvds). Do not spend money on DVD technology.

    --
    http://ebgp.net/ccc/
  10. Re:The next challenge is ... by Cyno01 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Or conversly i'd like a distro about 1/4 the size of knoppix that could fit on a usb drive or this.

    --
    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
  11. Re:Uh... have you seen a 8x burner in action? by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sometimes I wonder if Sony and Philips broke from the DVD Forum on this matter as a ploy of trying to get more money. The "plus" format still isn't in the DVD standard, and they may be undercutting the DVD forum on price as a way of getting back at them for rejecting their format.

    Up until Sony released their dual format drive, it looked like the plus version really was going to win, but now, almost nothing is single format.

    I wish they'd just figure out a way to merge them. the dash version is slightly more compatible with set-top players and the plus version does slightly quicker packet writing.

    Now, I wish that the dual layer writables would be compatible with existing writers, but at least it is supposed to be compatible with existing readers. At least broad reader compatiblity has to be there or else it won't sell quickly at the start, IMO.