First DVD+R9 Burners Reviewed
Hack Jandy writes "DVD dual-layer burners finally seem ready for the public - today, a review of the Sony DRU-700A was posted by Anandtech, and teasers of the BenQ 830A posted at CDRInfo.com. Unfortunately, the drives seem too slow to to really warrant a purchase."
That would be a strange move on their part considering the following, from the MPAA website:
"The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) serves its members from its offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. On its board of directors are the Chairmen and Presidents of the seven major producers and distributors of motion picture and television programs in the United States. These members include:
- Buena Vista Pictures Distribution;(The Walt Disney Company)
- Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.;
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.;
- Paramount Pictures Corporation;
- Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation;
- Universal City Studios LLLP; and
- Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc."
I would think there is at least some communication between the different divisions of Sony.-- Every time you kill a kitten, God masturbates.
Did you read the same article? The first page clearly shows both formats.
The only format it didn't support was DVD-RAM.
If they hold a full, uncompressed movie, they're good enough.
Frame size: 720 x 576
Frame rate: 30 fps
Chroma subsampling: 1.5 (assuming YUV 4:2:0)
Duration: 90 mins
720*576*30*1.5*90*60 / (1024^3)= 93.9 GiB
Conclusion: these discs don't have anywhere near the capacity to hold an uncompressed film. In addition, the drive could not read data off the disc fast enough for real-time playback (max speed was quoted at 16620 KB/s)
Lossless video codecs can get you a ratio of around 10:1 though, so that's a possibility.
I believe Pioneer said a few months ago that they tested the A06 using new firmware and got it to burn onto dual layered DVD-R media.
Furthermore, the Anandtech article did state that they managed to convert a GO-W0808A to burn DVD+R9's:
"In fact, several other MT1818E burners are capable of firmware upgrades to DVD+R9. In fact, using beta firmware upgrades, we actually got our Gigabyte GO-W0808A to burn DVD+R9 as well. Keep in mind that the GO-W0808A retails for less than $110, while the DRU-700A will hit shelves at $199. Although the Sony DRU-700A is a considerable step up from the DRU-530A, we would have to recommend the GO-W0808A if it costs $90 less and performs the same." - AnandTech
The 'teaser' linked to in the article predicts an initial price of $5 to $8 per disc. No word on availability, but one could assume they will hit the stores at about the same time as the drives.
5) This still won't hold a standard Movie DVD.
DVD Shrink
- (sorry, windows only app.)
You just calculated the figures for 24-bit RGB. As I said in my original post, I was assuming YUV 420 - as this is the most common format for uncompressed video.
In this example the Y (luma) component is 720x576, but the U and V (chroma) components are subsambpled to 352x288 each. This results in half the amount of raw data versus 24-bit RGB at virtually no loss in perceived quality.