The war over DVD recording standards will escalate next week when Hewlett-Packard unwraps the details on its first DVD drive for PCs that lets people repeatedly record on discs.
The DVD-writer dvd100i, which will cost US$599 when it hits store shelves in September, will be the first commercially available drive based on the DVD+RW standard, according to ZDNet News.
With it, consumers will be able to record video onto a disc, play it on a typical home DVD player, and then erase and record again on the same disc. HP plans to incorporate the drives into its PCs later this year. The media for the new drive will cost $15.99 per disc.
Pioneer’s DVR-A03/103 supports rewriting to DVD-RW media. The SuperDrive/iDVD combo doesn’t, at least not at this point. The SuperDrive writes to standard 4.7GB DVD-R discs, available from The Apple Store in packs of five for a suggested retail price of $49.95.
However, there are some obstacles for HP to overcome with its new drive. Three competing standards — DVD+RW, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM — are vying for market supremacy, confusing compatibility issues and keeping prices high, according to ZDNet. In addition to HP’s backing, the DVD+RW format has the support of Dell Computer, Sony, Philips Electronics, Mitsubishi Chemical, Ricoh, Thomson Multimedia, and Yamaha.
Dell also plans to incorporate DVD+RW drives into its PCs, ZDNet reports. The article also says that DVD-RW adherents include Apple and Compaq.