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Remember back a long, long time ago when the first video cassette recorders came into our lives? The magic of being able to record and replay our favorite TV shows was slightly marred by the confusion of having two different standards of machine and videotape to choose from: vhs and Betamax.
Now with DVD (Digital Video Disc) recorders about to make the old VCR extinct, the war of standards is back, with a vengeance. DVDs — pioneered by Philips and co-developed with Sony — used on both sides, allow you to store roughly 13 times more film or music than CDs and way more than tapes. But until recently there was a drawback: unlike video tapes, consumers could only play DVDs, not record on them.
Now, however, recordable DVD formats, which allow you to rewrite and edit too, are slugging it out in a very confusing market. There are three competing standards: DVD-ram, supported by Japan's Hitachi, Toshiba and Matsushita, which when first introduced could play back programs only on their own machines. Then there is DVD-RW, which was originally developed by Pioneer and supported by the industry alliance DVD Forum.
The discs for this machine are compatible with a limited number of DVD players, according to Mary Craig, principal analyst in optical-storage technology for Gartner Dataquest in San Jose, California. Pioneer says the discs will play in 70% of DVD machines. A third format, called DVD+RW that is backed by Philips, Hewlett-Packard, Yamaha and Ricoh and others, can be played on CD players, DVD-ROM drives on your PC and more than 85% of DVD players. Dell Computer, Thomson Multimedia and Philips are among 30 companies supporting the DVD+RW standard.
Consumer electronics analyst Paul O'Donovan, who works for Gartner Dataquest in London, says DVD+RW looks likely to become the de facto industry standard. Philips, whose DVD recorders are compatible with CD, CD-Recordable, CD-Rewritable and the Super-Video CD and Video CD formats popular in Asia, will show three different models priced from $1,000 to $1,399 at the CeBIT show in Hanover this week.
One, the DVDR985, has a built-in camcorder connection so that home movies can be automatically recorded onto a DVD+RW disc. Given all this rivalry, it is surprising that last month nine consumer-electronics makers, including Sony, Philips, Hitachi and Pioneer, agreed on a uniform standard for the next generation of DVDs themselves, called Blue-Ray discs after the blue-laser technology used to cram content onto them. The new format will allow for more than 13 hours of recorded TV, compared with two hours on the current disc. The blue ray discs will not be available for several years. By then, maybe there will be a single format for playing them.
Now with DVD (Digital Video Disc) recorders about to make the old VCR extinct, the war of standards is back, with a vengeance. DVDs — pioneered by Philips and co-developed with Sony — used on both sides, allow you to store roughly 13 times more film or music than CDs and way more than tapes. But until recently there was a drawback: unlike video tapes, consumers could only play DVDs, not record on them.
Now, however, recordable DVD formats, which allow you to rewrite and edit too, are slugging it out in a very confusing market. There are three competing standards: DVD-ram, supported by Japan's Hitachi, Toshiba and Matsushita, which when first introduced could play back programs only on their own machines. Then there is DVD-RW, which was originally developed by Pioneer and supported by the industry alliance DVD Forum.
The discs for this machine are compatible with a limited number of DVD players, according to Mary Craig, principal analyst in optical-storage technology for Gartner Dataquest in San Jose, California. Pioneer says the discs will play in 70% of DVD machines. A third format, called DVD+RW that is backed by Philips, Hewlett-Packard, Yamaha and Ricoh and others, can be played on CD players, DVD-ROM drives on your PC and more than 85% of DVD players. Dell Computer, Thomson Multimedia and Philips are among 30 companies supporting the DVD+RW standard.
Consumer electronics analyst Paul O'Donovan, who works for Gartner Dataquest in London, says DVD+RW looks likely to become the de facto industry standard. Philips, whose DVD recorders are compatible with CD, CD-Recordable, CD-Rewritable and the Super-Video CD and Video CD formats popular in Asia, will show three different models priced from $1,000 to $1,399 at the CeBIT show in Hanover this week.
One, the DVDR985, has a built-in camcorder connection so that home movies can be automatically recorded onto a DVD+RW disc. Given all this rivalry, it is surprising that last month nine consumer-electronics makers, including Sony, Philips, Hitachi and Pioneer, agreed on a uniform standard for the next generation of DVDs themselves, called Blue-Ray discs after the blue-laser technology used to cram content onto them. The new format will allow for more than 13 hours of recorded TV, compared with two hours on the current disc. The blue ray discs will not be available for several years. By then, maybe there will be a single format for playing them.
(a) This should be in the Movies... forum.
(b) You forgot to post your 'source': http://www.time.com/time/europe/digital/ 2002/03/stories/formats.html (no-space)
Other than that, well done.
(b) You forgot to post your 'source': http://www.time.com/time/europe/digital/ 2002/03/stories/formats.html (no-space)
Other than that, well done.
Remember back a long, long time ago when the first video cassette recorders came into our lives? The magic of being able to record and replay our favorite TV shows was slightly marred by the confusion of having two different standards of machine and videotape to choose from: vhs and Betamax.
Now with DVD (Digital Video Disc) recorders about to make the old VCR extinct, the war of standards is back, with a vengeance. DVDs — pioneered by Philips and co-developed with Sony — used on both sides, allow you to store roughly 13 times more film or music than CDs and way more than tapes. But until recently there was a drawback: unlike video tapes, consumers could only play DVDs, not record on them.
Now, however, recordable DVD formats, which allow you to rewrite and edit too, are slugging it out in a very confusing market. There are three competing standards: DVD-ram, supported by Japan's Hitachi, Toshiba and Matsushita, which when first introduced could play back programs only on their own machines. Then there is DVD-RW, which was originally developed by Pioneer and supported by the industry alliance DVD Forum.
The discs for this machine are compatible with a limited number of DVD players, according to Mary Craig, principal analyst in optical-storage technology for Gartner Dataquest in San Jose, California. Pioneer says the discs will play in 70% of DVD machines. A third format, called DVD+RW that is backed by Philips, Hewlett-Packard, Yamaha and Ricoh and others, can be played on CD players, DVD-ROM drives on your PC and more than 85% of DVD players. Dell Computer, Thomson Multimedia and Philips are among 30 companies supporting the DVD+RW standard.
Consumer electronics analyst Paul O'Donovan, who works for Gartner Dataquest in London, says DVD+RW looks likely to become the de facto industry standard. Philips, whose DVD recorders are compatible with CD, CD-Recordable, CD-Rewritable and the Super-Video CD and Video CD formats popular in Asia, will show three different models priced from $1,000 to $1,399 at the CeBIT show in Hanover this week.
One, the DVDR985, has a built-in camcorder connection so that home movies can be automatically recorded onto a DVD+RW disc. Given all this rivalry, it is surprising that last month nine consumer-electronics makers, including Sony, Philips, Hitachi and Pioneer, agreed on a uniform standard for the next generation of DVDs themselves, called Blue-Ray discs after the blue-laser technology used to cram content onto them. The new format will allow for more than 13 hours of recorded TV, compared with two hours on the current disc. The blue ray discs will not be available for several years. By then, maybe there will be a single format for playing them.
Now with DVD (Digital Video Disc) recorders about to make the old VCR extinct, the war of standards is back, with a vengeance. DVDs — pioneered by Philips and co-developed with Sony — used on both sides, allow you to store roughly 13 times more film or music than CDs and way more than tapes. But until recently there was a drawback: unlike video tapes, consumers could only play DVDs, not record on them.
Now, however, recordable DVD formats, which allow you to rewrite and edit too, are slugging it out in a very confusing market. There are three competing standards: DVD-ram, supported by Japan's Hitachi, Toshiba and Matsushita, which when first introduced could play back programs only on their own machines. Then there is DVD-RW, which was originally developed by Pioneer and supported by the industry alliance DVD Forum.
The discs for this machine are compatible with a limited number of DVD players, according to Mary Craig, principal analyst in optical-storage technology for Gartner Dataquest in San Jose, California. Pioneer says the discs will play in 70% of DVD machines. A third format, called DVD+RW that is backed by Philips, Hewlett-Packard, Yamaha and Ricoh and others, can be played on CD players, DVD-ROM drives on your PC and more than 85% of DVD players. Dell Computer, Thomson Multimedia and Philips are among 30 companies supporting the DVD+RW standard.
Consumer electronics analyst Paul O'Donovan, who works for Gartner Dataquest in London, says DVD+RW looks likely to become the de facto industry standard. Philips, whose DVD recorders are compatible with CD, CD-Recordable, CD-Rewritable and the Super-Video CD and Video CD formats popular in Asia, will show three different models priced from $1,000 to $1,399 at the CeBIT show in Hanover this week.
One, the DVDR985, has a built-in camcorder connection so that home movies can be automatically recorded onto a DVD+RW disc. Given all this rivalry, it is surprising that last month nine consumer-electronics makers, including Sony, Philips, Hitachi and Pioneer, agreed on a uniform standard for the next generation of DVDs themselves, called Blue-Ray discs after the blue-laser technology used to cram content onto them. The new format will allow for more than 13 hours of recorded TV, compared with two hours on the current disc. The blue ray discs will not be available for several years. By then, maybe there will be a single format for playing them.