HDDVD-R is nearly dead

[The Digital Dolphin]

That's right, the drives aren't even on the market, and the format is already almost as good as dead.
(not HDDVD, but HDDVD-R specifically)

Before continuing, please read this article:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,12...y/article.html

Basically, Toshiba themselves believe that people will not be using their media to do data backups, so they are not moving to release burners on the market quickly. In fact, we only know that they will appear on the market sometime in 2007 (not counting TV recorders launched only in Japan).

As if the late launch isn't bad enough, check out the specs of the first HDDVD recorder:

The HD DVD specs of the first drive will be limited to recordable, write-once HD DVD-R media at 1X, to both single-layer 15GB and dual layer 30GB discs; the drive won't support any of the HD DVD flavors of rewritable discs. However, the drive will support writing to standard DVD: 4X DVD±R (2X for double- and dual-layer), 4X DVD±RW, 3X DVD-RAM, and 16X CD-R.

That's right, 1x HDDVD-R recording speed only, and no HDDVD-RW or HDDVD-RAM. Although it is somewhat backward compatible (I say somewhat because it's painfully slow) with older DVD and CD formats.

To make matters worse, I've heard that the HDDVD-RW standard hasn't even been completed yet, and it may never even happen (but HDDVD-RAM might make it).

So in terms of a writable format, it looks like HDDVD-R is getting almost no support. With not other brands announcing PC burners (or stand alone recorders) other then Toshiba, and considering they're starting with slower recording times and media flexability, I don't think HDDVD-R has a leg to stand on as a recordable format!

This then begs the question, how will the movie format move forward if the writable format fails? Yes, it's not essential, but it certainly helps!!

[Evil Techie]

so will things be leaning towards Blu-Ray from now on?

[BaconMunch]

so you're saying all the King Kong HD-DVD's in production were burned at 1x? I think industrially there's gotta be something more powerful, maybe personal HD-DVD writing would suck, but they can't mass release at 1x so I'm sure there is something else in the workins and if they are to push HD-DVD, this technology would be available to the users as the months go by

[civ@uw]

Any word on the price?

[joshmxpx]

That's right, the drives aren't even on the market, and the format is already almost as good as dead (not HDDVD, but HDDVD-R specifically).

Before continuing, please read this article:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,12...y/article.html

Basically, Toshiba themselves believe that people will not be using their media to do data backups, so they are not moving to release burners on the market quickly. In fact, we only know that they will appear on the market sometime in 2007 (not counting TV recorders launched only in Japan).

As if the late launch isn't bad enough, check out the specs of the first HDDVD recorder:


That's right, 1x HDDVD-R recording speed only, and no HDDVD-RW or HDDVD-RAM. Although it is somewhat backward compatible (I say somewhat because it's painfully slow) with older DVD and CD formats.

To make matters worse, I've heard that the HDDVD-RW standard hasn't even been completed yet, and it may never even happen (but HDDVD-RAM might make it).

So in terms of a writable format, it looks like HDDVD-R is getting almost no support. With not other brands announcing PC burners (or stand alone recorders) other then Toshiba, and considering they're starting with slower recording times and media flexability, I don't think HDDVD-R has a leg to stand on as a recordable format!

This then begs the question, how will the movie format move forward if the writable format fails? Yes, it's not essential, but it certainly helps!!

Do you have the comparable specs for Blu-ray, if such burners exist?

[hightechfan]

so will things be leaning towards Blu-Ray from now on?

No this war has not even started.There all some issues with blu ray now its far from perfect.

[The Digital Dolphin]

so you're saying all the King Kong HD-DVD's in production were burned at 1x? I think industrially there's gotta be something more powerful, maybe personal HD-DVD writing would suck, but they can't mass release at 1x so I'm sure there is something else in the workins and if they are to push HD-DVD, this technology would be available to the users as the months go by

Commercial releases are not HDDVD-R, they are HDDVD. I tried to make that distinction in the top post, but obviously failed.

I'm talking about the RECORDABLE MEDIA FORMAT, not the movie format.

[The Digital Dolphin]

Do you have the comparable specs for Blu-ray, if such burners exist?

Umm, yeah... so far there is a Panasonic, a Pioneer, a Sony (an OEM of either the Panasonic or the Pioneer... can't remember right now), a LiteON, and an LG drive out (in various places). All of them record to BD-Rs at 2x, except the LG which records to BD-Rs at 4x. All of them support BD-RE (rewritable BD-Rs) at 2x. All of them support DVDR recording, but the Pioneer doesn't support CD-R recording (the rest however do). This is not counting a few of the OEMs out there also (I think Philips, Asus and Plextor have OEM drives also out or planned to be out shortly).

So basically:
_____________________________________HDDVD-R / BD-R
Max burn speed (single layer, single write):_____1x / 4x
Max burn speed (double layer, single write):____1x / 2x
Max burn speed (Single layer, multi-write):_____N/A / 2x
Max capacity available media (single write):___15GB / 50GB
Number of drives on market by end of 2006:____0 / 4+

[sfu_lifer]

I'll be in whichever camp has the cheapest burners and the cheapest blanks.
Will be a loooong while before we see $0.50 blu-ray/hd-dvd blanks.

[rabbit]

Dudes, don't fall for propaganda from a Blu-ray backer that's blowing things out of proportion.

In other news, there's a *rumour* that Apple may back HD DVD also, instead of just Blu-ray.

[Beradon]

That's right, 1x HDDVD-R recording speed only, and no HDDVD-RW or HDDVD-RAM. Although it is somewhat backward compatible (I say somewhat because it's painfully slow) with older DVD and CD formats.

So in terms of a writable format, it looks like HDDVD-R is getting almost no support. With not other brands announcing PC burners (or stand alone recorders) other then Toshiba, and considering they're starting with slower recording times and media flexability, I don't think HDDVD-R has a leg to stand on as a recordable format!

This then begs the question, how will the movie format move forward if the writable format fails? Yes, it's not essential, but it certainly helps!!

It may look like a repeat of what happened with the introduction of DVD. Took awhile before the recordable format came out but adoption of the DVD format was under way with the low pricing of players. It won't bode well for HDDVD as an accepted format across platforms if Toshiba doesn't get its act together. There's already one strike against HDDVD-R and that's the capacity of each blank compared with Blu-ray.

To make matters worse, I've heard that the HDDVD-RW standard hasn't even been completed yet, and it may never even happen (but HDDVD-RAM might make it).

I don't mind seeing the RW format disapper. We've all seen the capabilities of the DVD-RAM format and I'm sure there won't be any complaints with having HDDVD-RAM as the only rewritable medium (as long as HD-DVD players can read from it).

[Moot]

Digital Dolphin spreading crap about HD-DVD? Who would have known?

[The Digital Dolphin]

Digital Dolphin spreading crap about HD-DVD? Who would have known?

How many times do I have to say this??

I'M TALKING ABOUT THE RECORDABLE MEDIA FORMAT ONLY!!!!!!

*NOT* THE HDDVD DISCS USED FOR MOVIES ALREADY OUT

Honestly, I swear some people only see what they expect/want to see, and prefer to ignore facts to make themselves feel comfortable.

All I'm saying here is that Toshiba is killing the recordable media format of HDDVD by launching it very late, and having it start out very slow compared to the competition.... not to mention the fact that Toshiba themselves doesn't even believe that people would use the media for data backup (which is the #1 use of BD-R media currently sold on the market).

[The Digital Dolphin]

Dudes, don't fall for propaganda from a Blu-ray backer that's blowing things out of proportion.

In other news, there's a *rumour* that Apple may back HD DVD also, instead of just Blu-ray.

BluRay backer or not, I don't ignore the facts

Yes Apple has mentioned the possability of supporting HDDVD in some form at some point. However, my comments were entirely based on the recordable media format, of which Apple makes no specific mention.

[romm2002a]

The war will soon be over with what NEC has planned:
read here: NEC makes dual Blu-ray HD-DVD chip Handles both

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34986