DVD diva Melissa J. Perenson, at home amongst a demi-terabyte or so of recordable optical media. Photograph: Robert Cardin"Which product should I buy?" As editor of this magazine, I get asked that question...well, incessantly. But I also ask it myself. And--since I spend my days surrounded by a small army of savvy tech journalists and lab analysts--an expert answer is rarely far away.
So when I finally decided to get a rewritable DVD drive, I knew where to go for advice: directly to the cube of Associate Editor Melissa J. Perenson, PC World's resident optical-storage guru. My timing was perfect--she was putting the final editing touches on "Fast-Lane DVD Burning," this issue's roundup of the latest DVD drives and software.
The timing is also spot-on for the review, which was written by storage authority Jon L. Jacobi, a veteran contributor. Says Melissa, "This is a great time to get into DVD. The software's gotten easier, solid drives are available for under $200, and you won't kill as much time burning data."
Until fairly recently, one reason not to buy a DVD burner was the ongoing standards skirmish between the DVD+RW and DVD-RW formats. Today, an uneasy truce prevails: Almost every PC drive worth considering supports both flavors.
Format Free-for-All
The standards wars aren't winding down, though. DVD-based devices--in your PC and in your living room--are about to get even more capacious and versatile. But for every improvement, competing formats threaten to complicate buying decisions. Consider the following developments on the horizon:
Even more data: Later this year, dual-layer burners and discs will appear, bumping capacity to 8.5GB. Drives that can do dual-layer DVD+R will likely arrive first, followed by dual-layer DVD-R ones.
Current DVD technology employs red lasers; the next really big thing in DVD will be blue lasers, which can cram up to 50GB of data on a disc. Deep-pocketed Japanese consumers can buy a $3777 Sony blue-laser DVD recorder right now.
Most of us won't see blue-laser products until at least late 2005. We may then need to pick from burners based on two new, incompatible formats: Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Sony, and other tech titans are backing one called Blu-ray Disc, while NEC and Toshiba are behind HD DVD.
High-definition video: Once you have a disc that can hold dozens of gigabytes, you've got space for hours of razor-sharp high-def video. Here again, everybody seems to be hopping on different bandwagons: The Blu-ray and HD-DVD groups are each developing their own proprietary approaches, and others are proposing still more formats using blue or red lasers.
Most of these formats won't matter until 2006, if ever. But there are a handful of already-available DVDs that use Microsoft's Windows Media Video High Definition format. These are designed for viewing on PCs and aren't compatible (imagine that!) with other high-def DVD standards.
More multimedia savvy: HighMAT, a new standard designed to ease sharing of photos, music, and video on DVD and other media, has the backing of Microsoft and Panasonic, among others. Meanwhile, a mostly different consortium is supporting MPV, another standard for--drum roll--easy sharing of photos, music, and video on DVD and other media.
Confused yet? I sure am.
New technology doesn't have to be this way. And maybe DVD won't be, ultimately. "Particularly with blue laser, there may be a shakeout," Melissa believes. "For the masses, the format that Hollywood backs will probably win. By the time blue-laser drives reach a price you'll want to pay, the mess may be sorted out."
Let's hope so. Otherwise, we're headed for an era in which it will be a total crapshoot whether the DVD you burn on your PC will be compatible with any particular piece of hardware. That would be a crummy development for consumers--and for the companies that hope to persuade us to buy all this stuff.
Contact PC World Editor Harry McCracken at mageditor@pcworld.com.
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