Recordable DVD--Great Idea, but Which Format?

Sorting Out the Similarities and Differences

DVD-RAM, championed by companies such as Panasonic and Hitachi, was the first standard to show up in actual products in the United States. Panasonic released its DMR-E10 DVD Video Recorder last September. It has shipped internal DVD-RAM drives for PCs for slightly longer. Last week Hitachi announced shipment of its DZ-MV100A, a digital video camcorder that uses the smaller version of DVD-RAM discs.

Unfortunately the DVD recorder costs $4000 and the video camera costs nearly $2000. And DVD-RAM won't play in the majority of DVD players that are already out there. Panasonic showed at CES new players set to debut in March that will sell for about $799 and will play DVD-RAM discs, but chances are good that what you have now and most of what you might buy in the near future lack that capability.

DVD-RAM's biggest pluses, according to a Panasonic representative, are that it can be rewritten up to 100,000 times (other rewritable DVD technologies can be rewritten 1000 times), it has both a fast write time and a really fast random access time so you can get to the information you want quickly, and it's a standard approved by the DVD Forum, an industry group that defines and supports DVD formats, although it is not an official standards body.

DVD-RW: Compatible but Cumbersome

Among the advantages of DVD-RW is that it offers far greater compatibility with current DVD players than DVD-RAM does. But it has some functions you should be aware of, as well.

Pioneer is coming out with a recorder this summer that uses the DVD-RW format, which is also sanctioned by the DVD Forum. The recorders should cost around $2500, says Andy Parsons, a senior vice president with Pioneer's Product Development and Technical Support division. Units are already out in Japan. Expect media to cost about $20 per disc, which is comparable to DVD-RAM media.

The catch with this technology is that you must make sure that you record in the right mode: DVD-RW offers two recording modes, one called video recording, which is not compatible with most DVD players out there, and another called DVD video, which is. You also add about 4 minutes to your DVD creation time because you must go through a finalization phase when you record compatible DVD-RW discs. Finalization is simple, and creates titles and a menu structure that your DVD player can recognize. When you want to remove content from the disc, you must definalize it, and you must refinalize the content once you've replaced it.

The advantage of the video recording mode is that you get a better menu with a visual cue of the content--when you see the menu of what's on the disc, you get not only the title, but a preview scene.

Parsons says that eventually DVD recorders will come with a built-in hard drive so that you can automatically record your favorite programs as you can with TiVo or ReplayTV devices. You'll be able to edit out the commercials and transfer the content to a disc. The two functions naturally "complement" each other, he says.

DVD-RW recorders will also record on DVD-R discs (write-once), which offer the widest compatibility. Pioneer is also coming out with a drive for your PC that offers a combination of DVD-R, CD-R, and CD-RW functionality. It's expected out in the next couple of months, and should list for about $995. Compaq has already announced its intention to bundle the drives with some of its Presario home PCs.