The DVD Dilemma

It's been a while coming, but the day that you'll trade both your trusty CD-RW drive and your familiar VCR for a new rewritable-DVD device is fast approaching.

Why swap? How about to get more speed, greater reliability, and discs with seven times the capacity of a CD-ROM? Or to create your own digital DVD movies that are easily searchable, won't degrade over time, and can be stored more compactly than videotapes?

Trust us: You will eventually own a rewritable-DVD device. What's confusing matters is that there are now three contenders battling for your upgrade money: DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, and DVD-RAM.

Both DVD-R/RW and DVD-RAM drives have already appeared (Pioneer's DVD-R/RW $799 DVR-A03 and Panasonic's DVD-RAM/DVD-R $549 LF-D311N DVDBurner). But today the battle is truly joined, as the much-anticipated DVD+RW format debuts in Hewlett-Packard's $599 DVD100i drive. All three camps will have new VCR-like DVD recorders this fall, too, priced from $1500 to $2500.

The format offering the best compatibility with existing DVD-ROM drives and movie players should win. Unfortunately, it's still too early to tell which format that will be. The early favorites seem to be the DVD Forum's DVD-R/RW and DVD+RW from the DVD+RW Alliance.

Enter DVD+RW

Although it's the last of the trio to reach store shelves, DVD+RW brings 4.7GB capacity, superior speed, and lower cost to the table.

The offspring of an alliance between originally six, now eight, major companies, DVD+ RW took a while to get to market. The companies pulled the plug on a near-shipping 3GB product after hearing DVD-RAM and DVD-R were upping capacity to 4.7GB. Two more years and much hype later, a prototype of HP's DVD+RW drive has come our way.

Our tests confirm that it writes at a scintillating 2.4X--that is, 3.32 megabytes per second--easily the fastest of the three formats, and far faster than any CD-RW drive. In addition, it writes CD-Rs at 12X, writes CD-RWs at 10X, reads CD-ROMs at 32X, and reads DVD at 8X--making it a great all-purpose drive. (In CD technology, 1X equals 150 KBps. For DVD, 1X equals 1.38 MBps.)

It also doesn't hurt that the HP drive costs roughly $200 less than Pioneer's DVR-A03 DVD-R/RW model. Media prices are competitive, too: DVD+RW discs now sell for about $15 each. (DVD-R discs cost about $8 each and DVD-RWs are around $18 apiece.)

The DVD100i's glass jaw is compatibility. The interoperability with legacy DVD-ROM drives and DVD movie players (those made before 2000) that DVD+RW's developers wanted has proved impossible to achieve. Just as they do with DVD-RW discs, many legacy DVD-ROM drives and movie players misidentify a DVD+RW disc as a dual-layer DVD-ROM and simply sit there, scratching their laser-laden heads.

DVD+RW media fares much better with newer players: Seven of the ten current movie players we tested it with could read it (see "The DVD Playbook" ). If you bought a DVD player within the last 10 months, odds are it will work with DVD+RW.

To improve compatibility, the DVD+RW Alliance has announced DVD+R--a write-once media that its sponsors say most legacy players can deal with. We couldn't verify this claim because DVD+R is not yet available. Moreover, initial DVD+RW drives won't be able to write DVD+R discs without a firmware upgrade; drives that can write DVD+R may be available by early 2002.

On to DVD-RW

While DVD-R and DVD-RW are the official DVD Forum formats, they've been developed and marketed almost exclusively by Pioneer Electronics. Drives have been available for several years but were prohibitively expensive until last winter, when Pioneer released its DVR-A03 DVD-R/RW drive (or SuperDrive, as Apple calls it).

The unit can write DVD-R at 2.7 MBps, DVD-RW at 1.38 MBps, CD-R at 8X, and CD-RW at 4X; and it can read all of the above formats, as well as DVD-ROM and CD-ROM, at reasonable speeds. Alas, at $799 on the street, the DVR-A03 is still beyond the reach of the average consumer.

DVD-R's biggest strength is its compatibility: A large portion of the DVD-ROM drives and movie players already in homes can read it. No other DVD media currently shipping can make that claim.

DVD-RW is another story. As with its rival, DVD+RW, older drives and players often misidentify a DVD-RW disc as a dual-layer DVD and won't play it. A firmware upgrade would probably fix this problem, but such firmware is unlikely to become available for most products. Like DVD+RW discs, DVD-RW media does better with current players: Seven of the ten models we tested could read DVD-RWs.

And DVD-RAM?

The DVD Forum's DVD-RAM has been around for several years. It was the first format to be used both in PC drives and in a DVD recorder for the living room. Though it has some advantages as a backup medium, DVD-RAM stands little chance of dominating the burgeoning DVD market because it has more-limited speed and compatibility than the other two rewritable standards.

One major strength of DVD-RAM is its durability--up to 100,000 rewrites and a predicted 100-year life. (DVD-RW and DVD+RW are rated for only 1000 rewrites.) Another is capacity: DVD-RAM discs can be single- or double-sided and can accommodate up to 4.7GB per side--twice what other formats offer. Both of these features make DVD-RAM a superior format for archiving and backup. However, although the current crop of second-generation players can transfer data at 1.4 MBps (fast enough for DVD video and movie applications), for data apps, a verification cycle cuts that speed by almost one-half.

DVD-RAM's most significant drawback is its almost total incompatibility with DVD movie players. Panasonic's recent DVD-RAM LF-D311N DVDBurner is able to write to DVD-R, which improves matters, and a number of DVD drives can read DVD-RAM data discs. Unfortunately, however, Panasonic's recorder has been the only player that can read DVD-RAM video. Panasonic is releasing three other compatible players, but little else exists.

Moreover, to play single-sided discs in compatible DVD drives and movie players, you may first have to remove them from their cartridges. Many analysts believe the awkwardness of this procedure will inhibit most users from adopting the media. And at present, DVD-RAM media goes for about $17 per 4.7GB side, somewhat pricier than competitors' media.

In Your Living Room

The battle isn't being fought only on the desktop--replacing VCRs is on the agenda, too. Panasonic began shipping its DMR-E10 DVD-RAM-based recorder more than a year ago and is replacing it this fall with the DMR-E20; Pioneer's DVD-RW-based PVR-9000 and Philips' DVD+RW-based DVDR1000 should be out before Christmas. No new recorders were available in time for testing.

Based on the product demos we've seen and our experience with the DMR-E10, all of these devices have VCR-like functionality and can record 1 to 6 hours of high-quality MPEG-2 compressed video; longer recording times decrease video quality, yielding slightly more-jagged edges or other visual artifacts. To maximize recording capacity, all units offer variable-bit-rate recording, a function that lets the recorders analyze the content they're recording frame by frame and increase or decrease the detail they take in, as needed.

All three recorders should be excellent for archiving your favorite content, whether that's home movies, broadcast TV, or old video now residing on VHS tapes. And all three include copy-protection mechanisms to prevent you from copying DVD movies (see "Your Copy Rights With DVD").

The Panasonic recorder stands out with what the company calls a time-slip feature, which lets you record a program and simultaneously go back over the DVD-RAM disc to watch what you've already recorded. Pioneer's recorder will be the first to offer digital inputs (IEEE 1394 ports) along with familiar analog-video ports, but its DVD-RW discs require a slightly longer finalization period than the others before DVD players can read them. Both recorders will write to DVD-R discs.

A big caveat: DVD-RAM recorders should cost between $1500 and $2500. That's far cheaper than the original cost of the Panasonic DMR-E10 ($4000), but it's still far out of reach of most consumers.

Not VHS vs. Beta

Some observers have likened the impending struggle between DVD+RW and DVD-RW to the old VHS-versus-Betamax war, but that analogy isn't entirely accurate. VHS and Betamax were incompatible all the way down the line. Devices using each DVD format can create discs that can be played in at least some DVD players, and some drives can read each other's formats. The market might dictate players and drives that can read all three, but it's more likely that at least one format will eventually fall by the wayside.

The drives--and definitely the DVD recorders--are still too costly to find immediate, widespread acceptance, but prices should come down over the next two years. For now, although the HP DVD100i drive is faster and cheaper, the Pioneer DVR-A03 remains our choice because it writes DVD-R, which is supported by most drives and players. But check back with us again after DVD+R shows up--we may have a change of heart.