DVD Drives

See also:

• Building Computers
• Mass Storage Devices
• Hard Drives
• Flash Storage
• Network Attached Storage
• CDROM Drives

General Information

• 2010-Oct-20: In 2010 Toshiba developed a 1TB optical disk prototype, this was done by leveraging Bluray technology and building a disk with 32 layers, each with 32GB capacity. Another large optical storage device that will never make it to market? [9405]
• 2009-Nov-13: The DiamonDisc DVD media is claimed to hold data for 1000 years (which would be better than some Sanyo CDRs I burned in 1999 that had turned transparent - and unreadable - by 2009). Discussed here on Slashdot. [8750]
• 2009-Jul-17: A Utah startup company called Millenniata is developing a modified DVD drive and special media with the objective of having a 1000 year life span (which is better that current writable DVDs by probably a factor of 100). [8290]
• 2009-May-21: An Australian lab has developed a technique for five-dimensional optical encoding that could allow a single DVD-sized disk to hold 1.6TB of information. This would be great for backup if they can keep the cost per disk below $100. [8011]
• 2008-May-28: Call/Recall claims it is going to build a 1TB optical drive based on their blue-violet laser diodes (which are used in Blu-Ray drives) and a 200-layer optical disk. Discussed here on Slashdot. [6251]
• 2008-Jan-10: Kodak's professional grade CD-R and DVD-R disks are supposed to have a data storage lifetime of 100 years (their archival Gold Preservation CDs has a longer lifespan). [4631] [1]
• In Sept'07 JVC announced the first rewritable single-sided dual-layer DVDs, I guess these are DL DVD-RW [3748]
• HD-DVD disks with 3-Layers have been shown in the lab, with a potential to go to as many as 10 layers [3747]
• Dec'06, BenQ's BW1000, a dual layer Blu-Ray recorder capable of writing 50GB to a single disc has been released in Japan. [3746]
• Sept'06, LG's GBW-H10N Blu-ray burner gets reviewed [3745]
• In June'06 a new technique for making narrower laser beams (based on existing lasers) was announced - this could result in another large step in optical disk storage capacity. [3744]
• Build your own disk changer to allow burning multiple disks without operator intervention, I wonder if the mechanism in the Pioneer DRM-624 (6 disk CDROM change drive) could be grafted onto a different CD/DVD drive to allow for burning multiple disks? [3743]
• In Apr'06 TDK reported that they have made a 200GB recordable Blu-Ray disk (using 6 layers) [3742]
• In Apr'06 TDK began shipping 25GB Blu-ray media in the $19-$25/disk price range. [3741]
• It might be possible to increase the storage of DVD (including Blu-ray) by about a factor of 3 by using polarization. [3740]
• First indications of pricing on blank Blu-ray media: about US$25 for the 25GB and US$50 for the 50GB media. As well, Sony will be shipping their Viao RC computer with a Blu-ray burner that will work with both the 25GB and 50GB media right from the start. So roughly $1/GB to backup to Blu-ray, versus the roughly $0.10/GB to backup to DVD-RW media, so initially Blu-ray will be quite expensive, but give it a year and things should change significantly. [3739]
• There may be a 40GB version (called EVD) of the conventional DVD drive appearing to compete with Blu-Ray. They are working on a single sided, 10-layer disk. [3738]
• The first reviews of Blu-ray burners are starting to appear in late Jan'06, this one covers the Samsung SH-B033 which was able to burn a 25GB disc in about 43 minutes and should be able to burn dual layer discs as well. [3737]
• Tom's Hardware has an end of the year (2005) write up that does a good job of covering all the available DVD burners and the various formats and speed they support. [3736]
• NEC (Sept'05) has announced the HR-1100A, a better HD-DVD burner [3735]
• Pioneer's BRD-101A blue-ray burner is about to enter the market (Aug'05) [3734]
• Sony is planning on taking the BlueRay disks to 8 layers for 200GB, that'll keep the pirates at bay. [3733]
• Buffalo is making the BR-PD 23U2 which is a Sony Professional Blu-Ray burner that can store 23GB of data per disk. [3732]
• The HD-DVD spec was ratified in June 2004, it defines a 15GB single layer and a 30GB dual layer disc. [3731]
• Pioneer is building a DVD recorder that uses an electron beam instead of a laser to pass the 50GB mark. Panasonic is doing this too. [3730]
• Sony's Blue-ray technology is going to pack 25GB per side, and now they are talking about further reducing the blank media's cost by making the disks largely of paper. [3729]
• Alternate firmware that has been patched for universal region coding... [3728]
• Tohiba has demoed HD-DVD (possibly becoming available to consumers in 2005). The single layer disks will hold 15GB in the read-only version and 20GB in the rewritable version. This would be way better than a DDS-4 tape drive. [3727]
• Making your own DVDs [3726]
• The DVD FAQ [3725]
• Hot Hardware has a review of the TEAC DV-W50D which is a 4x DVD+/-RW drive [3724]
• Techspot.com has a comparison artical on the Plextor, Panasonic and Pioneer DVD Burners (July 03) [3723]