The Recordable DVD Format Debate and Dual Layer
Both the DVD Plus (“+”) and Dash (“-“)
formats are still very much alive and well and appear
to be with us for the foreseeable future. Presently,
the DVD+RW Alliance is the first of the two organizations
to present a Dual Layer recordable standard. The formal
name of the format is Double Layer. Initially available
only in a write once format called DVD+R DL, this technology
should debut by the middle of 2004 with drives and
media from several major manufacturers, including Sony.
Recording speeds for DVD+R DL are initially 2.4X, however,
they are expected to increase in the future. Drives
supporting DVD+R DL will also be able to record single
layer discs at up to 8X or faster (using write once
media) and support high-speed CD-R/RW burning as well.
What of the DVD Forum and the its dash format? While
not available at the time of this writing, it's expected
that the DVD forum will offer up a recordable dual
layer disc specification in the near future and probably
within 2004.
Certainly, dual format DVD burners are overtaking the commercial market and
Sony was the Pioneer of Dual Format burners. Sony is a member of, and is committed
to continuing to support the DVD+RW Alliance and the DVD Forum for dual layer
DVD recordable/rewritable technology.
 Applications
For Double Layer Recordable Technology
Consumer Applications
With up to four hours of high quality MPEG-2 video on a single-sided disc,
consumers can really take their home movies to the next level with dual layer
DVD recording. One benefit of the additional space is the ability to increase
the bit rate of the video when authoring to get higher quality on the finished
disc. Typical DVD authoring software applications use variable bit rate encoding
to maximize utilization of the DVD disc space. By forcing the application to
always encode at the highest bit rate supported, more space will be used on
the disc, however, the quality difference is noticeable and worth it.
Dual layer DVD recording makes it possible for a consumer
to create longer home movies and even consolidated
many home movie projects onto a single disc. Let’s
not forget that up to 8.5GB of uncompressed DVD disc
space is also a great place to store data and keep
your PC’s valuable data, applications, and settings
backed up for when disaster strikes. You can pack up
to 12 CDs or 5,902 floppy disks’ worth of information
onto a single dual layer DVD disc.
With the additional capacity of a dual layer DVD
recordable disc, a consumer can store approximately
2,000 songs in MP3 format or up to 17,000 high quality
JPEG images. Talk about a cool place to store all that
stuff cluttering up your hard drive!
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