PC DVD Burners Abound

Though the stand-alone DVD recording decks destined to replace VCRs are drawing understandable attention, the selection of DVD burners for PCs continues to grow. Hewlett-Packard, TDK, Samsung, Archos Technology, Philips, and Yamaha are all among the vendors who have recently unveiled rewritable DVD drives. Most were on display at the Consumer Electronics Show last week in Las Vegas.

Hewlett-Packard last week announced its 300-series DVD writers. The first, the internal IDE HP DVD 300i, is due to ship by the end of the January and will sell for $299 (£185). The second, the HP DVD 300e, is an external model that uses both USB 2.0 and FireWire; it's expected out soon after the 300i debuts, priced at $349 (£215)--highly competitive for a dual-interface DVD writer.

With these models, the rated write-once speeds for DVD+R nearly double, bumping up from 2.4X to 4X; speeds for rewritable DVD+RW hold steady at 2.4X. The 4X DVD+R speed means you can write a 4.7GB DVD+R disc in less than 15 minutes, according to the company. The drive is not Mt. Rainier-compliant, though, which means the defect-management capability of DVD+RW drives is not enabled.

In addition, both drives can act as a 16X/10X/40X CD-RW drive, as well as an 8X DVD-ROM reader.

HP is bundling the drives with Veritas' RecordNow, DLA, and Simple Backup; HP's Memories Disc Creator; and ArcSoft's ShowBiz for video editing and DVD authoring. Formerly, HP bundled Sonic's MyDVD. HP made the switch in an attempt "to address ease-of-use," says Kim Burch, HP's DVD product manager. "What it provides is a single user interface... so [users] can create a DVD--from capture to editing and burning--in five simple steps."

TDK Goes Multi-Format
For the same price as HP's single-format drive, TDK has introduced a 4X DVD burner that writes to both DVD+RW and DVD-RW media. The drive, dubbed the IndiDVD Multi-Format, is due for release in March and will sell for $299 (£185), the same price as TDK's current 2X single-format DVD burner. The drive writes to write-once DVD+R and DVD-R at 4X; it writes to rewritable DVD+RW at 2.4X and to DVD-RW at 2X. The model is priced aggressively--$50 (£30) less than the current price for Sony's DRU-500A, the first multiformat rewritable DVD drive to market--and it will ship with Ahead Software's Nero Express and Pinnacle Studio SE.

"Demand is over supply," says Bruce Youmans, TDK's vice president of marketing. "As soon as we hit the magic price of $299 (£185), things took off--in similar fashion to CD-RWs. Now is when you'll start to see volume [on DVD burner sales]."

Samsung's SR-T03 DVD-Multi drive marks the Korean company's first foray into the consumer DVD writer market. The company also becomes the third manufacturer (behind Panasonic and LG Electronics) on the market with a DVD-Multi drive. Per the DVD Forum's multiple format spec, it is rated to write DVD-R at 2X, DVD-RW at 1X, and DVD-RAM at 2X. It also serves as a 12X/8X/32X CD-RW drive and as a 12X DVD-ROM reader.

Those specs are on a par with the DVD-Multi drives already available from LG Electronics and Panasonic, but are slower than the top-speed ratings of the leading DVD-RW/-R and DVD+RW/+R drives already on the market or announced at the show (those models offer speeds of 4X for write-once DVD and 2X for rewritable DVD). The drive is priced at $399 and is expected to ship by March.

Also on the Horizon
Archos Technology, which has focused in the past on portable optical devices, is making its first foray into the desktop market with the release of the external DExDVD-RW.

This $349 (£215) model is essentially an internal DVD-Multi drive housed in a simple exterior case with blue highlights and a USB 2.0 connection. The unit also serves as a 12X/8X/32X CD-RW drive, and it ships with Roxio's Easy CD Creator 5.3 and VideoWave Movie Creator.

Yamaha is also preparing an external DVD+RW drive; however, the company isn't specifying a release date, specs, or pricing. Philips has given a peek at its 4X DVD+RW drive as well; introduced at Comdex (news - web sites) and scheduled for release by February, the drive is expected to be priced competitively with similar DVD offerings on the market. Philips says the drive supports speeds of 4X for DVD+R, 2.4X for DVD+RW, and 12X for DVD-ROM, and it doubles as a 16X/10X/40X CD-RW drive.