Adding yet one more convolution to the already confused disk storage media market, the +RW alliance announced the finalization of their 1.0 specification for 2.4X rewriting on Double Layer DVD+RW media that supports 8.5GB storage capacity.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor
of Projection Monthly &
Microdisplay Report

While 8.5GB is still no match for next generation HD formats in the 50GB Blu-ray or 30GB HD-DVD vintage dual layer disks, the 8.5GB announcement does represent a significant improvement over the 4.7GB offered in the older 0.9 spec. But is this too little, too late, and why (beyond finishing the spec) would the alliance come out with this new standard now? We didn’t get a response from the group back in time for this publication, but here is what we do know.

The group that consists of HP, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/Verbatim, Royal Philips Electronics, Ricoh, Sony Corporation, Thomson Inc. and Yamaha, announced the 2.4X DVD+RW Double Layer discs will be based on new phase-change materials, which enable writing on both the semi-transparent layer 0 and the more reflective layer 1. But the downside to the advancement is that Double Layer media will only be read and write compatible with new specially designed recorders and read out devices.

That’s right - to use the new technology, consumers would have to purchase yet another new recorder / player along with the specialty disks. And by the way, the old +RW players and recorders mostly found in PCs and laptops do not support the new standard, which means they will not read the new disks or play in the old players-no backward compatibility.

Why? Because the read out reflectivity on both layers of the new media is very low when compared with traditional single layer DVD+RW media. Red laser reflectivity is specified between 5 and 10% for the new media and 15 to 20% for traditional single layer media.

If anything the announcement gives us cause to reflect on why we even have +RW and (dash) -RW formats to begin with. This stems from the original DVD forum supporting the (dash) -RW standard and the DVD+RW Alliance supporting the +RW standard. This was a reflection of the time when CE and IT were happy in their two separate worlds but the +RW proponents claim they saw the convergence and wanted a format standard that supported a "greater convergence in function" between the two (PCs and stand alone CE devices).

Of the companies in support of the +RW standard mentioned above, Sony, Philips and Thomson were also founding members of the older DVD Forum offering the competing -RW standard. So the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray format war is really just an extension of the former battle between the +RW alliance and the (dash) -RW group.

In late 2003 that same DVD forum elected to create the successor of the DVD, first called the advanced optical disc or AOD and then changed to HD-DVD. Blu-ray was developed outside the purview of the DVD forum, and never submitted to the group for consideration.

We see this announcement as an iterative improvement on a popular standard that will have limited impact on consumer devices. While the new +RW does double the disk capacity of the media-it will likely not supplant plans to include HD-DVD or Blu-ray players and eventually recorders in PCs, laptops and stand alone devices.

The 8 cm version of the disk will be particularly useful in direct-record camcorder devices and other like applications, but since the +RW will ship, in an environment of yet another unresolved format war this time over HD content capacity, its impact is likely to be far less than originally envisioned. -SS