Samsung Electronics announced its new SE-208BW Optical SMART Hub.
Archive of posts tagged DVD-RAM
Pioneer Unveils BDR-XD04 Portable Blu-ray BDXL Writer
Pioneer Electronics announced its new BDR-XD04 portable Blu-ray Disc (BD) BDXL writer ($149.99).
Pioneer Launches BDR-207JBK Blu-ray BDXL Writer
Pioneer Corporation announced that it will begin shipping its new BDR-207JBK Blu-ray Disc (BD) recorder in Japan early in the new year. No word yet on North American availability.
Rescuing the Golden Goose
The immediate question is, will Blu-ray Disc (BD) recorders, drives, and players read and write all types of CDs and DVDs? Will they clear the fog of application formats and content-protection measures? In last month’s column, I chastised BD device manufacturers for ducking clear answers to these questions. And surveying the broader situation, we see [...]
Blu-ray Disc and the Meaning of Backwards Compatibility
Change is unsettling. But, like it or not, change is once again upon us—this time with the arrival of next generation Blu-ray Disc (BD). Naturally, consumers and even professionals are apprehensive about this new format but, even so, BD’s promoters are doing an embarrassingly poor job of understanding and answering concerns. For example, manufacturers and [...]
Socrates, Pascal, and Multilayer Blu-ray Discs
Socrates tells us that the unexamined life isn’t worth living. The same can be said for business. With scores of product launches and decades of market experience behind it, the optical storage industry has had ample opportunity for introspection. But, sadly, I see little evidence that past experience has entered the minds of manufacturers who, [...]
Just Scratching the Surface: Writable Optical Disc Protection
Let’s face it — writable CDs and DVDs are tough but they can be damaged. Scratches, scrapes, fingerprints, dust, and just plain crud can play havoc with reading and, especially, with writing. Dealing with these everyday realities in ways that keep discs realistically priced and marketable remains a challenge for product designers. Just Scratching the [...]
Enter the Backulator
Question: What do you get when you cross a data backup system with an automated optical disc duplicator? Answer: A “backulator!”
CD-Erasable: It’s a Wipe Out
Don’t mess with success. That’s a lesson Coca Cola had to learn the hard way. Maybe it’s just me, but I think CD-Recordable (CD-R) is a proven success that should not risk being undermined by CD-Erasable, which is, in my opinion, of questionable advantage and may confuse the established market.
DVD: A Problem Ignored
Now just a darned minute! Wasn’t the new high-density DVD/DVD-ROM specification supposed to be backwards compatible? Wasn’t it implied that DVD drives could play existing CD-Recordable discs?
