Your 8x DVD+R drive might write dual layer discs

November 13, 2003

One of the most exciting technologies in the
optical storage industry is at currently the dual layer disc. Both the DVD+RW
Alliance and Pioneer have announced their technologies, but the DVD+RW Alliance
also announced real products based on this format. In an article on Twice.com we can read that both HP and Philips will
be the first to feature dual layer DVD+R drives, HP gets the honour to introduce
the external one, Philips will be the first introducing an internal
dual layer drive.

Besides this information, and the information that the
drives will probably hit the market in the first half of 2004 in the U.S., there
is also an intresting part of the article that talks about the compatibililty
with existing DVD recorders, according to the article it's not totally unlikely
that current 8x DVD+R will be able to write to the dual layer discs.

Existing
DVD+R recorders won't write to either layer of the new dual-layer discs,
but Driessen help out the hope for possible software upgrades, possibly
combined with an IC change, to make it possible for current 8x DVD+R
recording drives to write to both layers. The lasers of recorders with
slower writing speeds lack the intensity to write to the semitransparent
top layer or to the lower layer, Driessen said.

Once Philips and partner Mitsubishi Kagaku
Media finalize the spec, they'll know whether an upgrade to existing 8x
recorders is possible, he
noted.