Storage Media: DVD-RW :: Technology Computer Essays

Storage Media: DVD-RW The evolution of faster computers and larger computer programs has made it necessary to develop newer and faster ways to store large masses of data. Constant advances from 5 Â ¼ inch floppies, to 3 Â ½ inch floppies, to high capacity floppies, to zip drives, to CD-RW drives make it seem like by the time you upgrade, the technology is already obsolete. So what is the near future of storage media. The newest storage media that is rapidly advancing on the CD-RW is the DVD-RW. DVD-RW drives are decreasing in price, almost as fast as they’re increasing in speed. Over the last 18 months, their price has cut in half, and it’s easy to see that in the near future, DVD-RW drives will be the standard for storage media. According to J. B. Miles of Government Computer News, Rewritable DVD drives are on their way to becoming indispensable tools for PC users. It won't be long until they replace rewritable CD drives. DVD rewritables are hard to beat when it comes to capacity and versatility. They can read, write and rewrite up to 4.7G of information per disk side and will read both DVD-ROM disks and most CDs, so those music CDs you've collected won't be wasted. (Miles 2002) Currently there are two major formats competing to become the standard in DVD-R and RW. The formats are DVD+R and DVD-R. In the past it’s been hard to decide which to invest in when purchasing a new DVD-RW drive, however, recently released DVD-RW drives such as Sony’s DRU-500A are able to write in both formats. Not only does this new Sony drive write DVD+RW and +R at 2.4X, it also writes the competing DVD-R and DVD-RW formats at 4X and 2X, twice as fast as current dedicated DVD-R and DVD-RW drives. On top of that it is also able to burn CD-Rs at 24X and CD-RWs at 10X. This could be very beneficial considering the low cost of CD-Rs compared to DVD-Rs. The technology doesn’t stop with the DVD Drives. The actual DVDs will be experiencing upgrades as well. Faster and faster write speeds will cut down on the time it takes to write you 4.7 Gigabytes. Maxell has recently announced they are releasing their newest DVD line in February 2002.