Victor's single-sided 8.5GB DVD-RW coming in August

While everyone is up in arms over the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD debate, Victor is creeping up from behind with some fresh DVD technology that you never even saw coming. The Japanese company has created a new variation on the DVD-RW format with a single-sided, two-layer disc that can handle up to 8.5GB of data on one side. Up until now, if you wanted to get that much onto a rewritable, you would have had to use a dual-sided disk, but it would appear that Victor has found a way around those problems. No telling if this opens the door for a double-sided, two-layer disc with 17GB of capacity, but it sure does seem to be heading in that direction.

[Via Impress]

[Bagel @ Jul 4th 2007 1:21AM]

dual layer dvd's have been around for a while....

[Nick @ Jul 4th 2007 1:29AM]

I think most of the current dual-layer discs are single-write and not RW.

[NightShade15 @ Jul 4th 2007 1:32AM]

This article speaks of duel layered discs, and then double sided ontop of that.
so I mean, it talks of 17gbs on one disc, but you have to flip to the other side... like a cassette! lol This is kind of old news, they use this for movies with one side being full screen and one wide screen, or one side having the full length movie, and one side having the special features.
Except for home use.
So to recap what I said in English, yes, they have been around, they are double sided, and we are talking about DVD-RWs.

[magixx @ Jul 4th 2007 10:51AM]

The first time Terminator two came out on DVD it was on a disc that had dual layers on both sides, they are called DVD18. Here is a bit more info:

DVD18
DVD18 is a double sided dual layer DVD which can fit up to 17 GB or 15.9 computer GB which some commercial video DVDs are using today (a DVD18 is basicly four pressed plastic DVD5s pressed together, they are not burned). Video DVD supports this format but DVD-R/W and DVD+R/W does not support this format.

[Zzephyr @ Jul 4th 2007 1:29AM]

I have always found DVD-RW to be too unreliable. It will take a goodly amount of positive news to turn that ship around. Until then, no thanks.

[NightShade15 @ Jul 4th 2007 1:33AM]

What I'd like to see is triple layered discs, but I have a feeling that all DVD players cannot read triple layered discs. What a shame.

[Bagel @ Jul 4th 2007 1:36AM]

Oh, nick was right, i wasnt reading the article carefully enough, still seems a bit late in the game though in terms of usefulness.

[humpty @ Jul 4th 2007 1:55AM]

meh

[Reader @ Jul 4th 2007 2:00AM]

Joshua,
Maybe I'm misreading your article, but it really seems like your suggesting this is the first DVD that can hold 8.5 GB on one side. Now it's probably the first re-writable DVD that can do that, but I happen to have some single-sided 8.5 GB DVDs on my desk right now.

On the topic of the article. I've never really seen too much use for RW discs and have heard they are unreliable, but I've never tried them either.

[Ed @ Jul 4th 2007 2:24AM]

Not only that, JVC did this a year ago: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?A=details&kw=JVDMWDL22J&is=REG&Q=&O=productlist&sku=463521


• 8.56GB single-sided, dual-layer, DVD-RW rewritable DVD
• High-capacity 2x write speed.

Looks like Joshua believed the PR rep/press release a bit too much. Happens to the best of us.

[Jamar @ Jul 4th 2007 5:23AM]

JVC is called Victor in Japan (whereas its US counterpart disappeared long before most of the readers here were born).

[Ed @ Jul 4th 2007 1:53PM]

Hey, thanks! Now I look a little stupid :) Still, it's weird that JVC/Victor is re-announcing something they announced at CES 06.

[dream_scape @ Jul 4th 2007 2:29AM]

Yeah, sorry... this is old news, a la CES 2006: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/05/jvc_to_ship_dual-layer_dvd-rw_q2/

[rokerovakero @ Jul 4th 2007 2:30AM]

mmmmm... is this new? I been using these for 2 years... don't get it...

[anon @ Jul 4th 2007 2:58AM]

"two-layer disc that can handle up to 8.5GB of data on one side. Up until now, if you wanted to get that much onto a DVD, you would have had to use a dual-sided disk"

Joshua is confused, should at least check up on the wikipedia on some details about double sided and dual layer discs.

Ed, JVC is Victor. JVC = Victor Company of Japan, and the page you linked to clearly says that this product is "new - coming soon"

dream_scape, having a company claiming at a tradeshow that a product coming soon is different to actually releasing the product. Some tradeshow products never end up on the market, despite what the company reps claim.

rokerovakero, you also likely to be confused about what this is exactly about. The format DVD-RW DL was approved only recently, September of 2006, to be exact. You have have used a DVD-RW SL or even a DVD-R DL, but unlikely a DVD-RW DL.

[Ionut Popa @ Jul 4th 2007 3:10AM]

I think the article tries to say that DVD-RW single sided, dual-layer are something new, as regular DVD-R single sided, dual layer have existed for a long time. It was time for -RW to catch up with the pack. Anyway there's a real missinterpretation problem with this article...

[ENA5TEE @ Jul 4th 2007 3:46AM]

"a single-sided, two-layer disc that can handle up to 8.5GB of data on one side"...

My Verbatim DVD+R DL are 8.5gb...any dual layer is for that matter. I agree that the author should be stressing the new format rather than the size. 8.5gb on a single side is definitely not news.

[KC @ Jul 4th 2007 5:19AM]

Which means that you will need to buy a new dvd reader/writer to use this new format... which begs me to ask the question "why?" when you can get a BD or HD-DVD writer for more capacity?

[tekdroid @ Jul 4th 2007 7:29AM]

cost and compatibility probably has something to do with it :)

[david @ Jul 4th 2007 8:59AM]

well who cares if its rw or not. no one will buy it becasue it will probably cost more then normal dual layer which are quite a bit more then regular dvds. you can buy 10 dvds for the price of one dual layer dvd. so its going to be like 20 dvds for every 1 dl rw dvd. this is stupid, and plus what would you rather, 50 gbs (bluray) or 17? hmmm... and plus dual layers take longer to burn the regular dvds, so your times not worht it. who would need 17 gbs on one single dvd?

[Galley @ Jul 4th 2007 10:06AM]

BD-RE, FTW!

[Carbonize @ Jul 4th 2007 3:28PM]

Anybody else not surprised at Engadget reporting on a story they found on another website and not bothering to actually do any research on that story first?

[jonathanavery @ Jul 4th 2007 7:41PM]

Disc format whatever!

I'm sure my 3 year old NEC DVD-RW supports DVD-R DVD-RW DVD+R DVD+RW and the Dual Layer for both. Thing is when my drive costs £30 (then) and supports all these (now, or whenever they were launched). I can now buy 50 discs 16x for £11.99 (single layer). Even though before I bought this drive dual layer r discs were available.

Why if they can support the burning did they not launch the 8Gb discs way back in 1998 when these were available for films?

It's all a rip off until the next format war. I'm waiting for post Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

Just rip it to HD or SSD who we consume it anyway!