DVD Begins Market Attack ..............................
digitaltheater.com
Computer Reseller News via Individual Inc. : Make no mistake about it:The arrival of
Digital Videodisc (DVD)-ROM is sounding the death knell for CD-
ROM. Boasting more features and greater capacity, DVD-ROM is expected to take the
market by storm.
While industry participants agree that DVD technology is revolutionary, its application
is evolutionary. In fact, the least threatening way to think about DVD is that it is like a
CD with more bits on it, said Werner Blinka, director of marketing at Hitachi America
Computer Division, Brisbane, Calif.
Perhaps the best news for resellers is that DVD technology comes with a road
map:read/write and write-once discs, audio and video capability, and backward- read
compatibility with existing CDs.
As the technology arrives, resellers need to begin evaluating DVD products, prepare
customers to move to DVD, and match corporate applications to DVD technology where
appropriate.
"Give customers what they want and don't make imprudent CD-ROM purchasing
decisions and end up sitting on obsolete stock," said Jim Hamilton, an analyst at
Freeman Associates, Santa Barbara, Calif.
With its roots in the entertainment industry, the development of DVD evolved to meet
the requirements of the entertainment and computer industries.
Unlike CDs, which are a one-sided technology, a DVD disc uses two bonded substrates
that allow for double-sided recording. Enhanced laser technology enables the pits on
the DVD discs to be smaller and packed more tightly, thereby increasing overall
capacity.
According to DVD manufacturers, the physical format, or symmetry, of a single DVD
disc makes it more reliable and resilient to temperature changes, humidity and other
environmental conditions.
All major DVD manufacturers-Hitachi, Toshiba American Information Systems Inc.,
Irvine, Calif.; Matsushita Electronic Corp. of America, Secaucus, N.J.; and Sony
Electronics Inc.'s Computer Components and Peripherals Group, San Jose, Calif.-are in
talks with PC manufacturers with the goal of getting desktop system vendors to
incorporate DVD drives into products by year's end.
A few PC manufacturers offer DVD drives on high-end products, such as The IBM PC
Co., Panasonic Personal, Secaucus, N.J., and Toshiba. "The real impact of DVD in PCs
will be seen next year," said Mary Bourdon, a senior industry analyst at Dataquest Inc.,
Stanford, Conn.
This summer, Panasonic introduced the CF-63 notebook computer, with a 166MHz CPU
with MMX technology and integrated DVD-ROM and MPEG-2 hardware playback.
Toshiba, offers a slim-line DVD-ROM drive that targets notebook manufacturers. It also
offers a half-height family of DVD drives, said Maciek Brezeski, director of the optical
business unit at Toshiba.
The SD-C2002, designed for notebook integration, is a second-generation drive that
uses Constant Angular Velocity (CAV) disc rotation to enable fast data transfers from
any place on the disc. The data-transfer rate for DVD media is 2,700 Kbits per second
and 2,400 Kbps for CD media.
The internal DVD product also features 110ms average random seek and 180ms average
random access when playing DVD media. When accessing CD media, the SD- C2002
provides 110ms average random seek and 120ms average random access, the company
said.
While industry participants agree DVD will obscure CD technology, the threat will
become more real between 1999 and 2000. Several events will spur the adoption of DVD,
such as the availability of software content; drops in OEM pricing; the release, and
support for DVD, of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 98; and the decline and eventual halt of
traditional CD technology.
The introduction of CD-ROM products that work at speeds beyond 32X is up for
debate. "We believe that 32X may be the limit for CD-ROM," said Bob DeMoulin,
marketing manager for value-added products at Sony.
Like other DVD manufacturers, Sony has been shipping DVD Video players-in its case,
for about eight months-and DVD-ROM for about six months.
Its DDU100E series of DVD-ROM drives are bundled with an add-in card and driver and
multimedia software needed to bring MPEG2 playback to PCs, Sony said. The product is
designed to be an add-on or replacement device and is priced at $499.
Many industry players agree that CD-ROM technology has reached its technological
peak. "There was a speed war, but that will stop," said Robert Duncan, senior project
engineer at Matsushita, adding that customers looking for a higher-featured CD-ROM
will purchase DVD.
LYNN HABER is a freelance writer based in Norwell, Mass.
Copyright (c) 1997 CMP Media Inc.
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[Copyright 1997, CMP Publications] |
