Lite-On's '04 Roadmap

Dang... seems that I have to postpone my purchases. Dual layer is an unbeatable feature. Even if there is no media support yet.

Cheers,

Jan
 
I have my reservations about DL being reliable at first....just look at CD-RW, only a couple of the media manufacturers can produce good quality discs.

The 16x appearing so soon, however, is what looks really interesting to me....but once again, its a question of when good, reliable media becomes available too
 
hmm.. after looking at that I just might get a DVD burner now... my gf wants one... I assume to burn movies and possibly make backups.

Do set-top players read dual layer? For somereason I was thinking that it was part of the original DVD spec, but may have not been implemented in DVD movies... and thus probably not supported in set tops.
 
blakerwry said:
Do set-top players read dual layer? For somereason I was thinking that it was part of the original DVD spec, but may have not been implemented in DVD movies... and thus probably not supported in set tops.
Click to expand...

Almost all commercial DVDs are dual-layer. You can see a slight pause in the movie when it switches layers.
 
blakerwry said:
hmm.. after looking at that I just might get a DVD burner now... my gf wants one... I assume to burn movies and possibly make backups.

Do set-top players read dual layer? For somereason I was thinking that it was part of the original DVD spec, but may have not been implemented in DVD movies... and thus probably not supported in set tops.
Click to expand...
Many movies are dual-layer. Set-top boxes have no problem with them. I can't say, of course, how the STB will respond to a dual-layer R/RW disc, though.

FWIW, I'm perfectly happy with my new burner. Pioneer 106 4x. No coasters so far after burning about 8 or 10 fairly full data discs.
 
Well, while most STB's have no problem (i.e. the transition is seamless), there are (as Steve alluded) many that have a slight pause, and on older machines, the pause can be quite pronounced.
 
BTW, for anyone like Blake who is considering an immediate purchase, there are people who are currently working on a hack of the LiteOn 401s or 411s firmware and EPPROM which effectively gives you a 811s. Early results look very encouraging....of course you negate your warranty, but I suppose if you were to ever run into difficulties with the drive and it still functions, you could flash back to its original firmware/EPPROM.
 
CityK said:
Well, while most STB's have no problem (i.e. the transition is seamless), there are (as Steve alluded) many that have a slight pause, and on older machines, the pause can be quite pronounced.
Click to expand...
Sure. Even my player has a slight pause .. maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of a second. But it's not a problem. And it certainly beats the 7 seconds or so it takes to change sides on a laserdisc.
 
Yep. Didn't the older LD's players require that you manually flip the disc too?
 
Some older DVDs require a flip, too.

One of the features on my oldest DVD mega-changer is that it identifies and automatically plays the second side of two-sided DVDs from Sony Pictures.
 
CityK said:
Yep. Didn't the older LD's players require that you manually flip the disc too?
Click to expand...
Lower-end units typically didn't offer a side-change feature. Mid- and hi-end did. Do, actually, since at least Pioneer still sells 1 DVD/LD combi player.

The reason, BTW, for the flip was that a single side of an LD stored either 30 or 60 minutes of video. Since no compression was used, they just can't store a full length movie on a single side.

Merc, I don't think it's just older DVDs. I still run across the occasional dual-sided disc. Mostly it's WS on one side and P&S on the other so a flip wouldn't actually be necessary while watching. Really long movies, like LotR, usually just go for a second disc. Wiser, to me, since a double-sided DVD has very little room for labelling.
 
Why would you need to go to a second disk? You can fit over 9GB (four hours or so) on a single side.

You should be able to fit the Godfather Saga on two sides of a single disk.
 
When DVD-ROM was a new format, dual-layer disks were not available for pressing. Dual-sided discs are still cheaper than dual-layer (the layers have to be pressed seperately), so some (ahem) video companies still use them.

If you really want, there are dual-sided blank DVD-Rs, too.

The DVD standard also supports a ~18GB dual-layer, dual side format. *I've* never seen one but it's in the spec.
 
You can fit over 9GB (four hours or so) on a single side.
Click to expand...
Not quite. DVD-9 has a capacity of 8.54GB (7.95 Gibibytes). First layer holds 4.7GB (~4.3Gibibytes) and the second 3.8GB (~3.6 Gibibytes).
 
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