No end in sight for DVD standards war

The continuing battle between the DVD-Ram and DVD+RW standards is getting more intense, with rival and sometimes contradictory accusations being thrown around at this year's CeBIT trade show in Hanover.

HP recently signed a deal making it the first volume PC shipper to include DVD-Ram technology on its PCs. The move sparked new confidence among members of the Ram Promotions Group.

"I am confident that DVD-Ram will beat DVD+RW," said Anthony Jasionowski, group manager of strategic planning at Panasonic and spokesman for the Ram Promotions Group.

"Sixty per cent of the world's optical recording products are DVD-Ram. While we are strong in the consumer electronics field, the move by HP will help us in the PC field."

In terms of geography the US and Asia are strongly behind DVD-Ram while the majority of European users choose DVD+RW.

Jasionowski pointed out that Ram discs also offer much better quality viewing than the alternatives. Other features such as on-disc editing and better fault tolerance are also winning customers, he claimed, particularly in Europe where the +RW camp is strongest.

Finally Jasionowski promised that by the end of the year DVD-Ram would be the fastest DVD recording technology on the market when a new x16 speed player would be launched.

But his remarks drew criticism from the DVD+RW Alliance. "To put [the HP deal] in perspective it agreed that Panasonic will include +format in its consumer video recorders as part of it," said Hans Gressen, promotions chairman for the DVD+RW Alliance.

"All PC writers currently sold include the + format, basically because the market demand is there and we can store more than any other. All formats are out there but, if you look at what at the end user is actually using, +RW is very strong."