Prodisc Boosts DVD-R Capacity Martyn Williams, IDG News ServiceTue May 24,11:00 AM ET Prodisc Technology has developed a DVD-R disc that can hold 200MB more data than current discs and plans to unveil it at next week's Computex show in Taiwan. The disc has a capacity of 4.9GB, versus 4.7GB for a conventional DVD-R. The extra capacity was realized by reducing the gap between the successive turns of the disc's spiral recording track. By reducing the gap, also called the track pitch, a longer track can be fitted onto the disc and so more data can be stored. Because the track pitch has been changed, the new disc won't be compatible with all current DVD drives. Fifteen drives from major drive makers offer full support for the disc, which means allowing storage of up to 4.9GB, says Bryan Huang of Prodisc's storage media research and development department. The company has an additional list of about 100 drives which offer partial support, such as allowing storage up to 4.7GB only or slower recording speeds. An additional 26 consumer DVD-R video recorders also offer partial support. Prodisc, based in Taipei, hasn't determined if the disc meets the DVD-R specification, which allows for a certain margin of error in track pitch, says Huang. The DVD Format Licensing and Logo Corp., responsible for issuing licenses that allow the use of the DVD logo, says it has yet to receive compliance testing information for the disc and so can't make a judgment. Full Support The 15 drives with full support are: Behaviour Tech Computer's (BTC) DRW1108IM BenQ's DW1620LG Electronics' GSA-4082B and GSA4120B Lite-On Technology's SOHW-1613S NEC's ND-3500A Optorite's DD0401 Pioneer's DVR-107D and DVR108 Plextor's PX-708A and PX-712A Ricoh's MP-5308D Samsung Electronics' SH-W08A Teac's DV-W58D Toshiba's SD-R5272 Prodisc will show the disc under its SmartBuyDisc brand at Computex, which runs in Taipei from May 31 to June 4.
