Most consumers have stayed away from recordable DVDs, since there’s a blizzard of competing acronyms representing different, incompatible media and disk formats. DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD-RAM – it’s a mess, and it’s long overdue for one of the formats to emerge as the market leader. Only then will new devices flood the market and prices come down.
Microsoft has decided to join Dell and HP in championing DVD+RW, which might help tip the scales in favor of that format. Here’s an article about Microsoft’s announcement and its likely effect. Lots of folks are equally determined to have another format prevail (Apple and Compaq are firm supporters of DVD-RW, for example), so this isn’t over yet. But perhaps by the end of the year a DVD recorder will be looking like a good Xmas present.
