HD-DVD, BLU-RAY, TAIYO YUDEN, THAT'S, PLEXTOR

With Toshiba HD-DVD and Sony Blu-Ray coming out in the market slowly, one wonders how expensive these babies will cost?

Well, just read about some Blu-Ray offerings by Sony with the new Vaio as well as some desktop ROMs. Now, one wonders how much will the media cost? How big is the capacity anyway?

So far, I heard about 25GB, 50GB and 100GB Blu-Ray discs. 100GB? WTF! On a single disc?!!! Oh, the Sony PS3 will run on Blu-Ray and that is what is causing the delay of the console to be released. There are tonnes of movies released already. How long does it take to burn a disc? With 2x burning speeds for BD-R or BD-RE media, you can fill a 25GB Blu-ray disc in 50 minutes, and the guessing for 50GB discs should fill at a similar rate with a Sony BWU-100A Blu-Ray burner.

On the other side of the challenge, you have the Toshiba HD-DVD. What about its capacity? Well, you have 15GB, 20GB, 30GB and 32GB (under development) medias released so far.

Now, you are worried that the DVD media market has not stabilized before these two technologies already start coming knocking on our door? Yeah, in the past, CD-R took more time to reach maturity and in those days, nobody is the better burner than Plextor. I remember the extremely expensive CD writer I invested and they never ever fail a burn! Incredible! Talk about perfect reliability!

DVD has less time to settle down and mature so there is no one rightful winner for reliability. Well, so far Tom's Hardware did highlight two good ones by NEC and Toshiba in terms of overall performance - NEC ND-3540A and Toshiba SDR-5472. Well, now let's go into DVD media. Millions of people have voiced their concern to me that they fear their DVD storage data won't last long. There has been many many rumours spreading around about the lack of lifespan of DVD media. If you burn alot of data on the DVD+R, DVD-R,DVD+R W, DVD-R W (all standard 4.7GB) and DVD+R DL (dual layer which is 8.5GB), you are worried even which format and standard you should use.

Still, what media brand you should trust for the lack of lifespan and data lost as time goes by? Well, trust me, go get yourself a Taiyo Yuden, it release DVD media under its own name for OEM but for other company, it is released under That's. Yes, the name of the company is called That's. Why Taiyo Yuden? Well, I hope the next paragraph will convince you enough.

"Used by professionals for mastering around the world, Japanese-made TaiyoYuden is made by the inventor of the CD-R disc. Taiyo Yuden has the widest playback compatibility, the lowest error rates in recording, and comes with a 100-year data integrity guarantee. Taiyo Yuden media is with lacquer, thermal printable, white and silver inkjet-printable, and hub printable surfaces."

Then, what about fake ones? How to identify it? There has been news of the fraud lately. Let me give you a link.

Authentic Taiyo Yuden Identification

So with a 100 year data integrity guarantee, are you still worried of your data being lost through time in your DVD? Well, Taiyo Yuden DVD media is more expensive than those you can find in the market but if it can last 100 years for your important data, why be so stingy? I don't know whether it is easy for you guys to find it in Malaysia but even in Singapore, we always have to depend on Japanese orders once a while.

Still, there are many reports that DVDs can last the most 3-4 years under good care and some around a year before they become not readable. Therefore, store your DVDs well beyond direct sunlight and not in high humidity and moisture area, even if it is Taiyo Yuden.

The moral of the story? When it comes to new technology and reliable technology evolutions, you just have to believe in the Japanese. They are still among the most advanced human beings on this planet.