Sony hedges bets with DVD formats

Thanks to our own configure for this peice of news, he was stuck up with some work. ;)

The consumer electronics giant has begun shipping to retailers DVD+RW drives and discs, which should be available to consumers by the end of the month. At the same time, Sony is continuing to support competing DVD rewritable formats--an unusual decision in the industry.

Sony's move comes amid an ongoing donnybrook in the DVD rewritable market. There are several formats, including DVD-RW, DVD-RAM and DVD+RW, that are competing to become the industry standard. However, each format offers its own advantages and challenges.

DVD-RW is mainly for people looking to record video and play it on consumer DVD players. But that format isn't as convenient for data storage as are DVD-RAM and DVD+RW, which allow drive owners to store data randomly, like a hard drive does. In addition, consumers can only record once per session with DVD-RW drives, meaning that if people want to add a video clip to others already on a disc, they must erase the entire disc and record all the video clips at once.

DVD+RW discs can "essentially act like a big floppy," which is why Sony is supporting the format, Sony marketing manager Bob DeMoulin said this week.

News source: CNet's News.com