The DVD+RW Alliance announced today it has released the specifications for 12x/16x DVD+R DL recording. The new v1.2 standard covers the 12x and the 16x burning speed for DVD+R DL media, a significant upgrade to the currently supported speed of 8x. The total burning time when recording at 16x will be 9 minutes (8.5GB), according to the DVD+RW Alliance.

Currently, Plextor and Pioneer are offering DVD burners capable of writing on selected 8x DVD+R DL media at 10x. Both 12x/16x new media and drives are expected in the market by the end of this year. However, the DVD+RW Alliance did not clarify whether the 12x/16x DVD+R DL media will be compatible with all recording devices, even at lower recording speeds.

The 12X speed on 8cm DVD+R DL media is also expected to be among the main focus of the DVD+RW Alliance.

In the meantime, the DVD Forum has approved the 10x and 12x DVD-R DL recording standards last November.

The DVD+RW Alliance is an industry group that supports DVD+R/+RW formats and develops the corresponding specifications. The participating companies in the group include Hewlett Packard, Mitsubishi Chemical Media (Inc.), Royal Philips electronics, Ricoh, SONY and Yamaha.