Philips Electronics announced that its new 'All Speed' DVD+R blank medium is the first to be approved for 1x up to 16x recording speeds.

This allows consumers to use this single disc at all recording speeds - from real-time 1x video recording speed up to the maximum achievable 16x speeds. A 16x DVD drive writes the full 4.7 GB DVD+R disc in about 5 minutes. Mass volume shipments of this new 16x DVD+R medium will start in August.

The new 1x-16x DVD+R disc was co-developed by Philips Optical Storage and CMC of Taiwan, the world no. 1 manufacturer of recordable DVD media. The disc uses a new Oxonol dye developed by FujiFilm, containing no heavy metals/banned substances conform Philips' strive to relieve the environment. The developments are based on the results of Philips Research's innovations in optical-storage technologies, which include the development of a new write strategy for high-speed writing.

"Consumers like to have a single, robust medium that gives optimum performance in DVD recording regardless of whether they use it for real-time 1x video recording, or archiving their PC data at the maximum 16x write speed," said Cor Saris, CEO of Philips Optical Storage, the business group in Philips responsible for the development and manufacture of DVD media. "Using Philips' latest 1x-16x DVD+R medium, they can record their precious video memories or data files with any DVD+R recorder, no matter if this is one of the latest 16x DVD writers or a legacy DVD+R writer."

The ability to create your own DVD is very popular and sales of recordable DVD discs are approaching CD-R volume levels. Last year the market for recordable DVD grew by over 300% and it is expected that 1.3 billion DVD discs will be sold in 2004. With the increase of DVD writers in the PC, the annual market for DVD recordable media is projected to reach 5.1 billion discs by 2007.

Philips new DVD+R disc was the first 16x media to be approved by the DVD+R/+RW Verification Laboratories Group (DVLG). The format verification laboratories test newly developed DVD+R, DVD+R DL and DVD+RW discs from media manufacturers to verify that read and write performance comply with the standard specifications to ensure optimal recording on discs.

Alongside the Philips Recordable Media brand, the new 1x-16x DVD+R medium will be sold worldwide by several leading recordable media brands under their own brand name. The Philips branded medium will be available in the USA and Europe by end August 2004 at an expected street price of approx. US $1.80 (ex. VAT and levy).

Note: 16x write speeds can only be achieved using 16x capable DVD+R writers.