Verbatim announced the new the 4x Omnia DVD+R/ReWritable drive. Omnia can write to 4x DVD+R and DVD+RW media and can also write to CD-R, CD-RW and high-speed CD-RW. In order to prevent those dreaded playback errors, both DVD+RW and DVD+R disks that are recorded in the Omnia drive can be played back on a wide variety of DVD players. This also applies to DVD-ROM drives. It can also read DVD Video, DVD-ROM, CD Audio and CD-ROM. A suite of software is supplied as standard with the Omnia drive. This includes Ahead’s Nero 5 Burning ROM for drag ‘n’ drop CD authoring and Sonic My DVD Video Suite and Cine Player with Arcsoft’s Showbiz. This allows the easy creation of home videos and business presentations in a fully integrated video production centre.

Omnia 4x also features buffer under runs protection so there is no wasted recordable media. It works by writing data onto the disk in small increments. In order to prevent consumers having to undertake unnecessary tasks, and to save time, DVD+RW media are formatted in the background so users do not have to format them.

Omnia is supplied with 4x DVD+R and +RW media with the drive, allowing users to be up and running as soon as possible. The drive is expected to have a street price of approx. €260