Philips announced the DVDRW424 DVD+R/+RW drive supporting 4x speed on DVD+RW and DVD+R discs. The drive will be officially demonstrated in CeBiT 2003, Hanover. Mass production of the Philips drive will start in June Philips Electronics introduces its new DVD+R/+RW data drive that offers a 4x writing speed on DVD+RW and DVD+R media. The DVDRW424 allows consumers to record their home videos, photo albums and PC data on a 4.7 Gbyte DVD in less than 15 minutes. The drive features a 4x write/rewrite speed on DVD+R and DVD+RW discs, a 8x DVD read speed, 24x CD recording and 10x for CD rewriting, making it one of the most versatile drives on the market.

The drive is build on the key advantages of the DVD+RW format, and there is no need to include another format into this drive", says Henk Veldhuis, Product Marketing Manager for Philips Optical Storage. "It has the great benefit of being compatible with most existing DVD playback devices and adding other formats will not result in any performance improvement, only creating confusion at the customer level."

With the drive, the consumer can record video, pictures, and data onto a DVD+RW or DVD+R disc in less than 15 minutes, and burn an audio, picture or data CD in just a few minutes. The DVDRW424 include software to not only record moments, but also edit them, which can be played back on the majority of DVD Video and DVD ROM drives. It is Mount Rainier compliant, making writing to DVD as well as CD as simple as using the floppy drive.

Mass production of the Philips drive will start in June, and will be made available to both PC OEM customers and in Philips branded kits for the aftermarket.

Key features
4x DVD+R write and 4x DVD+RW rewrite speed
8x DVD read speed
24x CD-R write speed
10x CD-RW rewrite speed
40x CD read speed
Mount Rainier compliant for DVD and CD writing with the simplicity of a floppy disk.

Software packages
- Sonic MyDVD 5.0
- Cyberlink PowerDVD 4.0
- Pinnacle Studio 8SE
- Ahead Software Nero Burning ROM 5.5, en InCD 3