Philips starts shipments of its 16x DVD+R/+RW writer with double layer functionality to leading PC manufacturers

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, June 28, 2004

Recently, Philips Electronics announced that it has started shipments of its new 16x DVD writer to main PC manufacturers who will integrate the drives as standard in their new PC systems over coming season. As the first DVD writer manufacturer to ship 8x drives to PC OEMs last September, Philips again leads the competition with the first shipments of its 16x DVD writer with double layer (DVD+R DL) write capability. Philips expects 16x DVD writers to become mainstream for PC systems by the end of 2004 and plans to have productions volume at 600 k units/month in anticipation of the expected increase in market demand.

"Consumers massively embraced the DVD video format and now want to create their own DVDs," says Cor Saris, CEO of Philips Optical Storage, the business group in Philips responsible for the development and manufacture of DVD writers. "With the current prices in DVD recorders and DVD writers, the market has reached the price level that will stimulate mass-market adoption."

End users will benefit from the full multimedia experience of the latest PCs equipped as standard with Philips' latest high-performance DVD+R/+RW writer. Featuring 16x write speeds on DVD+R media and up to 8.5 Gbytes of storage capacity on DVD+R DL media, it will allow consumers to create a DVD in less then 6 minutes or to record up to 4 hours of DVD quality video on a single side of one disc. As the Philips DVD writers are fully tested and qualified to work in PCOEMs' new systems, the consumer is guaranteed optimal performance and maximum DVD creation pleasure, without the hassle of having to install this high-performance DVD writer.

Philips' latest DVD+R/+RW writer offers the consumer the highest performance and flexibility not only in DVD creation (16x write DVD+R, 2.4x DVD+R DL, 4x rewrite DVD+RW, 16x read DVD-ROM), but also in CD creation (40x write CD-R, 24x rewrite CD, 40x read CD-ROM) making it today's most versatile high-performance storage device integrated in standard PCs.

Next to sales to PCOEM, Philips branded drives DVDR1640K will be sold in the aftermarket as a complete kit in Europe by July 2004.