http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/ Engadget HD Comments for Verbatim gears up to ship 2x HD DVD-R discs http://www.engadgethd.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadgethd.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/
True, for the same money you can get double sized Blu-ray with more widely available choice of burners and cheaper discs :)

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Yes, their timing isn't ... er ... wonderful, but HD DVD still is not dead. It's merely has "just a flesh wound". :) But depending on the cost, this could still be a way to keep HD DVD alive in the data realm. From what I've seen, a 25 GB Blu-ray disk runs about $25, about $1 per GB. If Verbatim can run with a better price than that, say $10 for 15 GB, that could make HD DVD a more viable alternative to BD for data storage. Yes, it's still more expensive than four DVD-Rs, but it's far more convenient to back up on one disc than having to back up onto four DVD-Rs.

Of course, as was mentioned already, I have yet to see an HD DVD writer, although there seem to be quite a number of BD writers. If Toshiba can get their asses in gear and get more HD DVD writers out there at an affordable price, then it's very possible to say rumors of HD DVD's death (at least with respect to data storage) are greatly exaggerated.]]>Jan 7th 2008 9:40AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/
Who gives a f**k about studio support, right? ]]>Jan 7th 2008 10:29AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/Jan 7th 2008 10:41AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/
25GB Blu-ray disks run around $12 - $18 normally if you look

http://www.shop4tech.com/z/Blu_ray_Media/1_299/

http://www.datamediastore.com/cd-dvd-optical-media-blu-ray-discs.html

If your patient and keep your eyes out for sales I've gotten them as cheap as $6 per disk]]>Jan 7th 2008 10:47AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/
I think the most pertinent part of your assessment is the "It's merely a flesh wound" quote, which seems to be the attitude of Toshiba, but we all know how it went ;)]]>Jan 7th 2008 10:33AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/Jan 7th 2008 10:41AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/Jan 7th 2008 10:41AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/
Toshiba, if it were smart, would produce a knockout blu-ray player with final specs for $300 and dominate the blu-ray player market....what else would be a better way for Toshiba to benefit from losing the format war?]]>Jan 7th 2008 10:55AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/Jan 7th 2008 12:04PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/verbatim-gears-up-to-ship-2x-hd-dvd-r-discs/
You can't do incremental backups on a hard drive without using up additional hard drive space (obviously), but multiple copies for redundancy or offsite storage requires a whole, new hard drive as opposed to just another blank disc.

Hard drives do not appreciate being unused for long periods of time, which is how most optical media is treated. I've seen a large number of hard drives die very shortly after sitting idle in storage for over a year. Some types of optical media can last up to 30 years if handled and stored properly. Good luck on hard drives coming close to that.

Run out of space? You have to buy a new hard drive, which costs a lot more than buying a blank, optical disc, and you have to spend time transferring that data over. Not a big deal, obviously, but it still could be more of a headache than just popping in another blank disc.

Large-capacity hard drives are fine, but they're still putting all of your eggs in one basket. That would REALLY suck if your primary hard drive died then for some reason a problem is encountered on your external drive that results in the whole thing being lost. (Yes, I have seen that happen, so don't throw any excuses of it being "hypothetically possible" at me.) At least with optical media, you're limiting how much can be lost to a bad disc.

Have you ever formatted the wrong hard drive in a multi-drive system or erased an archival file that shouldn't have been erased? If not, consider yourself to be lucky. At least with write-once optical media, there is no chance of accidentally erasing data.

So, yes, there are most certainly many circumstances in which write-once optical media, while costing more per GB, is a far more favorable alternative to magnetic media. Any other platitudes to throw at us?]]>Jan 7th 2008 12:57PM