An annual DVD Forum meeting took place at Japan at 7th of October. Many interesting issues were discussed such as DVD-R DL, 16X DVD-R and 6X DVD-RW... * Introduced the concept of "Class" to indicate the drive's re-production compatibility issues for different formats of DVD-R/RW/RAM as the next picture shows



* Introduction of different DVD Books of the new supported higher recording speeds:



* DVD-R DL format: Many interesting news here, Mr. Taniguchi from Pioneer Japan introduced the subject with the following main points:

Concept of Dual Layer DVD-R = Keep same concept as current DVD-R

- User data capacity is 8.54GB per side for 12cm and 2.66GB for a 8cm discs.
- Recorded disc characteristics are conformed to those of Dual Layer Read-only Disc. The recorded DVD-R DL disc is equivelant to a Dual Layer DVD Read-Only disc in playability
- Dual Layer DVD-R Specifications keep the concept of DVD-R copy management of which security is the same as that of the current DVD-R Specifications
- Dual Layer DVD-R disc is not expected before, therefore there are some players or drive to refuse record or playaback of the disc even they are designed following the current specification. However that is rather smal fraction of existing devices
- Compliance to playback of the Dual Layer DVD-R disc will be recommended to player manufactureres

* Unrecorded Disc Specifications:

- Basic Recording specs:
2X-speed (Revision 0.0, Class 0, v2.9 specs)
4X-speed recording conditions will be made as Revision 1.0 optional specifications

- Write strategy
Same as that of 8x-sped and the lenght of the off pulse can be selectable using 4bits currently reserved in the write strategy code field.

- Optimum recording power
42.0mW as the upper limit for both of 2x and 4x-speed (tentative)

- Addressing method
Wobble and LPP as same as single layer

OuteLine of 16X DVD-R Revision 6.0
* Class of a 16x-speed DVD-R disc: Class0, no other Class is defined
* Optional Speficiations to be made: 16X-Speed DVD-R (Revision6.0) and 12X-Speed DVD-R (Revision 5.0)
* Write Strategy: Same as 8X-speed DVD-R write strategy including the range of each parameter
* Optimum recording power: 50.0mW as the upper limit
* Mandatory recording speeds for a 16X/1X and a 12X/1X disc:
- 1X, 4X, 8X and 16X (Revision 0.0, 1.0, 3.0 and 6.0) for a 16X/1X disc
- 1X, 4X, 8X and 12X (Revision 0.0, 1.0, 3.0 and 5.0) for a 12X/1X disc
* Others: Other items shall keep the current specifications, write strategy code and RMD fields are expanded according to the current manner.

OuteLine of 6X DVD-RW Spec
* Class of a 6x-speed DVD-RW disc: Class1, other than Class0 and Class1 is not defined
* Optional Speficiations to be made: 6X-Speed DVD-RW (Revision 3.0)
* Write Strategy: Same as 4X-speed DVD-RW write strategy (2T as mandatory and 1T as optional)
* Optimum recording power: 32.0mW and 15.0mW as the upper limit respectively
* Mandatory recording speeds for a 6X/2X:
- 2X and 6X (Revision 1.0 and 3.0)
* Others: Other items shall keep the current specifications, write strategy code and RMD fields are expanded according to the current manner.

- 16X DVD-RAM Proposal: Mr. Masahiko Takahashi explained the main concept behind the 16X DVD-RAM recording speed. New media would be needed and its planned to used full CAV (6~16X) for DVD-RAM recording. Middle of 2005 is the target date of the new format.

Concept: Class 1 with 6-16X speed:
* 6-16X is possible with jitter value less than 9%.
* For 5X speed, it is necessary for media to improved much more
* To avoid user confusion, 5X specification had better not be included in the new class, because there can be 5X drive which doesn't correspond to 5X speed recording at the inner area of the disc



More issues were discussed about HD-DVD, DVD-Audio, CSS, CPRM, CPPM and Dual Disc. For more information click at the 'Source' icon (japanese only).