Intellikey Labs announced some days ago, the results of their study about DVD recordable/re-writable format compatibility "war". Pioneer hired Intellikey Labs in July 2002 to analyze the performance of the competing recordable DVD formats for Pioneer's planning purposes. Intellikey Labs released their test results on 19th of September, while Pioneer on 20th released much different results making us and probably most users confused about the background of this study...
According to the released Intellikey Labs results, the DVD+R format is the most compatible with 90%, while DVD-R stays behind with 77%! On the DVD re-writable format, the DVD+RW got 72%, while the DVD-RW only 66%.
"Consumers have been struggling with the decision to purchase DVD+RW/+R or DVD-R/-RW recordable devices because of confusion over compatibility. This research arms them with information needed to confidently select a product for sharing their video creations and data backups. To provide the widest possible breadth of DVD compatibility, Intellikey Labs is constantly adding new DVD systems to maintain the world's largest DVD testing facility." said Lars Keffer, Intellikey Labs Managing Director.
One day after, Pioneer released much different test results (from the same study)! This time DVD-R and DVD+R formats had the same compatibility percentages (78%), while DVD+RW was most compatible (63%) than DVD-RW (58%)!
"We agree with Intellikey that consumers have been struggling with the decision to purchase DVD-R/RW or +R/+RW recordable devices because of confusion about the recorded discs' playback compatibility. The nature of recordable DVD technology makes it difficult to draw a clear conclusion about compatibility -- the variation between the two Intellikey test results clearly illustrates this. It is not in the consumer's best interest to present one set of results as conclusive evidence. Pioneer's belief is that the support of the DVD Forum -- the organization that originally brought DVD to market -- will be the overriding factor in the success of any of the recordable DVD formats," said Andy Parsons, senior vice president for the Business Solutions Division of Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc.
- Research Methodology (
Intellikey Labs)
Intellikey Labs installed two leading DVD recordable drives in a standard PC, each time ensuring a clean test bed to eliminate potential software conflicts. The company used an HP DVD Writer 200i to burn four pieces of media -- an HP DVD+RW, HP DVD+R, Memorex DVD+RW and Memorex DVD+R disc. A Pioneer A04 DVD-R/-RW Writer was used to burn four pieces of media -- a Pioneer DVD-RW, Pioneer DVD-R and Sony DVD-RW and Sony DVD-R disc. Each disc was burned with the same set of 5 video clips, totaling 15 minutes. The video clips were captured using a Sony Digital Handycam IP Micro MV camera. Each disc was created using the default settings on each drive, as well as an alternate setting for +RW available with the HP DVD Writer 200i. The company then tested those eight discs for compatibility in leading DVD players.
- Research Methodology (
Pioneer)
Pioneer hired Intellikey Labs in July 2002 to analyze the performance of the competing recordable DVD formats for Pioneer's planning purposes. The discs used for testing were created by Crest National, a well-respected production facility, using name brand computer drives on blank media from a variety of companies, including Pioneer, HP, Memorex, TDK, Sony and Verbatim. Each test disc included approximately 30 minutes of video content. The discs were tested on Intellikey's 100 domestic and international brand DVD players and DVD computer drives, including models dating as far back as 1997. Test results suggest that recent generation DVD players are generally better able to support playback of the recordable DVD formats tested.