After invitation to the AOpen suite at Computex Taiwan, we had a chance to see the newest 16X dual layer DVD recorders in action; and we were surely not disappointed. Recent AOpen recorders, including the DDW8800, were based on alternative OEM designs and re-branded as AOpen. The newest DDW1608, on the other hand, will use an entirely new design and construction from AOpen. However, most intriguing is the Ricoh chipset inside. You may recall Ricoh's involvement in the first DVD recorder chipsets several years ago when 2.4X DVD+R drives were the norm.

Ricoh's newest endeavor in the DVD IC segment sports incredibly enticing features: 16X DVD+R, 16X DVD-R, dual layer support and fast CD write and read speeds. It seems Ricoh has been fairly busy over the last 18 months.

Here is a teaser of AOpen's DDW1608 burning a 16X DVD+R disc. When we actually receive the drive in a few weeks, we will run our typical battery of read, write and error tests.

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Below is a screenshot of BenQ's next generation 16X burner writing a disc in under 6 minutes.

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For an additional teaser, we included a shot of BenQ's entire next generation burner lineup, including 4X DVD+R9 devices.

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Other prototype designs were also featured on the show floor, including 16X LiteOn/Gigabyte designs using MediaTek's 16X MT1818E successor. Philips Taiwan also had a Nexperia reference design in a private booth, of which we were able to snag a picture. NuTech/Quanta has been using the Nexperia chipset design for their recent line of dvd recorders. Feel free to check out this document that we also snagged from Philips, which talks about the upcoming Nexperia 725x chipset.

Media and Direction

With all this hype about 16X and 12X burn speeds, where are consumers expected to get the newest media? At this time of publication, we still only have two manufacturers who can reliably produce dual layer media, and only a handful that can reliably produce 8X/12X certified media. During the show, we had a chance to talk to some of Taiwan's larger media manufacturers, including Ritek, Prodisc and CMC Magnetics.

Much to our surprise, all three manufacturers had 16X DVD+R media on display. There seems to be enough expectation that 16X DVD-R media will also follow, although we did not see samples of that particular disc on the show floor. As we saw with the AOpen and BenQ drives, chipset companies like MediaTek and Ricoh are confident enough of 16X DVD-R media support to advertise it in their upcoming chipset specifications. Sanyo and Philips are expected to follow suit. However, as common as 16X media was, dual layer media seemed almost untalked about.

Some manufacturers seemed extremely receptive of BluRay (BD). From all manufacturers to whom we spoke, most seemed to agree that we will see top BluRay devices before 2006. 18 months does not seem very far for a future format that has virtually nothing to show for at this time. Quanta hinted at even earlier devices on their roadmap. BD uses 450nm lasers while DVD uses 650nm.

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ProDisc, on the other hand, had a significant amount of material contradicting the advancement of BluRay in favor of HD-DVD. Whether or not some of ProDisc's claims are valid has yet to be decided, but below is a snapshot of how the Taiwanese manufacturer sees the cards fall with regards to future optical formats.

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Although difficult to see, ProDisc had a small display that almost seemed in favor of Near-Field magnification (which is a key component of BD technology). Below, you can see some teasers of 50nm radius pits. The theoretical capacity on such discs is 100GB.

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