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CD Freaks presents a series of Questions and Answers with people working in the digital storage industry. Questions are gathered by posting a thread in the forums where community members can ask people working in the digital storage industry what they always really wanted to know.
After a week the questions are collected, send to the right person and the answers are posted here, at CD Freaks.com.
This week we post the answers to your questions asked to Jelmer Veldman , Marketing Manager Europe, Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions.
1. Will you release a multifomatburner with HD DVD, Blu-ray and DVD?
We have no plans releasing a multiformat drive on the short term. Lite-On has now a BD-RW and a BD-ROM drive available on the market. Our main goal is to increase the specs and lower the price of the Blu-ray drives, in order to make the format available for a wider audience. We do keep a close look at all the market developments, so if the market demand for mulltiformat really takes a leap, then we need to reconsider our strategy. As a manufacturer Lite-On IT has access to the HD-DVD technology.
2. Will your next DVD burner support 12x or 16x DL burn speed?
Last year we have spend a lot of R&D resources in increasing the DVD writing speed to 20X. Now that we have our 20X introduced on a wide scale we are surely looking at the increase of DL writing speeds.
3. Is the DVD recording market something worth to continue to invest in R&D?
Yes. Even though the market is mature, and new technologies are introduced, we believe it is still worth investing in DVD technologies. A good example is the introduction of our 20X DVD-writers in the beginning of 2007. Everyone thought 16X or 18X, and now all brands are offering 20X. Another good example is our SmartWrite feature, which helps optimizing the writing strategy in order to get the highest possible quality writing sessions on low-quality media.
4. Do you think there would be a market for a high end, high spec DVD burner, built to professional or industrial standards, for the truly obsessed users?
I think that would be a very hard from an economic point of view. The market for DVD writers is mature and only profitable if you’re able to produce and sell your products in large volumes. Lite-On IT benefits from it’s economies of scale because the company addresses the mass market. Big R&D investments can only be justified if it can be earned back by selling high volumes. In that way it does not make sense to develop a product for a very small niche market.
5. Do you visit forums about optical storage, like CD Freaks?
I visit the CD Freaks website on a daily basis, just to keep up with the news. I’m not an active member in the forum myself but colleagues in the R&D department that are participating in forums and exchanging ideas with forum members. Forums can provide us with interesting input, as we can find out what the dedicated users think about our products and features.
6. Are there any thoughts on leaving Mediatek for using your the Philips Nexperia chipset on new products?
At this moment we are very satisfied about the Mediatek chipset, so we have no reasons to consider a direct change to another supplier.
7. Regarding Blu-ray vs. HD DVD, where is PLDS located in this war and who do you think will finally succeed?
PLDS (Philips & Lite-On digital Solutions) is focusing on the Blu-ray format. Under the Lite-On brand we have a BD-writer on the market since one year already. This month we have added a BD-ROM to our portfolio. This drive cannot write any format, but reads BD, DVD and CD formats. By cutting of the writing features, we can bring the price down to a level where it becomes more interesting for a wider audience. Regarding HD-DVD, we don’t have any HD-DVD products planned for launch on the short term. As a big (OEM) manufacturer Lite-On IT does have access to the technology. We are keeping a close eye on the market developments and are able to adjust our product roadmap when the demands are changing.
8. There have been numerous problems burning to dual layer disks using current DVD burners. It has been suggested that the inverted stack dual layer disks do not have adequate support in the firmware. Has this been recognized by your company as an ongoing problem? Are there solutions forthcoming? Or do you believe the inverted stack media itself is the major contributor to this situation?
We believe the inverted stack media itself is the major contributor to this situation. In general, media compatibility is obviously a very important issue for us. We do test our drives with all well know and respected media brands, as well as all other brands that we can get our hands on. Our firmware supports as many media as possible, but it’s almost impossible to keep up with all the cheap and low-quality media that is out there. That’s why we recommend users to invest a bit more and buy quality discs to ensure the best results. We do on the other hand invest in compatibility with other unknown media brands as well. Our feature called SmartWrite is the result of that. I automatically detects the mediaand adjusts the writing strategy to get the optimal results on every kind of media.
9. PLDS are manufacturing many drives for OEM customers, the new Optiarc 20x burner springs to mind. Is this something that PLDS hopes to continue?
Officially the manufacturer is Lite-On IT, not PLDS. I hope you understand that all OEM business is strictly confidential. I can’t release any information on that.
10. I'd like to see a better customers service and drives with a better drawer mechanism. Is there the possibility to improve these things?
We’re continuously studying any possibilities to improve our products and services, and therefore any feedback is welcome.
11. Is it possible to introduce again a multicolor led in burners? I remember some "ancient" models with a red led when burning and a green one when reading. My (still working) 811 shows also a yellow light when the burning process is interrupted because of buffer emptying.
We have no plans to use multicolor LED in our DVD writers again.
12. About your policies in the Middle east, it's almost impossible to find a Lite-ON, Philips or BenQ drive, the case is still the same since 2003, in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the UAE for my knowledge, it's only a matter of luck for us to find any of your products, though it's almost well-known now that your burners are among the best drievs at all...
any plans to improve and support the Middle Eastern markets?
We do have distribution partners in the Middle East, so our products should be available there. It is an emerging market for us where we have potential to grow. I understand that the availability of our brand is not yet on the level where we want it to be, but with the right partners we are dedicated to improve our position there.
13. Our question: at the current pace, China's influence in introducing a NEW format is not far off. Is this something we should be aware of?
We’re not ignoring any new developments in the market. At this moment it is not a direct threat for Europe. But it could be happening that a certain format will be popular in a certain area only, which will affect the development of the market as a whole.
14. When will the minute long leading be fixed?
We’re continuously studying any improvements on our products.
15. Will PLDS release a 20x or above speed DVD Writer with Nexperia Chipset?
Unfortunately I can’t release any information about this, as it is quite confidential information. But like I said before we are investing R&D resources to increase the specifications of our DVD writers, in order to maintain our position as one of the leading ODD manufacturers.
16. Why did PLDS released 3 series of burners now with same specs?
Sometimes components of the product change when a new series is produced. In such case we need to change the model name to a next generation, for example from LH-20A3P to LKH-20A4P. The specifications of the product are still the same.
17. Why do PLDS engineers implement slow P-CAV write strategies for 6X-12X writing? 6X should be CLV, easy, whereas 8X-12X should have a faster P-CAV strategy that starts at a higher speed.
This decision was made to make the spindle motor more stable in the beginning. I will improve the overall burning quality.
We would like to thank Jelmer Veldman for cooperating with us and answering the questions.
