From DavisDVD.com

Sony Electronics is introducing two DVD+R Double Layer (DL) DVD drives to its line of DVD burners. The internal DRU-700A drive, along with the external DRX-700UL, mark the company's first foray into double-layer recording. The single-sided DL discs will have two layers of storage, with each layer able to record material independently, and will be able to store four hours of MPEG-2 video or up to 8.5GB of multimedia data on a single disc. The DVD+R DL discs are compliant with DVD-9 discs, so they will work with most available DVD players and DVD-ROM drives. The actual drives will have 2.4x DVD+R, 40x CD-R and 24x CD-RW recording speeds. Sony's drives will begin shipping by the end of the second quarter at estimated retail prices of $230 for the internal drive and $330 for the external drive. Industry officials caution, however, to expect supplies of blank dual-layer discs to be limited initially as compatibility issues and kinks are ironed out.

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At first I thought, cool, now I can backup some HTF and OOP titles that I'm concerned about losing / getting damaged.

But this will present a horrific bootleg problem. Now it will be possible to make EXACT copies of DVD9 discs, with no compression issues. With quality color laser printers around, this is a bootleggers wet dream.

If bootlegging DVDs becomes a big problem, prices go up on DVDs and hurts us all. I think that studios may pull a Norway on us and demand that blank media be taxed at a high rate with royalties going to them. But I'm not a bootlegger, and I think it's wrong to punish legitimate users for the acts of bad ones.

I'm conflicted...what are your thoughts?

I think that worrying about boots is a waste of time. The industry will continue to whine, and this will just be one more thing to turn their volume up a notch. Horrific? Hardly.

I’d be more concerned with “compatibility issues and kinks.”

I disagree -- I think bootleggers will continue to use DVD5s as they will be much cheaper than the new DVD9 media. And anyone buying a bootleg is not concerned with quality and will be happy with a higher compression/lower price trade-off.

Where this will make a difference is home use -- backups will be much easier (again, at a price premium).

Flave, you miss the point I was making. It would be harder to discern boots from the real thing. People are trying to be legit copies could more easily be tricked into thinking they got the real thing.

Josh, I think you're missing my point. A bootlegger is only concerned about profits. What does he care about quality? Why would he use a medium that is significantly more expensive? It's not like somebody's going to sue him. Caveat emptor and all that.

And besides, the bootlegs I saw when I was in China (the source of almost all DVD bootlegs) were produced on professional machines, not home burners. They are actual aluminum disks not the dye recordable stuff we use.

People who really want to bootleg, are doing it already. This will just make their bootlegged products better and more conveniant. It's not a problem that's going to arise, this is an ongoing thing that's already around. I mean, VHS tapes were easily copied. But you didn't see the industry making huge price adjustments (NOT in our favor) to solve that issue.

I think we are just talking about two different things.

To put it bluntly - I buy alot of used DVDs on half and eBay. I'm pretty careful, and most of the time it's pretty obvious what's what. But I'm concerned that with dual layer burners and color lasers and glossy photo paper is that you could produce a DVD for $4 that is essentially the same exact thing as an original. I'm just saying that it's going to get a whole lot tougher to discern real from fake.

On a different issue, I was about to buy a DVD burner, but now I am wondering if I should just wait.

Damnit, I just bought two DVD burners. Shoulda waited.

On a gravestone epitaph:

I'm still waiting for the next great technology.

DVD Josh, there’s a very simple solution to your problem. Get yourself an older player that absolutely refuses to play homebrew (+R, -R) media. First thing you do when you get a disc in the mail is pop the sucker in and, when it refuses to play, you know you got yourself a ringer.

Frankly, unless you buy a LOT (as in hundreds) of DVDs on Half [sic] or eBay, I don’t think much of your chances of getting a boot.

And, if you can’t tell the difference, what does it really matter as long as they come with inserts?

I am glad I haven't picked up a second burner for my other computer. Definitely will be picking this up when I get a chance.

Any ideas on how much $ it's going to be for the DVD+R and RW DLs?

Dual Layer...Wow Bootleggin^2 LOL.

I wouldn't be suprised to see some sort of "protections" put in place on the DL9 discs. We'll see soon enough

Their will always be bootlegging, no matter what the corps put on as protection. Within days someone will find a way around it. What the companies need to do is inform the public better, though most likely they don't want to be informed.

But, yes, I can definitely see them trying a few things to try and stop the bootleggers.

If the studios were smart, they'd make DVD's CHEAPER, not more expensive to thwart bootlegging. If real DVDs were only a couple of bucks more than phonys, most people would buy real.

$230 retail for a Sony?!! I thought they would cost more than that. It's worth that just for computer backups. Still my big worry is how much the discs will cost.

So was I and I've decided to wait.

I checked out Meritline, which usually has good prices on media, and they got nothing. Zip. Nadda. The "end of the second quarter" is only 3 months away.

Another consideration to think of: will your current software support the new discs? If it doesn't, how long do you suppose you'll have to wait for a fix? I can't imagine OEM software will be worth a damn.

I've bought ONE disc off of half in the last few years. One. It was a bootleg.

Frankly, I think you're wrong.

The makers of Nero have already announced support for it. I imagine that would be included as part of the monthly update patches.

I suspect most major burning programs will follow suit....

I wonder if manufactures will try and make DVD burning hard by using some kinda of copy protection.

It would be cracked just like DeCSS (sp?) was. Never underestimate the inginuity of hackers and bong-makers

They'd have nothing to worry about if they'd stop taking things out of print! If I can't buy it, my only choice is to have a copy made.

You can buy it. I just think you don't want to pay the going rate for it . THAT I can understand! I've been lucky with OOP titles recently but several still elude me...

Look at the label on the dvd if you are concerned about bootlegs.