Cough Medicine, Light Bulbs and Blank DVDs

Joe Wilcox | June 09, 2004, 10:39 AM

My personal definition of mass-market product is what shows up on the shelves of my local pharmacy. Few days back, while shopping my newly redesigned CVS pharmacy, I saw blank CD discs for sale. Name brand for less than my local computer store, so I picked up a 50 pack. Also for sale: blank DVD-R discs.

Rewind.

I shouldn't have been surprised, considering JupiterResearch surveys show increasing consumer DVD burner adoption. What I don't expect to see anytime soon are double-layer DVD media, either at the local pharmacy or computer superstore.

First double-layer DVD drives--with capacities of about 8.5GB compared to the standard 4.7GB--started shipping about two months ago. PC Connection already offers models, starting at $199. But, PC Connection doesn't yet sell the higher-capacity double-layer DVD media. Nor do the other half dozen computer retailers I checked this morning.

Dell already ships higher-capacity dpuble-layer drives on desktops and, get this, notebooks. That availability says something about Dell and drive manufacturer commitment consumers will want the higher-capacity drives. But, like the retailers, Dell doesn't offer the 8.5GB media.

It's not unusual for this kind of hardware to reach market ahead of the media. First-generation DVD burners were more widely available than the discs, at least the first six months or so on the market. I would expect a similar situation to occur with double-layer DVDs, a situation that basically puts early adopters in the position of burning to lower capacity discs.

Double-layer benefits aren't a hard sell, as consumers will finally be able to burn to disc a high-quality two-hour home movie or one recorded on their Media Center PC. Piracy should be a concern. Software exists that would let people extract the whole image from a Hollywood movie DVD, including the rights-protection, to a computer hard drive. The biggest barrier to casual or mass DVD copying is capacity, an issue resolved by double-layer DVD burners. Assuming blank double-layer discs sell for much more than standard DVD recording media, the economics of stealing the stuff shouldn't make sense to casual pirates, at least until there is enough blank disc availability and demand to lower pricing.

Anyway, every time I visit the local 24-hour CVS for cough medicine or light bulbs, I'll look for double-layer DVD blanks. But, I don't expect to see them for another year or so.