Digital Trends

With thousands of DVD recorders and DVD recordable computer drives set to be given as gifts this holiday season, one of the most confusing things has to be the multiple formats under which these devices operate. The five current major ones, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R and DVD+RW, may provide consumers greater choice but may also provide some confusion as well.

Designtechnica recently conducted an interview with Tony Jasionowski, a Panasonic executive who is involved in that company's recordable DVD strategies. He also is involved in two industry wide organizations — the Recordable DVD Council and RAM Promotion Group.

Jasionowski, while definitely in favor of promoting Panasonic's viewpoints on the DVD recorder market, had quite a few interesting things to say about the current choices and issues facing consumers.

Panasonic, according to Jasionowski, was one of the founding members of the DVD Forum. This industry trade group established the original technical details behind the DVD format and helped to set the standards which are followed today.