Audio Video News

Prediction: film industry attorneys and executives will experience unprecedented high blood pressure this summer. The reason: the arrival of DVD recorders from Swiss manufacturer Vivastar.

The company's US sales division plans a summer launch of DVD-recorders that will use blank media conforming to DVD Forum write-once standards. An internal DVD burner with a SCSI-2 interface will land on dealers' shelves in late May or early June, carrying a $799 suggested retail price. An external drive with a USB connection is scheduled to ship in July, with an $899 price tag.

The drives will be sold directly to customers as well as through traditional retailers, according to a press release. "The Vivastar DVD recorder has been designed and built with the same Swiss dedication to quality that has put our DVD and CD media at the forefront of the industry," explained Vivastar v.p. Adrian Garulay. "We offer our retail partners guaranteed supply, broad compatibility with all PC products, unparalleled production standards, exceptional promotional support and pricing that allows true flexibility at retail."

The drives will record 4.7GB of data on single-sided DVD-R discs, sufficient for 120 minutes of video. They are claimed to be compatible with all DVD-ROM drives. The widespread availability of CD burners has been blamed by many in the music industry for a slowdown in CD sales.

Vivastar is also developing a DVD recorder that will be compatible with other types of DVD blank media, according to company executives, as well as a combination recorder that will record on CD-R and CD-RW discs, in addition to DVD-R's. The combo recorder will sell for approximately $1500.