Hard Hat Area

Hard Hat Area January 2003 • Vol.3 Issue 1 Page(s) 43-45 in print issue
White Paper: HD-BURN Bridging The Gap From CDs To DVDs

For some, patience is a virtue. For computer users, patience is often an unwelcome necessity. You hear about an awesome new technology, but you almost always have to wait several months for the companies involved in creating the technology to agree on a workable standard. And those who only have to wait several months are usually the lucky ones: For some technologies, such as writeable DVDs, the companies involved can't agree on a workable standard. The lack of a standard can delay product introduction and splinter the overall market.

Sometimes, though, such delays give other companies a chance to introduce a complementary technology. SANYO Electric in Japan is looking to give consumers interested in CD and DVD burning another option. That option is called HD-BURN, or High Density-Burn, and it should be available in the United States in a few months.

More Data, Same Space

SANYO began working on HD-BURN in 2000 and introduced the technology in September 2002. Essentially, HD-BURN technology gives users 1.4GB of storage space on a CD-R, about double the normal storage capacity of a CD-R.

The shrinking pit. One way HD-BURN is able to squeeze more dat a onto a CD-R is by altering the pit size of conventional CD-R media. With HD-BURN technology, SANYO is able to shrink the minimum pit length on the disc from 830nm for a conventional CD-R to 620nm for an HD-BURN disc (a CD-R burned with an HD-BURN drive). The smaller pits let an HD-BURN disc store about 35% more data than a conventional CD-R.

HD-BURN discs maintain the same pit width, the same track pitch, and—obviously—the same physical size of CD-Rs. SANYO could've squeezed more data onto the HD-BURN discs by using a smaller track pitch or a narrower pit, but then HD-BURN drives wouldn't be able to make use of conventional CD-Rs.

Improved error correction. Perhaps the more impressive technology in use with HD-BURN is its improved mode of error correction. SANYO developed a new error correction mode, called RS-PC (Reed-Solomon Product Code) for its HD-BURN drives. Conventional CD-R drives use CIRC (Cross-Interleaved Ross-Solomon Code) as an error correction mode.

Given the high speeds of the lasers that create CD-Rs, errors are a strong possibility, making foolproof error-correction capabilities extremely important. When burning a disc with a conventional CD-R drive, error-correction data must occupy a large amount of storage space, which limits the amount of space on the disc for other data. HD-BURN's mode of error correction requires about 49% less storage space on the CD-R.

So between the space saved on the disc by creating smaller pit lengths and using less room for error-correction data, CD-Rs created with HD-BURN technology are able to fit twice as much data as is possible on a disc created with the conventional method.

The Middleman

SANYO is aiming HD-BURN technology at consumers who have outgrown the data storage limitations of CD burning and are frustrated while waiting for DVD burning options to sort themselves out and become standardized. SANYO also says HD-BURN can serve as the middleman between the 650MB to 700MB of data storage available on a CD and the 4.7GB of data storage on a basic DVD. SANYO says some consumers will be unable to fill an entire DVD-R; the HD-BURN technology will give such consumers a smaller and less expensive storage option that may better meet their needs.

At least initially, the company plans to incorporate HD-BURN technology into its own HD-BURN drives, which will be called Super Combination Drives or SuperCombiDrives (CRD-DV2). Other optical disc drive manufacturers will be able to license the technology from SANYO to create their own HD-BURN drives. SANYO expects to produce 30,000 drives per month at some time after the first quarter of 2003. The units mainly will appear in Japan at first with a price of about 50,000 yen (about $400). The date for widespread availability of HD-BURN drives in the United States remains up in the air.

With some modification of the firmware, most DVD players and CD-ROM drives eventually should be able to read discs created with HD-BURN technology properly. However, it's still unclear how many disc player manufacturers will be willing to include an HD-BURN firmware upgrade. SANYO hopes to expedite the process of adopting the technology among optical disc player manufacturers by disclosing the HD-BURN technology to them for free.

Was This Trip Really Necessary?

Certainly, HD-BURN technology sounds like a great idea, but you have to wonder whether SANYO missed its best window of opportunity to release the technology. We didn't have to look too far to find possible evidence of SANYO's timing problems with the release of HD-BURN. In the company's press release announcing HD-BURN, SANYO says, "CD-R media is rapidly becoming popular." Huh? Maybe something was lost in the translation, but the last time we checked, CD-R media rapidly became popular a couple of years ago. CD-R media is currently taking a backseat to CD-RWs in many instances.

Don't forget about recordable DVDs, either. Even though we're still waiting (and waiting and waiting) for a recordable DVD standard, recordable DVD options are available, with a minimum of 3.3 times the storage capacity of an HD-BURN disc.

CD-Rs certainly have their place, such as when creating CD audio. But HD-BURN discs won't work with CD audio players, meaning you'll have to stick with a conventional CD burner—and 650MB to 700MB of storage space—when burning your own audio CDs.

Doubling the data storage capacity of a CD-R is a nice idea, but it probably would've been more effective and useful had SANYO introduced it soon after CD burning became mainstream a few years ago. With DVD burning on the way to becoming mainstream (it'll happen at some point; we promise), consumers might have a hard time committing about $400 for an HD-BURN drive that provides less than 30% of the data storage possible on a burnable DVD.

Seeking Its Niche

HD-BURN's use of CD-Rs does give it one big advantage over other optical disc burning options: A low operational cost. CD-Rs are inexpensive, usually costing a quarter or two apiece when you buy them in bulk, making them a popular choice for consumers. Recordable DVDs are currently far more expensive than CD-Rs.

With a 1.4GB data capacity, HD-BURN discs can store many large video files intact, as well. If you're using a conventional CD-R for backing up large video files, you're limited in the size of the file you can save on the disc, or you must split the file between two CD-Rs.

Finally, SANYO is planning to add support for CD-RWs in its HD-BURN drives in the future, which would make HD-BURN's impressive technology more useful and flexible. However, an impressive technology doesn't always translate into a runaway business success. Although HD-BURN technology doesn't have a crash- and-burn feel, it does have the feel of a niche technology. The question for SANYO will be just how many consumers will choose to fit within HD-BURN's niche.

by Kyle Schurman

View the "It's The Pits," "Optical Disc Storage Comparisons," and "Optical Disc Media Prices" sidebars.
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BURN-Proof Technology

Another advantage of SANYO's HD-BURN drive is its inclusion of BURN-Proof technology, which helps prevent buffer underrun errors. Although many companies incorporate BURN-Proof technology into their optical disc burning drives, the name BURN-Proof is a trademark of SANYO. (In this case, BURN is short for "Buffer UnderRuN error.")

When burning an optical disc, the drive stores data waiting to be burned onto the disc in a buffer. By using a buffer, the drive ensures it will have a continuous stream of data available, which prevents burning errors. However, if the buffer runs out of data during the burning process, the ensuing interruption throws off the entire burning process and often renders the optical disc unusable.

Buffer underrun errors were common in early recordable CD drives, but the development of technologies such as BURN-Proof has aggressively limited such problems. BURN-proof technology anticipates the possibility of the buffer running out of data and warns the burning drive, which slows or pauses the burning process, to let the buffer refill before a buffer underrun error occurs.

Because SANYO's HD-BURN drive involves smaller pits and higher burning speeds than traditional CD-R media, its burning process is more susceptible to buffer underrun errors, making the inclusion of BURN-Proof technology in the HD-BURN drive especially important.