Samsung:

One of our first stops was the Samsung exhibit. Samsung banners, advertisements and displays were found at all areas of the convention halls, which made it very evident that they are a large sponsor of this event. We found a wide variety of new optical disc related products, including some Blu-Ray players and recorders.

Here we have a Dual Layer 50GB pressed Blu-ray disc ( BD-ROM ). Samsung was also displaying a 25GB Single Layer BD-ROM.

Samsung BD-R1000 standalone Blu-ray Disc recorder.

The BD-R1000 listed the following specifications:

• DTV Tuner (ATSC / NTSC) Built In (DTV TS Stream Recording up to 2 hours)
• 4 Recording Modes (DR/FP/SP/LP)
• Compatible with DVD/CD
• Convenient Recording Function (Easy Editing FPG, Timer Recording)
• HDMI Output

According to a Samsung employee, this standalone recorder should have a US release of 4Q 2005.

LG:

Next up was the LG display. LG had a very large floor area and was displaying a wide range of consumer electronics items.

You couldn't miss the huge 71 inch Plasma TV. Next we proceeded over to the Optical storage area where we were very well received by the LG Technicians.

The main focus at LG Optical storage was the GSA-5163D external Super Multi DVD Recorder.

Specifications:

⋅        Tri - DVD Format Compatible
⋅        Double Layer Compatible, Store up to 8.5GB (DVD+R DL 4X)
⋅        Interface: IEEE1394/USB2.0
⋅        Write Speed
⋅        DVD+R;max.16X, DVD-R;max.16X
⋅        DVD+RW;max.8X, DVD-RW;max.6X
⋅        DVD-RAM;max,5X
⋅        CD-R/RW;max.40X/24X
⋅        Data Transfer Rate
⋅        CD-ROM;max.6,000KB/s
⋅        DVD-ROM;max.22,160KB/s
⋅        Buffer Size;2MB
⋅        Weight;1,460g
⋅        O/S:Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Home Ed, Professional

This drive is also equipped with Lightscribe technology. Lightscribe is an HP technology that allows you to 'burn" a label onto the topside of a Lightscribe compatible disc. We captured a few photos of Lightscribe burns in action.

Even though the monitor screenshots show color images, the Lightscribe disc-top image is actually only a monochromatic, colorless image with a mixture of shades. HP describes it as a laser 'silkscreen".  As you may have guessed from the screenshots, it takes approximately 30 minutes to burn an entire Lightscribe disc-top image at full resolution. LG informed us that there is also a mid and a low resolution option, which will 'scribe" at approximately 25 minutes and 20 minutes respectively.

Lightscribe Burn times

We found this table on the Imation UK website, which provides additional clarification on Lightscribe burn times.

BenQ:

BenQ had a nice display of both standalone DVD recorders and PC DVD writers.

Above you can see the BenQ DW1625 with Lightscribe technology. According to the product sheet this drive has a limitation of 8x max write for DVD-R discs and 2.4x max write for DVD+R DL.

BenQ also had the external EW162U dvd writer on display.
Here you can see a photo taken of the backside of this unit.
The SATA connection option shown here is quite interesting.

The BenQ DW1640 was also on display and offered an enhancement of 8X DVD+RW and 6X DVD-RW writing speeds compared to their DW1620 Pro model.

HD-DVD:

The HD-DVD exhibit had a large variety of HD-DVD discs on display:

Notice that the write once HD DVD media has a capacity of 15GB, while the rewriteable HD DVD has a higher capacity of 20GB. This difference is due to the different construction of HD DVD-R compared to HD DVD-RW.  We found a nice graph at the Ritek booth, which details the various layers of these discs:

We also found an external NEC HD DVD / DVD / CD recorder on display:

Head on over to the next page to read about other companies including our visit to Philips, where an engineer performed a Blu-Ray burning demonstration!

CES Introduction

CES page 3