DVD Recorder

NEC Electronics is focusing on H.264, a new video compression format, and on support for a next-generation recording type DVD drive with greater capacity. In this way, we will fast to provide cutting-edge technology just as we have been so far.

Meanwhile, the overseas market for the major DVD recorders is expected to expand. A DVD with basic functions or with only a limited range of functions is also demanded to reduce prices further. In order to meet these needs, NEC Electronics is focusing on combining the existing functions into one chip. By this, we hope to contribute not only to lowering the price of semiconductors, but also to making the cards more compact and shortening development time. We also intend to develop models for sale at modest prices.

DVD recorders have some characteristics not found in conventional audio-visual equipment: DVD can have special replay using a built-in hard disk drive (HDD); and recordings can be made to DVD, enhancing their user-friendliness. There has been rapid uptake of DVD recorders especially in Japan, and the market is expanding quickly. Some say that once you use DVD, you can never go back to VTR. Thus DVD has established a new category of audio-visual equipment.

In the basic DVD structure, there is a recording DVD drive for PC, plus an image processing/display function. Middle- and high-end products also have a hard disk to perform intermediate recording. In the Japanese market where high-end models are more popular, this type with the built-in HDD is most popular. However, since HDD capacity determines usability, the HDDs installed are becoming larger and larger. Also, the latest trend is to make DVD recorders multifunctional, by mounting multi-tuners to utilize the advantage of large capacity, and by providing models that can record multiple programs at the same time.

The trend toward next-generation models includes a transition to the H.264 format to realize a far higher compression rate than MPEG2, and mounting of drives supporting large capacity devices such as blue laser and 2-layer medium. High-end models offer more sophisticated features and higher performance, including recording of high resolution digital videos and recording for long hours.

DVD is so popular that it is now a whole separate category in the digital electric appliance field