Plainville, Mass. — A new player is planning to enter the DVD recorder market this summer.
Vivastar, the U.S. sales company of a Swiss manufacturer of CD and DVD-based optical discs for the home and commercial data storage markets, said it will deliver a DVD-R-based DVD recording drive for the United States in the June/July time frame.
The first in what is planned as a series of Vivastar-branded DVD recorders will be an internal PC DVD-R drive that will connect through a SCSI-2 interface and records at both 1x and 2x speeds. It ships in May at a $799 suggested retail. The second unit is an external drive (model RS191) that connects through a USB interface. It is slated to ship by July at an $899 suggested retail price.
The drive will record on only DVD-R (write once) media, which was developed and manufactured by Vivastar, the company said. The recorded disc will work with all DVD-ROM drives. Vivastar’s DVD-R format is based on DVD Forum write-once standards, Vivastar said. The single-side media has 4.7 GB of capacity, which is good for approximately 120 minutes of video per disc.
Recorded discs will be compatible with DVD video players and DVD-ROM drives, a spokesman said.
Vivastar is also developing a DVD recorder that will be compatible with one or more DVD rewritable disc formats, the company said.
Next up is a second-generation “combo product” that will record on CD-R and CD-RW media as well as DVD-R and will connect directly to both PCs and TV sets. That product, which is expected to ship in the fall, will carry a $1,499 suggested retail price.
“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,” said Adrian Garulay, Vivastar VP. “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.”
Vivastar said it expects to offer some of the best-featured and most affordable DVD recording products on the market, because it makes its own raw materials and chipsets. The company plans to use both direct and two-step distribution to service retail customers.
