If you don't have a DVD burner yet, then get one. And if you have one, upgrade it to 16 speed write. Why? Well, according to Robert Wong, chairman of CMC Magnetics, Taiwan's largest producer of optical discs, 16x DVD+R will become the mainstream in Q4 of this year.
Increases in broadband takeup, as well as the increasingly popularly of digital video have prompted more and more people to switch from CD-R to DVD+R or DVD-R. However, many people still have 4x or even 2x writers presently. In the future, says Wong, this will simply not be enough.
"Wong predicted that the OEM price level for 16x DVD+R will drop from the current US$0.80 per disc to US$0.60-0.70 next quarter. Global demand for 16x DVD+R discs is expected to rise from 1.6 billion discs in 2004 to 4.0 billion discs in 2005."