A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, following Comdex 2000, I wrote an article about the brewing recordable DVD war. The article covered what I'd learned from a presentation by the companies behind DVD+RW, as well from as a meeting with Pioneer, one of the companies manufacturing DVD-R/RW drives. Both camps had new products that were said to be only a few months away. Pioneer was preparing to ship its third generation drive, while the +RW camp was going to be releasing its initial run of product.

Fast forward to last year's Comdex. Pioneer's drive had premiered in Apple's G4 line early in 2001, with retail availability following soon thereafter. DVD+RW, however, had slipped to the point where I was shocked when I picked up a box at Philips' Comdex 2001 booth and it actually contained a product. Needless to say, I was anxious to put together a head-to-head comparison of the two drives and see what they could do. After some delays and false starts, I've finally gotten my wish. Read up to see how the latest DVD rewriteable drives compare.