CD/DVD length and compatability Questions

[NixNix]

I love my DAT. I'm spoiled rotten because I can cram 4 hours of music onto a 120 minute tape using the long mode setting. I have not bought any disk equipment or editting software for all of my analog and DAT stuff because of the lack of storage space. When are we getting multiple gigs of space (presumably on DVD) for music storage (only) on disc writing machines that are universally compatible. Two years? Five years? My brother tells me disks can hold twenty albums if the industry let the shit hit the fan. What's the poop?

 

[Roel]

I'm in CD/DVD developpement.

The real thing is, the industry isn't interested in having more than 70 minutes of audio on a CD. And why would they? Who's waiting for 4 hours of new songs from a band? That would take the band way too long in studio etc... 70 minutes is more than enough for the record companies. And they have alot to say in the development of such a format...

With a pc, there's plenty of possibilities for storage space. There are alot of DVD-writable formats available for pc. There's no way to store audio on them and play back on a standalone player, but do you really need that? Or get harddrives. One of my favourite hangouts has a mp3 based system, the owner plugs in a 80 gig harddisk with mp3s only, and he can run for weeks.

There's more formats in the run. Recently all the CE giants have defined a new format with a blue laser that would go up to 20 gig on one single disc. Don't know when the first commercial device will be available, and I doubt that they will make a standalone audio-player for it.

 

[NixNix]

Dear Roel: Thanks for the reply. 20 gigs is very interesting for CDs. Any predictions on how long it may take to get them to market? I hear commercial DVDs hold 4.7 now or something like that.

I mix a lot of music for friends and have so much stuff that just can't be found (hard to find '30s, '40s, and '50 blues, R&B, and gospel), I was hoping to be able to transfer more of it onto longer playing CDs for friends who have CD machines.

I'd love to dupe my DAT, but nobody has DAT but us crazies. I guess I could compress it, but I have my own small business and I haven't had the time to even figure out how to do it (not having the hardware or software). I'm not only a newbie, I am not knowledgeable. I have some reading to do. Thanks for your two cents on the storage.