History 2003: WW DVD Recorder Market to Reach $8 Billion by 2007

A report by Semico Research forecasts a bullish outlook for the fledgling DVD recorder market.

According to the study, over 3.5 million DVD recorders will ship in 2003 with a total value of $1.484 billion, shooting to 47.9 million units valued at $8.330 billion in 2007.

While this represents a positive outlook for DVD recorder OEMs, semiconductor companies will receive a major boon from this emerging market.

Based on data contained in the report, the semiconductor content of these recorders in 2003 will total 218 million devices valued at $244 million; rising to 1.676 billion devices in 2007 valued at $2.023 billion.

According to Semico’s analyst Adrienne Downey, “our bullish outlook is based on the simple premise that DVD recorders will eventually replace VCRs in most homes. Recording to DVDs means that content will last longer, whereas content on VHS tapes begins to degrade much faster. DVD recording also means that finding content will be easier due to the ability to program menus on DVDs.”

He also comments: “Key to the success of DVD recorders will be the ability to share media across all players and with computers, easy and accurate recording, and direct recording from DV camcorders and other devices.”

Semico sees some of these features already being designed into DVD recorders and notes that as these features become widespread, adoption will increase. The report expects DVD recorders to play in the personal video recorder market dominated by TiVo and Replay TV.

“High-end DVD recorders include a HDD, enabling it to be used as a digital video recorder for TV. Shows that need to be archived can be transferred to DVD. Temporary recordings can be left on the HDD and eventually recorded over. The archiving capability is a key advantage over currently shipping DVRs,” commented Jason Blackwell, director of end market research, Semico.

While much has been made of the competing DVD-R/-RW and the DVD+R/+RW standards, he suggests that most semiconductor manufacturers will support both, opening the way for “worry free” adoption among consumers. Semico also points out that while current DVD recorders are unable to record high-definition inputs, the industry is working on technology that will enable higher-capacity DVD recording for HD content in the future, another catalyst for adoption.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 189 on October 2003 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.