Hewlett-Packard Optical Drives

Hewlett-Packard has been a significant player in the PC optical drive market for years.

In 1995, Hewlett-Packard released a recordable CD drive (the 4020i, actually made by Phillips) at the then-breakthrough price of $995. This was arguably a key moment in the long price slide that ended with recordable optical drives costing less than $100.

In early 2005, Hewlett-Packard announced that they would begin supporting the DVD-RAM standard format in their optical drives. In exchange, Panasonic (owned by Matsushita, aka Matshita), agreed to begin supporting the DVD+R format, which HP champions. The continuing trend to have all DVD drives support all formats is a win for consumers, who no longer have to choose sides in the DVD format wars.

HP also is the creator and driving force behind the LightScribe labelling technology, which lets computer users burn graphical images onto recordable discs that have a special coating on the label side.

See Also:

• The HP DVD740i dual-layer DVD burner.

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