Hewlett-Packard has announced the upcoming release of its first recordable DVD and CD drive for PCs using the DVD+RW standard. The new dvd100i will ship in September as a standalone unit, and is expected to begin shipping with HP Pavilion computers later in the fall. The drive will be compatible with most modern DVD players and be capable of writing to DVD disks at 2.4x speed while reading DVD disks at 8x. CD read and write speeds will be 32x and 12x respectively. Software to be bundled with the drive include MyDVD Video by Sonic Solutions, Recordnow by Veritas, Power DVD by Cyberlink and Simple Backup.

Since the dvd100i is likely to be the first recorder to receive widespread distribution in the PC market, it may help the DVD+RW format become the standard, but many experts feel that the units $599 price tag is still too restrictive, and no serious recording market penetration will occur until unit prices dip below $300.00.