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There is no single DVD storage standard today. Instead, there are the rival DVD+R and DVD-R write-once formats. DVD+R was developed by the DVD+RW Alliance, while the DVD Forum introduced DVD-R.

The DVD Forum (www.dvdforum.org), the official DVD standards body, has struggled to set a format standard for the industry. This has bred chaos, with rival formats and confusing "+" and "-" nomenclature. But the forum's role may not matter all that much in the end, because rogue formats continue to emerge and the market will determine the DVD standard format, anyway.

The new, optical blue-laser DVD format, meanwhile, appears to be heading down the same twisted path. There are two blue-laser formats: Advanced Optical Disk (AOD) and Blu-ray. AOD, developed by NEC and Toshiba, has a capacity of 20 GB on a single-layer disk and 40 GB on a dual-layer disk. Blu-ray (www.blu-ray.com) comes from Sony, with the backing of eight other vendors, including JVC, Panasonic, Phillips and Pioneer. It has a capacity of 27 GB on a single-sided, single-layer disk and 50 GB on a single-sided, double-layer disk. The DVD Forum is studying both Blu-ray and the competing AOD optical format.

All but NEC and Toshiba are backing Blu-ray, and the industry is hoping those two vendors adopt it as well. Sony has introduced a Blu-ray recorder in Japan, but the technology won't be available in the United States until 2004, with full-scale production expected in 2005. So there's still time for the DVD Forum and blue-laser developers to settle on a single format and avert yet another DVD standards war.