Recording room

The day you can record TV programmes on a CD-sized disc has just come a step
nearer. Panasonic can now make a Digital Video Disc recorder that stores a movie
on one side of a recordable DVD. Until now, DVD-RAM, the format that makes
erasable recordings, could only store 2.6 gigabytes—half a movie. But
Panasonic has sharpened its laser optics so they can track the blank disc with
sufficient accuracy to store 4.7 gigabytes—matching that of prerecorded
DVD discs.