Topic: News

Universal Pictures has launched a new service in Britain that will sell digital downloads of movies such as "King Kong" along with a DVD copy, tapping into the online video market now dominated by Apple's iTunes.

In the first 11 weeks of the year 13.8% fewer DVD titles have been released than for the comparable period last year, and if the trend holds up, this could be the first year with a decline in total DVD output since the format was launched in 1997.

Worldwide subscribers to Digital Video Recording (DVR) services will rise by a factor of nearly seven between 2005 and 2010, spurring major changes in video-service and content-provider businesses, as well as in the consumer-electronics industry, iSuppli predicts.

UK electronics retail giant Maplin has announced that it will now be sourcing blank media from the market leading brands of Titanium, Datawrite, Datasafe and RiDisc. We'll bring you more details as we get them.

A US judge has told lawyers working for the Recording Industry Ass. of America that the outfit does not have the supreme legal powers that it thinks it has.

Samsung has launched what it reckons its the world's first 32GB NAND Flash-based hard disk drive replacement unit. The company claimed the so-called "solid state disk" can access data three times faster than an HDD can and write files one-and-a-half times more quickly - though we don't know what HDD spec it was comparing its product to.

Copyright holders have collectively objected to proposed exemptions to the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in cases where copyright software causes security and privacy harm. According to the group, exceptions that would allow DRM software to be circumvented in hypothetical cases where it "threatens critical infrastructure and potentially endangers lives" might create "uncertainty" in the minds of software developers.

The availability of the Windows Vista OS has been pushed back to next year, according to Microsoft Co-President of Platform and Services Division Jim Allchin.

Anyone wanting to enjoy any of the cool, futuristic copying and sharing features that the next-generation formats are expected to support is going to have to wait.

The European Information and Communications Technology Association (EICTA) today announced yet another logo that it hopes will help clear confusion from the minds of consumers as they migrate from traditional television into the HDTV era. However, the move may well have the opposite effect.

In a sign of the times, the personal CD player has been ejected from the "shopping basket" of goods and services used by Government statisticians to measure the rate of inflation.

The falling cost of DVD players means some machines are now cheaper than the films they can play. Tesco`s own-brand model will hit stores this week priced at £17.97 as part of its "value electricals" range.

In France, a copyright bill on downloading music and films from the Internet would oblige Apple's iTunes to be converted into other formats playable on any music player and not strictly on iPod. This could induce the leading online music store to leave France as it would be opposed to opening up its proprietary system.

Microsoft is working on a handheld gaming device that will also play music and movies in a challenge to rivals such as Sony and their Playstaion Portable (PSP) and Apple with their iPod.

Just a short note to let you know that DVD genius Flash has posted in an improved version of his Pioneer DVR-111 vs DVR-110 review.

It's official: When the first HD-DVD players, from Toshiba, begin arriving in stores this month, there won't be any software for at least another three weeks.

Revenge of the DVD Players Weekend - story 1. A Philadelphia judge has sentenced a chronic shoplifter to 22 years in prison yesterday for stealing a portable DVD player from a department store.

Revenge of the DVD Players Weekend - story 2. A Newark man was taken to Licking Memorial Hospital (no, seriously) after receiving a shock from the DVD player he was attempting to fix.

The US government may have removed Pakistan from its global pirates watch list but optical disc piracy is thriving in the country, ushering in a new age of technology-driven entertainment.

The Chinese-language Commercial Times said Acer plans to launch notebooks with built-in HD DVDs next quarter, with the series to be aimed at the high-end segment.