Topic: News

Panasonic will next month begin sampling what it claims is the first optical drive control chipset capable of writing to any recordable or re-writeable disc format. Well, all except HD DVD, that is.

The discs most users will likely purchase to replace DVDs over the next few years will be double-layer DVDs, while further out the Blu-ray standard appears to be winning the battle against HD-DVD, according to Ritek.

The chairman and president of Japanese electronics group Pioneer are to step down, taking responsibility for a downturn in business.

Re-recordable HD DVD discs will be branded 'HD DVD-RW', the DVD Forum confirmed at its most recent steering committe last week.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) president Benjamin S. Feingold has announced that authoring has been completed on the first Blu-ray Disc (BD) to contain a full-length, high-definition feature film. Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle was compressed and authored in MPEG 2 full high-definition (1920 x 1080) by Sony Pictures’ Digital Authoring Center (DAC) and is now being shipped to BD hardware companies for player testing.

NEC has said its first DVD burners with Labelflash technology will be available from December onwards. Labelflash burns custom motifs, lettering or images onto the top side of DVD media.

DVD genius Flash has developed a new way of looking at media quality and value for money. Read all about it at his Media Quality & Value for Money Spreadsheet.

MIT has unveiled its $100 (£58) laptop computer to the United Nations technology summit in Tunisia and said that it hopes to make millions of the devices to give to the developing countries of the world.

Crackers claim to have found a new vulnerability in the software running Sony's PSP that could allow them to run so-called home-brew applications on the device. A user posted a description of the hack, as well as files that help users perform it, on the PSP3d.com enthusiast website.

Sony have released a complete list of its audio CDs that include the XCP protection technology, adding that they will shortly release new versions of these titles without the XCP software.

Taiwan’s largest maker of optical disc drives (ODDs) Lite-On IT, in response to the formation of a new joint venture between Sony and NEC to design, produce and market ODDs, said that the company will be carefully monitoring the situation, according to general manager Michael Gong for the company’s Optical Disc Drive Business.

Sony and NEC have reached a basic agreement to set up an optical disk drive joint venture. The companies will work together from now to reach agreement on a final contract. Sony will hold a 55% stake in the new company while NEC's stake will be 45%. Sony and NEC will make preparations to transfer their respective optical disc drive operations to the Joint Venture, targeting a business start on April 1, 2006.

Microsoft will make its next-generation "Windows Vista" operating system compatible with the HD DVD format promoted by Toshiba Corp., despite recent announcements by Hollywood studios expressing support for a rival technology pushed by Sony.

Just a few days after the decision of the Japanese giant to suspend the production of its CDs that use a controversial copy-protection technology, Sony now says it will pull the albums off store shelves entirely. The record label is also offering to exchange the CDs for non-DRM versions.

Recently released data from research consultancy XTN Data shows that file sharing over the internet continues to grow and that most users are unconcerned by potential legal action.

Plextor Europe have officially announced its new external DVD-ReWriter drive - the PX-750UF. The 16x PX-750UF is an external drive that offers dual connectivity USB2.0 and IEEE 1394 and includes DVD-RAM capability in addition to +/- R (DL).

Microsoft have released the official list of 18 games which will be launched with the next-generation Xbox 360 console on Nov. 22 in North America, followed by Japan and Europe.

Owners of Nero 6 would be interested in updating to the latest versions of the popular software package.

Sony's controversial anti-piracy CD software has been labelled as spyware by Microsoft. The software giant said the XCP copy protection system counted as malicious software under the rules it uses to define what Windows should be protected against. The news came as Sony BMG suspended, production of CDs that use XCP.

A new patent holding company, Open Invention Network (OIN), has been founded with the sole aim of acquiring patents relating to Linux and offering them royalty free to Linux developers. OIN backers IBM, Novell, Red Hat, Philips and Sony said that the company would promote Linux and "spur innovation globally".