In response to rumors in the optical disc drive (ODD) manufacturing industry that Pioneer would start placing OEM orders for DVD burners next quarter, Pioneer High Fidelity Taiwan, Pioneer's Taiwan subsidiary, said the rumors were unfounded and that Pioneer has the needed factories to make pick-up heads and DVD burners in China and currently has no plans to seek OEM production.

Press release: Nero now support Layer-Jump Recording (LJR) of dual-layer DVD-R media, thus permitting multi-session burning, improved read compatibility and a memory capacity of up to 8.5 GB. OEM customers can immediately benefit from this new technology by downloading an update online through the Nero website available mid-June.

For those seeking that little bit extra, Prodisc have developed a 4.9GB DVD-R disc - 0.2GB bigger than the standard single-layer media. Unfortunately the technology means that the disc is less compatible with existing drives.

Manufacturers of optical discs in Taiwan have generally enjoyed increases in gross margins arising from a drop in international prices of polycarbonate (PC) from US$3.5 per kilogram (kg) to US$3.2-3.3, according to the makers.

Scheduled to hit the market in June, the next dual-layer DVD recorder from Pioneer supports 8x DVD+R/-R DL and 16x DVD+R/-R recording.

NZB files are supported by most popular newsreaders, including NZBGet for Mac and Linux, and NewsBin Pro for PC. There are now also several dedicated alt.binaries.nzb newsgroups. More dramatically, NZB allows web searches of files posted to Usenet, making Usenet almost as easy to use as eMule or Kazaa.

Toshiba has announced the expansion of its line of digital video recorders and adds networking capabilities with the introduction of the new RD-XS54 Multi-Drive DVD Recorder with a 250GB Hard Disc Drive.

The new Benq TB200D DVD burner comes with a very stylish design and a compact size, fitting pretty well next to your notebook.

TDK has developed a prototype Blu-ray Disc that can store twice as much data, and record it at twice the speed, as existing Blu-ray Discs. The new format is expected to be particular popular for data archiving.

BBC New Media has announced the next phase in the development of the BBC's interactive Media Player (iMP): an extensive three month content trial that will begin in September 2005.

More than a third of the software installed on PCs worldwide during 2004 was pirated, according to a study released Wednesday by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a software trade group.

DVD expert Flash has been very, very busy recently and kindly sent in yet another new review. This time it's for the Datasafe Pro 8x Hub Printable DVD-R. datasafe are putting these discs onto the market at a premium of about twice the cost of the general market disc. So are they worth the extra? Flash concludes, "From these results I would say YES they are. If you want a premium disc then these are the ones to go for - with the added bonus that you can burn them faster in some drives."

DVD authority Flash has been busy again with a brand new review of Verbatim's 16x DVD-R. The upshot? Flash believes, "IMO this media is equally as good as the Titanium or Philips".

DVD swami Flash has been in contact with a review of the new silver surfaced 16x media from CMC. He concludes, "The speed scans are all virtually perfect... There is no problems with playback of any of the burns in my variety of DVD players."

The better than expected demand for DVD+R/-R discs has resulted in an increase in OEM prices by 10%-15% in total for this quarter and will further push up prices in the third quarter when it will begin to climb on a monthly basis rather than per quarter as it is currently, said CMC Magnetics chairman Robert Wong.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is said to be concerned about a growing shift in physical CD piracy production. Many small retail outlets are not relying on the high volume "commercial" pirates that produce tens and hundreds of thousands of illicit CDs. Instead, the RIAA has discovered a new, more elusive trend. Many retailers are simply creating their own pirated CD products "in house."

Nintendo, the gaming industry veteran, sought yesterday to secure its place in the next wave of game consoles -- showing a new machine, code-named Revolution, that will differ from its rivals by sticking mainly to games.

Sony has unveiled three flavors of its new PlayStation 3 video game machine in what is likely a new round of console wars with rivals Microsoft and Nintendo.

Manufacturers of DVD+R/-R discs in Taiwan, in light of growing orders and fully occupied production capacity, have increasingly been choosing the orders for more profitable 16x discs and contracting out the production of 8x discs or for relatively small volumes to second-tier or smaller makers.

Talks among Matsushita, Sony and Toshiba designed to unify competing next-generation DVD formats have failed, making it more likely the rivals will follow separate paths to the video market.