Royal Philips Electronics has introduced its Nexperia semiconductor reference design for one of the industry's fastest DVD+R/+RW recorders. According to Philips, DVD recorders based on the new reference design will allow consumers to record a complete DVD+R disc in less than 5 min at speeds of up to 16x. The reference design, powered by the company's Nexperia chipsets and software, also features the recording of dual-layer DVD+R media, which increases the data storage capacity on a DVD disc from 4.7GB to 8.5GB.

Matsushita, best known for being the company behind the Panasonic brand, have said it will join Sony in July as the second manufacturer to offer Blu-ray disk recorders. Matsushita have unveiled a prototype of its Blu-ray DVD-RAM recorder that uses a two-layer 50GB disk. The prototype incorporates tuners that cover all digital TV broadcasting in Japan and is also compatible with present DVD-RAM and DVD-R formats. Other details won't be revealed for another several months, the company said.

The major software house Ulead, whose products include popular DVD authoring and burning packages, have said they will increasingly collaborate with leading consumer electronics and mobile device manufacturers as well as telecom operators to create software with MPEG-4 support to complement mobile phones, digital cameras and camcorders with MPEG-4 technology. While DVD & MPEG-4 remain integral to Ulead’s product development strategy, it will also soon launch a media center solution which turns the PC into a complete entertainment center for viewing photos, video and listening to music.

Infomedia have introduced a single-sided double-layer (also called dual-layer) DVD+R disc, with volume production to begin in May this year. The company claims to be the first to show this type of disc in Taiwan.

As we reported in January HP has come up with an elegant way to label your blank media: Use the same laser that already burned the data to make a label on the flip side of the disc. The technology, known as lightscribe, is on its way it seems.

Press release: Plextor Corp. today announced the PX-712SA DVD+/-R/RW drive with support for high-speed 12X DVD+R and 8X DVD-R recording. With the PX-712SA, users can record a full DVD in less than 6 minutes at a burst rate of 16.5MB per second, allowing them to create, edit and share customized DVDs faster than ever before.

Ahead Software announced today the world's first all-in-one DVD+R Double Layer (DL) software suite. All of Nero's applications in this enhanced version of its OEM digital media suite will fully support DVD+R DL drives, allowing 8.5GB DVD writing, authoring, backup and recoding the first time ever.

Press release: Panasonic have announced it will expand its DIGA line-up by launching five new DVD recorders (DMR-E150V, DMR-E95H, DMR-E85H, DMR-E75V and DMR-E55) for the Japanese market this spring. The new DIGA models now can record up to 16 hours(*2) on a double-sided DVD-RAM disc and feature a new Direct Navigator that simplifies the process of previewing recorded programs. The five models are also equipped with new DIGA Engine LSI that enhances the video quality during playback, recording or dubbing. Some of these models will be released simultaneously worldwide.

Hewlett Packard (HP), in addition to its DVD+RW burner models, is poised to launch DVD Dual (compatible with +RW and -RW formats) drives as retail demand for DVD+RW models wanes, according to Taiwanese makers of DVD drives.

The Opto-Electronics & Systems Laboratories (OES) under Taiwan's government-sponsored Industrial Technological Research Institute (ITRI) have announced that the DVD Forum will conduct a technical appraisal of its FVD (finalized versatile disc) format, a self-developed red-ray high-definition DVD format.

Thanks to our DVD boffin Flash, we have a brand, spanking new review of the soon-to-be-available new burners from Pioneer.

Macrovision have updated their Safedisc website, providing a lot more detail on their latest product changes. The latest version includes new features such as silentalarm and other items like a diagram of their function ripping and emulating process designed to stop cracking easily.

The UK supermarket giant Tesco is to launch an online DVD rental service this month to extend its reach into non-food businesses. The grocer plans to copy the success in America of Netflix, an online DVD rental firm.

DVD mega-changers have been around for years, but they have not exactly made a splash. While they tidily stow 300 or 400 DVDs -- perhaps your whole collection, bonus discs and all -- navigating through the titles can be difficult. You see an alphabetical list, but movies frequently go unrecognized there, appearing as "unknown" until you manually enter their proper names. To address these problems, a new product has emerged: the mega-changer manager.

Press Release: SOYO, a manufacturer of award-winning motherboards, computer peripheral, barebone systems and wireless networking products, has released the SY-P4VAL Version M, an 'all-in-one' motherboard, which features an 'instant boot-up' feature to deliver true multimedia performance.

Press Release: ASUS have introduced the DRW-0804P, which they claim is the world’s only DVD ReWriter supporting both 8X DVD-Write and 8X DVD+Write. The DRW-0804P also enables 4 X DVD-ReWrite, 4 X DVD+ReWrite, 12X DVD-ROM, 24X CD-Write, 24X CD-ReWrite and 40X CD-ROM to provide flexibility and high-speed operation.

According to the German website Heise Online, Philips 16x burner, the DVDRW885K, is going to be released in April. BenQ, Philips’ optical storage joint venture partner, has also announced that it plans to release its first double layer burner, the DW830A, in April so the earlier date makes sense.

The European Commission approved a joint venture involving the optical-disk drive divisions of Japan's Toshiba and Korea's Samsung Electronics to produce CD-ROM and DVD-ROM units.

The venerable MP3 music format, the technology most widely associated with unrestricted file swapping, is getting a makeover aimed at blocking unauthorised copying. Digital rights management (DRM) features will be added to the music format in a bid to block illegal copying.

In a closely watched case concerning a DVD-cracking tool that has been distributed over the Internet, a California appeals court has reversed a 4-year-old order banning the publication of the computer code that can be used to copy DVDs.