Mitsubishi Electric has developed a more powerful semiconductor laser that should pave the way for 16X DVD writers to be commercially available by about 2004.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. is hoping to match the domestic success of its DVD recorders in overseas markets next year, company officials say.

Rewrite the 3R's: Read, Rewrite and Retrieval With the Archos DExDVD RW External DVD Writer. Archos announced the launch of the next generation of DVD writers with the introduction of the first portable (peripheral) DVD writer, the DExDVD-RW. This innovative product offers the professional and home user the ability to create and store video films, images and all types of numerical files on any kind of DVD and CD.

Taiwanese manufacturer Princo yesterday announced the release of their 4 speed DVD-R. The disc will be marketed in Europe under the Whitelabel and Bulkpaq brandnames Princo are following in the footsteps of Ritek who have already released a 4x disc. Our industry insiders advise us that the entrance of Princo into the still immature 4x DVD-R market may result in an oversupply of discs and this in turn may result in sigificant price decreases in the next few months. Watch this space :)

Good news for all those people who have got 4 speed DVD writers this Christmas. We recently received a press release from Datawrite, (who were the first brand to launch a 4x DVD-R disc in the UK) that they expect the street price of their 4x DVD-R to drop to around £1.50 within the next two weeks.

With DVD playback being combined with an increasing number of consumer electronics products, DVD is everywhere, according to In-Stat/MDR. The high-tech market research firm reports that, in addition to TV sets, VCRs, cars, and Home Theater systems, in 2002, DVD players have been added to cable set top boxes and personal video recorders. As a result the DVD player market will hit 84 million units in 2006.

Pioneer have released a new Firmware for the A05 / 105. The new firmware can be downloaded from Here .

A deadline for adopting a new EU law on copyright protection has passed with just two member countries signing up, dealing a blow to media and software companies beset by unauthorized duplication of their works across the Internet.

Adopting DVD-R/RW (read as DVD “dash” R/RW), DVD formats recognized by the DVD Forum, the ASUS DRW-0402P is an enhanced follow-up to the first generation DVR-104, and is a powerful solution for data storage that fully understands what multimedia enthusiasts’ desire. Whether it’s reproducing memory-intensive video sequences on DVD with optimal digital picture quality or playing full-length films, the functionally versatile DRW-0402P delivers smooth and efficient performance on the fly. Record memorable moments in your life with the DRW-0402P and share them with your family and friends anywhere anytime.

Thanks to flash we have this new Firmware review and downloads.

Malicious MP3 or WMA files can compromise system security and allow remote code to be executed, security company Foundstone announced on Wednesday. Under Windows XP it is enough to just browse to the directory with the file or even browse to a malicious website. The file does not have to be opened for the code to be run.

GINGER GROUP the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said today it is pushing the US Library of Congress, North America's copyright "watchdog" to accept that people be allowed to skip "commercials" on DVD and also watch DVDs that Americans buy outside their DVD region. The somewhat radical idea is because, said the EFF, there need to be exemptions from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which could penalise individuals for bypassing, or attempting to bypass, technical protections inherent in the DVD format.

The technical design of a compression technology that promises to stream video over the Internet at DVD-worthy speeds has been completed, according to the international standards team developing it.

A new website, dvdtracks.com is aiming to collect together mp3 film commentaries from movie fans that could rival the often bland and uninspiring 'professional' commentaries found in the extras of many DVD's.

Sonicblue is looking to solve all your PC and DVD needs. They have announced a new DVD player, the Go-Video D2730, which in addition to playing DVD movies will be able to access content on PCs, such as photos, music and videos, via a wireless network connection. The company will demonstrate the device at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and will begin selling it for $250 in the first quarter of 2003.

Domestic optical storage companies like LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics and AV makers, who have preferred DVD RAM mode, have launched the development of DVD+RW and DVD-RW modes, opening new phase in a fight over a standard for DVD recording. The industry sees that if domestic companies with the largest production capacity in the world start producing RW-mode DVD recording equipment, the balance of power, which has been maintained for two to three years, would be tipped.

Taiwan-based IC design house Mediatek recently released samples of DVD chipsets supporting both of the rival DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW formats. A handful of local optical storage drive makers have begun testing the chips for drives scheduled to launch next year.

A landmark trial of a teenager in Norway accused of video piracy has ended with prosecutors calling for his computers to be confiscated.
But they stopped short of seeking jail time, recommending that the teenager, Jon Johansen, get a 90-day suspended sentence instead.

Thanks to our regular contributor Flash for this review and accompanying FAQ.

321Studios just released the latest version of their DVD to DVD-R (as well as DVD+R, DVD-RW or DVD+RW) software, DVDXcopy.
The new version,( DVDXCopy v1.3) has couple of much-requested enhancements, most notably a fully-integrated burning engine of Ahead NERO. The changelog is here:
· Full integration of the Ahead NERO DVD burning engine
· New low calorie download: The full installation of DVDXCopy is now just over three megabytes.
· Advanced Options on the main screen lets you set Player compatibility mode to be either UDF/ISO or just UDF. Just UDF mode helps some players recognize DVD+RW discs as valid media (although UDF/ISO is the correct selection by DVD specs).
· New "no questions asked" mode for users who have separate DVD writer and DVD-ROM drives. You can now put the output disk in your writer and the source disk in your reader and check the "Output disk is ready" box and once the first disc is processed, it will start burning it immediately to the blank disc in writer drive. After that, program will continue by processing the disc 2. Now the checkbox is unselected again, but you can switch the burned disc 1 to a new blank disc and check the box again while the software processes disc 2 and it will do the 2nd burning automatically as well.
· DVDXCopy now remembers what drive was last used to burn, and will automatically attempt to use that drive again.