Topic: News

Handal & Associates, a law firm based in San Diego, USA, indicated that its national class action lawsuit against the 3C DVD Patent Group, consisting of Philips Electronics, Sony, Pioneer and LG Electronics, may eventually be successful, according to lead attorney Anton Handal at a conference on anti-monopoly of DVD patents, held in Hong Kong on January 19, as reported by Xinhua Online.

With DVD-R now reaching an upper writing limit of 16x, manufacturers are having to rely on features other than writing speeds to bring new products to market. Datawrite recently had a coup with their Titanium brand which, as well as having a highly compatible writing surface, boasts an ultra tough protective surface.

The UK's two cablcecos have unveiled their video-on-demand services today as they look to bring greater flexibility to digital TV viewers.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has selected Lite-On IT and BenQ to be OEMs for its 16x DVD Dual burners equipped with LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling technology, with Lite-On IT responsible for external models for retail sale and BenQ for internal models for installation in PCs.

More than 200m songs were downloaded from legal online music stores around the world last year - a 900 per cent increase over 2003's total, the music industry organisation IFPI said today.

Lite-On, one of the biggest makers of DVD drives, are now the biggest after inking a deal with HP to make drives.

A man has been jailed for selling pirate DVDs at a boot fair. Trading Standards officers swooped on Mark Curtis, 30, from Paton Road, Bexhill, as he sold counterfeit films at Bramley Farm Boot Fair.

Intel and Revelations Entertainment, a partnership between Morgan Freeman and producer Lori McCreary, announced today the Intel-Revelations Open House, an innovative technology venue where industry professionals can see and prepare for the next revolution to affect the motion picture industry -- the emergence of the digital home.

Google has released free software for organising and finding the hundreds or thousands of digital photos often stored on users' hard drives.

Two American citizens face up to 15 years in jail if a Shanghai court finds them guilty of selling pirated DVDs, Chinese media have reported.

BenQ has recently landed an OEM order for 16x DVD-ROM drives from Pioneer, with shipments to begin later this month, according to local suppliers of components. However, BenQ declined to comment on the report due to client confidentiality.

Sony may be preparing to release its first PlayStation Portable (PSP) update, if a file that briefly appeared on the web this weekend is what it purports to be: a leaked copy of an early version of the update code. Whatever its provenance, the software certainly includes some interesting features. In addition to the usual bug fixes, the update is said to add not only a web browser and an email program, but a word processor and a spreadsheet.

People that need large capacity online storage accounts are being offered 10GBytes for free by US-based online service Streamload.

Hitachi intends to begin sampling a holographic disk with a 200 Gbyte capacity this autumn, and incorporate the disk next year in InPhase's drive system.

With the confirmation of the technical feasibility of the 8x-speed DVD+R Double Layer (DL) format, Verbatim Corporation announced that it will ship sample media to burner/recorder manufacturers to assist them in developing and optimizing the performance of their devices and for read/write and compatibility testing.

Hackers are using the digital rights management feature in Microsoft's Windows Media Player to fool people into downloading spyware and viruses, a security company claimed on Wednesday.

Lite-On IT and BenQ are feeling the pressure on OEM prices for 16x DVD burners from Samsung wjo have recently been lowering retail prices of its 16x DVD burners by 30% to US$69 (£37) in the US and European markets, according to the optical disc drive (ODD) makers.

As we reported on Monday,Philips has taken action to prevent DVD players made by Chinese makers who refuse to pay royalty fees from being imported to the US and Europe. This will likely be a favorable development for the FVD market, and should boost sales, according to Der-ray Huang, deputy director of Taiwan's Opto-Electronics Systems & Laboratories (OES), the leader in developing the forward versatile disc (FVD) standard.

TDK pledged to render recordable Blu-ray Discs more resilient yesterday when it announced a new coating material that it claims eliminates the need for protective cartridges.

At CES, HP announced they had cut a deal with Panasonic to support the other company's DVD formats, so HP will be incorporating DVD-RAM into their next generation desktop computers while Panasonic will tuck DVD+R support into their devices.