Topic: News

A new kind of copy-protected music CD will likely hit U.S. shelves early next year, as record label SonyBMG experiments with a technology created by British developer First 4 Internet, according to sources familiar with the companies.

DVD genius Flash has posted a redview of the new Plextor burner. The PX-712SA writes DVD+Rs at 12-speed and rewrites at 4-speed and writes DVD-Rs at 8x and rewrites at 4x. You can read the PX-712SA review here.

UK Supermarket giant Tesco has cut the price of CDs and DVDs by setting up a distribution arm in Jersey. The company is able to sell chart CDs from £8.99 and DVDs from £9.99, including postage and packing, by taking advantage of the island’s VAT rules.

CMC Magnetics, the largest producer of optical discs in Taiwan, will establish a 100% owned subsidiary for movie production by the end of this year, with the first movie expected to debut in July or August 2005, according to CMC chairman Robert Wong.

Update 22/12/2004 This disc has just been reviewed by resident DVD Guru Flash.
Click Here for the Review

As we all know titanium is one of the most stable and strongest metals obtainable in the world today. It's strength and reliability is world renowned, even used by NASA on the Space Shuttle.

In the largest counterfeit movie and music bust in U.S. history, pirated DVDs, CDs and video games representing potential losses of $200 million to companies were confiscated Wednesday in raids in Los Angeles and Orange counties, officials said.

Engineers at NEC have developed a prototype optical disc drive that supports the new HD-DVD format and is also compatible with CD and DVD formats.

Sony has released two new DVD recorders in Japan with an advanced search function. The RDR-HX100 and RDR-HX90 allow you to search for programmes using any search string (programme title or actor's name are obvious choices). They will then show you all programmes within a set time period related to your search term.

Ahead Software, probably the most successful CD and DVD Burning software comapny in the world, has announced that it will adopt the name of its world-renowned brand as its new corporate name, and will be known as Nero effective January 1, 2005.

A Missouri family's pet snake, missing for a month, turned up alive and slithering in a box they had sent to New Jersey, about 1,000 miles away. The box contained a DVD player that was being sent for repairs.

CMC Magnetics expects 16x DVD+R/-R discs to account for 50% of its DVD disc shipments in the first quarter of next year, while Ritek estimates its figure will be 30%, according to CMC chairman Robert Wong and Ritek CEO Gordon Yeh.

Sony has launched its first handheld games console, the PlayStation Portable (PSP), which it hopes will challenge Nintendo in the portable games market.

DVD inquisitor Flash wanted us to know that "Datasafe You Have a Winner!!". Find out why by reading his Datasafe 8X DVD+R media review.

Sony has won Disney's support for its Blu-ray Disc (BD) hi-definition video optical format. Disney's home video operation, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, said it will ship "popular new releases and classic pictures" on BD when suitable "hardware launches in the North America and Japan". This is expected to take place in a year or so.

DVD guiding light Flash has posted in his review of the new hub printable from Datawrite. Find out why he "will definitely be adding them to my list of preferred media" here.

Amazon made its anticipated entry into renting DVDs over the Internet, launching a service in the United Kingdom that the world's largest retailer says will charge up to 30 percent less than its competitors.

Gordon Yeh, CEO of Taiwan’s second-largest optical-disc maker, Ritek, stated global demand for DVD+R/-R discs will grow to 3.8 billion discs in 2005, while supply may only rise to 3.6 billion discs, based on projections made by the Japanese research firm Fujiwara-Rothchild.

Pioneer has released a new firmware for the DVR-108 series. The new firmware release brings the drive up to version 1.18 from the previous 1.14 firmware. The firmware mainly increases the burning compatability for new 16x media and can be downloaded here.

An all-new type of media disc, which is to combine the DVD standard with an all-new high definition format, has been developed by Toshiba and Memory-Tech.

Britain leads its European neighbours in the number of remote controls cluttering up each household. A recent survey of 5,500 families in Germany, France, The Netherlands, Italy and the UK found that over half of UK homes have five or more remote controls in the house.