Topic: News

The European Commission plans to impose 7.3 per cent countervailing duty on the value of imports of CD-R's originating from India. The proposal is expected to be put up to the EU Council of Ministers for approval by the Member States before June 17, according to a filing with the BSE by Moser Baer India Ltd.

That is the warning Walt Disney will issue this August when it begins to "rent" DVDs that are set to become unplayable after two days and that therefore do not have to be returned. Disney home video unit Buena Vista Home Entertainment will launch a pilot movie "rental" program that uses self-destruction technology.

Pioneer is aiming to reduce confusion in the DVD rewritable market by incorporating support for several major formats with its next generation drive. The electronics maker has announced that its sixth generation drive, the DVR-A06, will arrive in the United States in June. The drive will retail for $329 (£200) and support DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, CD-R and CD-RW. The DVD+RW format includes support for DVD+R media.

A Press Release from Macrovision states: "Macrovision, the leading provider of copy protection and digital rights management (“DRM”) technologies, today unveiled its new DVD version of SafeDisc® during the Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3 Expo) at the Los Angeles Convention Center. SafeDisc-DVD protects DVD-ROMs from unauthorized copying."

AOL says it will demonstrate a new service that includes voice instant messaging for Sony's market-leading PlayStation 2 video game console. AOL has said the demonstration at E3, the video game industry trade show in Las Vegas this week, would include music programming, movie trailers, TV show clips, and footage from a new feature of AOL Games called "AOL Players Club", showing members executing special moves in Sony games.

Around one billion pieces of personal data are handed over to the police and other official bodies each year by communications companies, privacy advocates have calculated. UK law enforcement and investigative agencies are forcing communications providers to hand over around one million customer records each year, Privacy International claimed yesterday.

The latest major clash between technology and copyright owners heads to federal court today, where software start-up 321 Studios hopes to win a reprieve from a legal attack by film companies on its DVD-copying software. The case, which will be heard in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, holds important consequences not only for software developers and for the motion picture industry but also for consumers, who face increasingly complex rules governing the uses of entertainment products.

On-demand digital video and Internet delivered rapidly and cheaply to your home or business could be made possible by a new technology from Xerox Corp. A single silicon chip could help route high-capacity fiber optics to small businesses and homes.

Trading standards officers have confiscated a stash of illegal CDs and DVDs with a street value of more than £50,000. The haul was collected after staff working for Bath and North East Somerset Council made a spot check on a car boot sale in Lansdown.

If you're still confused by DVD+RW, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD-R, CD-R and CD-RW, (and you've read our excellent article on the differences) Verbatim-Cendyne claims to have a product that will dispel all that dashed misery the different formats entail. It has introduced a 4X 44-dual format recorder which support all of these formats and come with DVD burning software that doesn't care about the plus and minuses.

After winning the battle for the living room, Sony now wants your pockets. The electronics giant, whose PlayStation 2 games console has outsold rivals from Microsoft and Nintendo 3-to-1, announced plans Tuesday for a handheld game player. The PSP, introduced during a press conference in advance of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) trade show, would compete to some extent with Nintendo's Game Boy, which has all but owned the portable game market for more than a decade.

Philips have announced details of their new High Capacity Recordable Disc system, Version 1.0. According to their licensing website the discs will burn with a maximum single session time of 98 minutes, 29 seconds, 74 frames on 12 cm discs. For 8cm discs the playing time will be roughly 30 minutes.

ATI has shipped a 256MB DDR 2 version of its Radeon 9800 Pro board, the company said today, clearly with an eye to spoiling Nvidia's GeForce FX 5900 launch later this week. From the ATI website: "Grab the remote and surf an unprecedented set of TV, DVD, audio and video features. With 2568MB DDR memory and an 8-pixel pipeline, ALL-IN-WONDER® 9800 PRO delivers increased rendering power for faster, cinematic quality graphics. Filled with customizable home entertainment features, this card is the engine behind cutting-edge gaming, broadcast and PC entertainment."

Press Release: "Homeowners interested in treating their guests to unprecedented remote controlled multi-room entertainment should consider TERK's latest addition to the their line of LeapFrog(R) A/V accessories. The WaveMaster 30 is TERK's new solution for wireless, multi-room, audio/video distribution. Featuring remote control capability and a built-in modulator, the WaveMaster 30 is a hassle free, cost effective alternative to purchasing multiple A/V components. With technology changing so quickly, consumers look to A/V solutions that offer maximum performance but are less complicated."

Microsoft has made its first move to expand its console beyond gaming with Music Mixer. Microsoft announced the first non-game application for its Xbox video game console on Monday and unveiled a handful of high-profile games intended to boost the system's cachet among hardcore players.

Taiwanese optical driver makers may begin to get long-waited DVD+RW loaders later this month from Japan-based Ricoh, a major supplier, because Ricoh has seen an improved yield rate on its loader production and will start shipments after mid-May, according to sources.

From Pioneer: "The DVD Forum has established new standards for high-speed recordable discs (DVD-R discs supporting 4x recording and DVD-RW discs supporting 2x recording).

"In tests to check the operation of these new high-speed recordable discs, Pioneer has discovered that the DVD-R/RW writers may malfunction, if used with new high-speed DVD-R/RW discs. Various media manufacturers have begun production of these discs that will soon be available in the marketplace. The source of the problem is to do with the the firmware in certain Pioneer DVD-R/RW recorders and drives, and not with the high-speed media itself. As a result, use of the new high-speed discs for recording on these particular Pioneer products may cause damage to both the loaded disc and to the drive/recorder.
The models requiring the update are as follows:
Pioneer DVR-A03
Pioneer DVR-103
Pioneer DVR-A04
Pioneer DVR-104

"Pioneer therefore requests all customers to download the firmware for updating the writer’s software directly from the URL provided below. Once customers update their writer software with the downloaded firmware, they will be able to use the new high-speed DVD-R/RW media."

You can download the new firmware (version 1.41) here.
Pioneer website: pioneeraus.com.au/multimedia/.

Cinemas are set to turn to Big Brother-style spy tactics in a bid to foil the movie pirates costing the film industry millions of pounds a year. Airport-style metal detectors and night-vision goggles are two of the ideas currently on trial in America. And with pirating already a major problem on this side of the Atlantic, experts predict similar methods could soon be introduced in the UK.

FLASH memory manufacturers are developing a new generation of smaller cards to expand the technology from cameras and MP3 players into the lucrative mobile phone market. The CompactFlash Association has updated its standards specification to allow card vendors to ensure the new memory devices remain backward-compatible with older systems and enable connectivity in new technology such as phones and PDAs.

Toshiba is developing a blue-laser optical disc based on today's DVD production process. The upshot: much higher capacities of optical storage at a much lower cost than other blue-laser technologies. According to Toshiba, the new disc requires only minor changes to an existing DVD production line and the equipment it's based on to produce. The disc is based on a single-side, double-layer 120mm diameter, 1.2mm thick DVD constructed using back-to-back bonding.