According to the latest market research from IDC, 2004 was a "strong year" for the UK PC industry. Some 2.6 million units were shipped in the final quarter, more than a third of which were notebooks. There was bad news for Microsoft's Media Center PCs, however, which accounted for low volumes in the desktop market due to stiff competition from digital TV hard drive recorders and recordable DVD players.

We reported in 2003 that Disney were to start selling self-destructing DVDs. Basically you could watch these discs for 48 hours after you buy them, but the discs coating reacts with oxygen and turns black and unreadable after that time. Disney marketed it as a rental that you never had to remember to bring back to avoid late fees.

A raid on a DVD pirating gang produced a haul worth £200,000. Officers from Operation Halifax swooped on a flat in Manor Park Parade, Lee High Road, London, looking for a counterfeit DVD factory.

Due to intense competition and the slimming margins of standard optical discs, CMC Magnetics and Optodisc, two of the largest producers of optical discs, have begun production of LightScribe-enabled and 8cm DVD discs in order to capitalize on these unique market niches, according to the two makers.

Movie studios must offer a broader range of films over the internet to prevent illegal downloading spreading into the mainstream, analysts have warned.

pjclark1 has kindly sent in a review of the differences between two popular DVD burners: BenQ 1620 vs NEC3500A.

An American lady called Gertrude Walton has been sued for allegedly making 700 counterfeit tracks of pop, rock and rap music available under the nickname "smittenedkitten". But the lawsuit was filed more than a month after the 83-year-old woman died in December, and her daughter says Gertrude hated computers anyway.

One of the biggest dealers of pirated Bollywood films in the country has been busted at his Cambridge base.

Estimates suggest that 50% of all DVDs sold in 2005 will have an inkjet printable surface. This has resulted in several product launches this week of new DVD discs. The most notable one being Datawrite with their new TransPrint Printable Surface DVD-R.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released a preliminary study of the potential lifespan of CD-Rs and DVD-Rs. A good starting point for deciding what type of media to purchase to keep those backups and photos kicking around longer.

Lewisham police had a result on sunday when they accidentally stumbled on a Pirate DVD factory. Officers stumbled across the haul when they turned up to make an unrelated arrest at a flat in Manor Park Parade in Lee. As well as confiscating 4000 bootleg DVD’s they also seized The movie copying equipment including DVD burners and a laptop set up to make counterfeit copies of the latest Hollywood hits from Meet The Fockers to Million Dollar Baby.

Elpida has licensed a technology that applies the same technique used in rewriteable optical discs to non-volatile memory chips.

Japan's Optware Corp. and five partners - CMC Magnetics, FUJI, Nippon Paint, Optware, Pulstec and TOAGOSEI - have announced that they would form the Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) Alliance to accelerate development and standardization of the HVD system.

According to our friends at Discwrite.co.uk Datawrite have sneakily adopted the new TransPrint technology on their new range of Full Face Silver (Hub) Printable 8X DVD-R. TransPrint is a new process which involves spraying the disc with a thin film of clear lacquer. The results are, according to some industry watchdogs, greatly better than standard printable surfaces, which use the conventional method of applying an inkjet friendly surface. The cost of the process has been the main factor in most brands not adopting this technology.

According to our friends at Discwrite.co.uk Tuff disc have already released their new range of discs to the market. The new range of highly durable discs, which are reputedly 40 times more scratch resistant and 20 times more dust resistant than standard DVD media, was originally scheduled to be released in Europe on the 10th of February. A quick trawl round the Internet shows that the range is already available from some online retailers. The disc is available in both DVD and CD format. No doubt Tuffdisc will be making some of this product available to our resident DVD guru Flash to test.

Mitsubishi, a Japanese maker of electronic products, said fiscal third-quarter profit rose 55 percent because of increased demand for DVD recorders, factory equipment and rear-projection televisions.

OEM quotes for DVD players recently rose from US$30-32 (£15-£17) to an average level of US$35 (£19), according to Taiwan-based optical disc drive (ODD) makers. This was the first jump in pricing since a steady decline in OEM price levels from US$55-60 (£29-£32) that started in 2002, said the makers.

Once a leading earner that helped lift electronics manufacturers out of a period of financial stagnation, DVD recorders have degenerated into little more than a burden as the companies slog through a drawn-out price war.

Our latest contributor, share trading guru MinTeD, has asked me to publish a quick apology. Due to pressure of work he hasn’t been able to reply to any of the dozens of emails he received about the investment/stock market column he has started writing for us.

Sony has now released the specs of the upcoming DRU-720A, the newest Sony burner that supports 16X DVD+/-R writing speeds...