Press release: Panasonic have announced it will expand its DIGA line-up by launching five new DVD recorders (DMR-E150V, DMR-E95H, DMR-E85H, DMR-E75V and DMR-E55) for the Japanese market this spring. The new DIGA models now can record up to 16 hours(*2) on a double-sided DVD-RAM disc and feature a new Direct Navigator that simplifies the process of previewing recorded programs. The five models are also equipped with new DIGA Engine LSI that enhances the video quality during playback, recording or dubbing. Some of these models will be released simultaneously worldwide.

Hewlett Packard (HP), in addition to its DVD+RW burner models, is poised to launch DVD Dual (compatible with +RW and -RW formats) drives as retail demand for DVD+RW models wanes, according to Taiwanese makers of DVD drives.

The Opto-Electronics & Systems Laboratories (OES) under Taiwan's government-sponsored Industrial Technological Research Institute (ITRI) have announced that the DVD Forum will conduct a technical appraisal of its FVD (finalized versatile disc) format, a self-developed red-ray high-definition DVD format.

Thanks to our DVD boffin Flash, we have a brand, spanking new review of the soon-to-be-available new burners from Pioneer.

Macrovision have updated their Safedisc website, providing a lot more detail on their latest product changes. The latest version includes new features such as silentalarm and other items like a diagram of their function ripping and emulating process designed to stop cracking easily.

The UK supermarket giant Tesco is to launch an online DVD rental service this month to extend its reach into non-food businesses. The grocer plans to copy the success in America of Netflix, an online DVD rental firm.

DVD mega-changers have been around for years, but they have not exactly made a splash. While they tidily stow 300 or 400 DVDs -- perhaps your whole collection, bonus discs and all -- navigating through the titles can be difficult. You see an alphabetical list, but movies frequently go unrecognized there, appearing as "unknown" until you manually enter their proper names. To address these problems, a new product has emerged: the mega-changer manager.

Press Release: SOYO, a manufacturer of award-winning motherboards, computer peripheral, barebone systems and wireless networking products, has released the SY-P4VAL Version M, an 'all-in-one' motherboard, which features an 'instant boot-up' feature to deliver true multimedia performance.

Press Release: ASUS have introduced the DRW-0804P, which they claim is the world’s only DVD ReWriter supporting both 8X DVD-Write and 8X DVD+Write. The DRW-0804P also enables 4 X DVD-ReWrite, 4 X DVD+ReWrite, 12X DVD-ROM, 24X CD-Write, 24X CD-ReWrite and 40X CD-ROM to provide flexibility and high-speed operation.

According to the German website Heise Online, Philips 16x burner, the DVDRW885K, is going to be released in April. BenQ, Philips’ optical storage joint venture partner, has also announced that it plans to release its first double layer burner, the DW830A, in April so the earlier date makes sense.

The European Commission approved a joint venture involving the optical-disk drive divisions of Japan's Toshiba and Korea's Samsung Electronics to produce CD-ROM and DVD-ROM units.

The venerable MP3 music format, the technology most widely associated with unrestricted file swapping, is getting a makeover aimed at blocking unauthorised copying. Digital rights management (DRM) features will be added to the music format in a bid to block illegal copying.

In a closely watched case concerning a DVD-cracking tool that has been distributed over the Internet, a California appeals court has reversed a 4-year-old order banning the publication of the computer code that can be used to copy DVDs.

Taiwan's producers of blank DVD-R/+R discs are expected to face continued price drops this year due to the expansion of global production capacity. However, major manufacturers in Taiwan are striving to maintain their profitability by raising yield rates, upgrading products, and securing certification from OEM clients.

Thanks to our resident DVD expert Flash, we have a new review which outlines all the handy functionality of the new patched firmware for the Pioneer 107 and provides download links.

Sony has released a new firmware update for the DRU-530A drive that increases read and write performance and adds 8x DVD-R recording speeds and 4x DVD-RW media recording speeds.

The DVD Forum has approved a standard for next-generation rewritable DVD discs with four times the current capacity. The rewritable HD-DVD (High Definition and High Density-DVD) format was approved as the DVD Forum kicked off its general meeting in Tokyo this week.

Sony has signed agreements with several major Taiwanese producers of optical discs fixing royalty charges of 1.5%-3.5% for DVD-R/+R discs, according to some of the Taiwanese makers concerned.

I have just seen on eBay someone cashing in on the 8x for all firmware for the Pioneer DVR-107 by offering CDs with the otherwise freely available hacked firmware burnt on to them for the less reasonably priced £1.50 a disc. This firmware was produced by >NIL: for everyone to use free of charge. I was deeply involved in its development and it was done not for financial gain. Finding it offered for sale on EBay disgusts me: to think that all this effort has enabled someone else to cash in on it.

This firmware is offered free to the end user and is freely available from this site and the sites associated with the firmware forum and will remain FREE. Anyone thinking of purchasing such firmware should put their money elsewhere. The firmware for sale is the same that is available on this site and can be downloaded free of charge.

FLASH

Pioneer's technical support website carries some details of two new A07 drives - the DVR-A07XLA and the DVR-A07XLB - which will be avilable from the second week in March. It would seem the two new models will have new designs, new firmware and new software. Watch this space.