Topic: News

In response to the latest 2005 blank DVD global demand projection by Japan-based consulting firm Fujiwara-Rothchild, CMC Magnetics chairman Robert Wong, indicated late last week that the global market for all kinds of blank optical discs is rebounding and supply may be short of demand in the fourth quarter of this year.

Sony wants to create its own sort of "iTunes for Films" by making the most popular 500 Sony movies available for download within the next year. Sony has an impressive movie catalogue of about 2,500 and also hopes that by launching the website they can scupper the internet pirates.

Philips Electronics stated that it had won its civil law suit filed with the US District Court in the Southern District of New York State against Princo and Gigastorage.

"If you can't beat them hire them" - This seems to be Apple's new motto. The reason being, it has hired DVD Jon. The very same Jon, who's broken into iTunes thrice giving them sleepless nights.

Windows XP 64-bit final version is currently available for download, for all the MSDN subscribers. The retail version is expected to be available in three weeks.

Ritek is shifting manufacturing equipment for CD-R discs from its two subsidiaries in Germany and another two in Northern Ireland to its subsidiary in Vietnam, Ritek Vietnam, according to the company.

Ritek is shifting manufacturing equipment for CD-R discs from its two subsidiaries in Germany and another two in Northern Ireland to its subsidiary in Vietnam, Ritek Vietnam, according to the company’s March 31announcement.

Press Release: Pioneer announced today the introduction in Japan of the DVR-530H and DVR-555H, the world's first*1 DVD recorders with built-in HDD to incorporate the Dual Layer DVD-R (DVD-R DL) technology, which allows recording up to 24 hours*2 of content on a single DVD-R DL disc.

Sony have downplayed widespread reports of 'dead pixel' LCD screen problems for their new Playstation Portable (PSP) handheld games console and media player, saying that the warranty is still in effect and defective units can be exchanged.

Blockbuster has agreed to make refunds to customers -- and pay an additional $630,000 -- to settle allegations the US's biggest movie rental chain deceived people with its "No Late Fees" campaign.

Nero Digital will be available as a free download beginning of April 2005. The software is an MPEG-4 solution that enables users to fit the entire audio and video contents of a DVD on a regular data CD with no perceivable loss of quality, accorting to Nero.

An Austrian village is testing technology that could represent the future of television. The people of Engerwitzdorf are filming, editing and producing their own regional news channel. The channel covers local politics, sports, events and anything that residents want to film and are prepared to upload for others to watch on PCs.

Sony have been ordered by a U.S. court to halt sales of its blockbuster PlayStation consoles in the United States and pay $90 million in damages to a California tech company, Immersion.

A top executive at Sony, one of Blu-ray's major backers, has opened the door to the possibility of unifying the format with its arch rival, HD-DVD.

Ritek, the second largest producer of optical discs in Taiwan, anticipates good sales of DVD+R/-R discs for next quarter based on orders received, but will keep watching to ascertain whether the global demand will continue growing in the second half of this year, company CEO Gordon Yieh indicated.

In the US, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Thomson, have announced the voluntary recall of 47,000 digital video disc player batteries.

TV channel Five has said it will be the first UK broadcaster to offer parts of its shows for sale as legal downloads. From Monday, viewers of motoring show Fifth Gear can pay £1.50 for "DVD quality" downloads of car reviews.

Almost eight out of ten UK businesses could be paying too much for their software licenses. Only 22 per cent of people responding to a FAST survey were sure they had the right number of licenses. Another 11 per cent did not know if their business was over or under-licensed and 41 per cent thought they were probably over-licensing.

The new Philips DVDR7200 is a DVD recorder that features an inbuilt Freeview digital terrestrial receiver and decoder.