Plextor LLC has officially announced its new Qflix-enabled DVD writers. With the internal PX-806SA and external PX-Q840U, users can download movies and TV shows and then burn a permanent copy that can be played back on a standard DVD player. The two drives also offer 20x DVD±R, 8x DVD±R DL and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and support for Plextor's new PlexUTILITIES software.

plextor px-q840u.jpg

Plextor LLC, a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, reenters the market with the availability of two new drives, the PX-Q840U external and the PX-806SA internal. Both drives feature Qflix recording technology from Sonic Solutions, enabling consumers to download and burn movie and TV titles at home.

The Qflix-enabled Plextor drives make it easy for consumers to download and burn their favorite movies and TV titles directly to a DVD for immediate viewing. Developed by Sonic Solutions and Pioneer in 2007, the unique Qflix software uses Roxio® Venue, a rich, user-friendly application that allows consumers to search for and download their favorite Hollywood hits from digital entertainment innovator, CinemaNow (www.cinemanow.com). Once downloaded, users are able to create a permanent and portable DVD-format copy onto Qflix- enabled optical media.

“The Qflix technology makes it easy for all consumers, not just the tech-savvy, to access and manage digital entertainment at home,” said Bob Gronski, vice president of sales and marketing for Plextor. “In an economic time when people are going out less and taking advantage of home entertainment more, it’s exciting for us to offer a solution with such limitless entertainment capabilities.”

Add a comment

Transcend recently announced its new ultra-tiny USB drive, the JetFlash T5. While measuring only 29.9mm x 15.3mm x 6.1mm, the drive is rugged enough to resist bending, stress, vibration, shock and even full water submersion. The T5 also features a retractable connector and is compatible with Transcend’s JetFlash elite software.

transcend jetflash t5.png

Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), a leading manufacturer of flash memory products, today introduced a new ultra-tiny USB flash drive, the JetFlash® T5. Measuring just 29.9mm x 15.3mm x 6.1mm (L x W x D), the T5 is incredibly compact, and only weighs a mere 2g. Unlike other miniature USB flash drives, the T5 is constructed with non-breakable plastic and is rugged enough to resist bending, stress, vibration, shock, and even full water submersion. Its retractable connector design and eye-catching two-tone color schemes not only make the drive easier to handle and use, but also give it a unique fashion accessory look. With its convenient attachment loop, the ultra-light T5 can be used as a mobile phone dongle or a keychain fob, making it easy to carry and store in places where ordinary flash drives just do not fit.

Add a comment

Arctic Cooling Silentium T2 Computer Case @ Tweaknews.net
Asus 901 Eee PC @ Rbmods
Asus LS221H Monitor @ InsideHW
Intel Core i7 Processor and X58 Chipset @ Benchmark Reviews, CHW, Hardware Zone, HotHardware.com, Madshrimps and TweakTown
NZXT Rogue SFF Gaming Chassis @ BCCHardware
NZXT Whisper Case @ Virtual-Hideout
Sapphire Radeon HD 4550 512MB Low Profile Video Card @ ThinkComputers.org Add a comment

With the world economy sliding into a depression, companies everywhere are facing difficult times. According to DigiTimes, Taiwan's optical disc manufacturers are being hit especially hard. Despite recent price hikes, CMC Magnetics and Ritek suffered net losses of NT$1.733 billion and NT$970.1 million, respectively, in the third quarter of 2008.

CMC Magnetics and Ritek, the top two Taiwan-based makers of blank optical discs, suffered net losses of NT$1.733 billion and NT$970.1 million, respectively, in the third quarter, according to their financial reports for the third quarter of 2008. However, CMC's third-quarter 2008 net loss shrank by 24.6% and Ritek's by 15.8% from the second quarter of 2008 mainly because the two companies increased their OEM prices for DVD+R/-R discs by about 10% in August, according to industry sources.

CMC and Ritek aren't the only disc makers losing money. Second-tier manufacturers Prodisc, Gigastorage and Princo also saw net losses per share for the first three quarters of this year.

Add a comment

Transcend recently announced the release of its new 128GB high speed 2.5-inch Solid State Disk (SSD) drive. This MLC-equipped SSD features a new controller and SATA-II interface, making it capable of 145MB/s read and 92MB/s write speeds.

transcend 2.5-inch 128gb ssd.png

Transcend Information Inc. (Transcend®), the world’s leading manufacturer of memory products, is proud to release its all-new 128GB high speed 2.5-inch Solid State Disk (SSD). SSDs are made of reliable NAND flash memory that contains no moving parts, and therefore are not susceptible to mechanical failure resulting from vibration, shock or heat. Featuring a powerful new controller, Transcend’s MLC-equipped 128GB SSD far outpaces standard 2.5” hard drives, delivering exceptional sustained read/write speeds of up to 145MB / 92MB per second to guarantee fast throughput regardless of file size. With these high-speed transfer rates and virtually non-existent (0.2ms) latency, software applications and games open faster and run more smoothly, improving overall system responsiveness. Moreover, this SSD’s industry-standard SATA-II interface and 2.5” form factor allow easy and straightforward user installation in most notebook computers and mainstream PCs just like regular hard drives.

Add a comment

Western Digital unveiled its new HD TV Media Player this morning. While lacking a built in hard drive, the WD TV HD Media Player lets users plug in up to two WD My Passport portable drives or other USB mass storage devices and play movies, photos and movies on their TV at resolutions up to 1080p.

wd hd tv media player.jpg

WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced a simple way for consumers to play their stored digital content on their HDTV in Full-HD 1080p resolution. The WD TV™ Media Player connects to a user's TV or home theater and plays digital movies, music and photos from WD's My Passport™ portable drive or other USB mass storage device. The WD TV Media Player is available now at WD's online store (www.shopwd.com) and select retailers.

According to research firm IDC, nearly 334 million GB of photos and more than 3.1 billion GB of video will be stored on consumer desktop and laptop computers in 2008. The research firm expects that to increase to 400 million GB and 5.8 billion GB, respectively, by 2010.

These large personal digital libraries are all but trapped on users' computers. In order to play their content on their TV, consumers have struggled with clumsy solutions such as copying onto multiple CDs and DVDs or connecting their PCs to their TV via wires or complicated home networking solutions. The WD TV HD Media Player enables consumers to easily and elegantly access their high-definition content on the biggest screen in the home.

Add a comment

Seagate sent out a press release this morning, announcing its new 2.5-inch enterprise hard drive, the Savvio 15K.2. Available in 146GB and 73GB capacities, the Savvio 15K.2 features a 15,000-rpm rotation speed and an SAS 2.0 interface running at 6Gb/s. Best of all, it uses 70% less power than competing 3.5-inch hard drives.

Seagate (Nasdaq: STX) today introduced the world's fastest and greenest drive -- the Savvio 15K.2 HDD, the new 15K-rpm addition to the Savvio family of 2.5-inch SAS 2.0 enterprise solutions. Savvio 15K.2 HDD delivers the industry's highest hard drive performance and reliability as well as adding a self-encrypting drive option, all while maintaining Seagate's industry leading, record low power consumption. The Savvio 15K.2 hard drive and the previously-announced Savvio 10K.3 hard drive are both part of Seagate's new Unified Storage architecture which converges disk drive interfaces, form factors, and security features into a common best-of-breed platform for powerful, yet simple storage solutions. Together, Seagate's Unified Storage architecture and the Savvio hard drive family improve manageability, integration, security and performance benefits for IT departments while ensuring business continuity with no compromise.

Add a comment

cyberlink dvd suite 7.jpgCyberLink Corp. (5203.TW), an innovative solutions provider for the connected digital lifestyle, today launched CyberLink DVD Suite 7, a complete package of CyberLink's best multimedia software, and the only suite in its category to include playback features for enjoying Blu-ray Disc Disc movies on the PC.

DVD Suite 7 offers powerful but easy-to-use features, allowing playback of movies, media management, creation of videos and slideshows, burning and backup of data; just to name a few of the many multimedia functions that users can access via the versatile PowerStarter task integrator.

"DVD Suite 7 represents the ultimate collection of our leading software," said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. "Not only do we provide Blu-ray playback, support for HD video capturing, editing, authoring, burning, and sharing, our online communities offer unlimited resources and new ways for customers to express their creativity. Add to that new media management tools for cataloging and sharing photos and videos, and you can say it really doesn’t get much better than this."

Add a comment

Verbatim Europe recently announced its new external RAID hard drive. This two-disk solution offers both eSATA and USB 2.0 interfaces and can be configured in RAID 1 (mirrored) mode for extra protection or RAID 0 to access its full 2TB of storage space.

verbatim 2tb raid hdd.png

Verbatim is expanding its range with an external RAID hard disk offering 2 terabytes of storage. The 3.5-inch HDD offers the maximum storage and the fastest data transfer rates in RAID level 0 and continuous data storage based on mirroring in RAID level 1. The Verbatim RAID 2TB eSATA & USB 2.0 Combo is now available in retail outlets.

The market for external hard disks is characterised by three main trends: ever greater storage capacities, faster transfer rates and higher data security. "With our new RAID HDD we are offering all this, as well as giving users the option of customised configuration," says Kai Miroschnik, Business Development Manager HDD Verbatim EUMEA.

Add a comment

SlySoft has released a new version of its AnyDVD software. Along with the usual fixes and updates, AnyDVD (HD) 6.4.7.9 supports the latest version of the BD+ copy protection, removes region locks from menusand gives the option to disable BD-Live.

6.4.7.9 2008 10 31
- New (DVD): Added support for new protections
- New (Blu-ray): Added option to disable BD-Live
- New (Blu-ray): Added removal of region locks from menus
- New (Blu-ray): Added support for new version of the BD+ copy protection
- Fix (Blu-ray): Playback issues with ArcSoft TMT
- Fix (Blu-ray): Issues with some titles, e.g. "American Gangster"
- Some minor fixes and improvements
- Updated languages

If you want to check out the latest version of AnyDVD, it can be downloaded from SlySoft's website.

Add a comment