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11 September 2008

At a recent press conference, Pioneer introduced its first hard drive equipped Blu-ray Disc recorders. Along with support for BonusView, the 1TB BDR-WD900 and 500GB BDR-WD700 offer 1080/24p output, dual digital tuners and Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio bitstream output via HDMI. The recorders also support MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 compression technology, which allows them to store nearly 11 hours of HD video onto a 25GB Blu-ray Disc or, in the case of the BDR-WD900, about 450 hours on its built in hard drive.

Pioneer Corporation announced today the introduction of the BDR-WD900, a Blu-ray Disc (BD) Recorder equipped with a 1-TB hard drive, and the BDR-WD700, a BD Recorder equipped with a 500-GB hard drive, for the Japanese market.

With digital terrestrial broadcasts becoming increasingly common, requirements of TV viewers are undergoing a change. Whereas previously viewers wanted to record as much high-definition content as possible, and as easily possible, they now want to record content in the highest quality possible. Thus, the market for BD recorders is rapidly expanding. Pioneer aims to meet this demand by launching its first HDD/BD recorders that can record two digital high-definition programs simultaneously for longer hours in the HD picture quality.

The Pioneer BD recorders BDR-WD900 and BDR-WD700 will be available in Japan in the early of October, 2008 (with no retail price suggested).

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Optical Storage

11 September 2008

For the last few years, Sony NEC Optiarc has operated as a joint venture between Sony and NEC. The two companies announced today that they have signed an agreement to transfer NEC's stock to Sony, making Sony NEC Optiarc a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Sony group.

Sony Corporation (hereafter Sony) and NEC Corporation (hereafter NEC) today announced that they have signed an agreement to transfer NEC's 45% stock in Sony NEC Optiarc Inc. to Sony.
 
Sony and NEC separated their optical disc drive businesses and combined each company's respective strengths in the Sony NEC Optiarc Inc. joint venture, established April 3, 2006, with the aim of achieving further business expansion.

As a result of this agreement, Sony will make Sony NEC Optiarc Inc. a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Sony group, and will seek to strengthen its interaction with Sony group's product and device businesses to further streamline decision-making processes, enhance management responsiveness and further reinforce its next-generation optical disc drive business.

NEC will continue to contribute to the advancement of Sony NEC Optiarc Inc.'s optical disc drive products through the LSI development being carried out at NEC Electronics Corporation. 

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Flash Memory

10 September 2008

Lexar Media has announced a 16GB version of its Professional UDMA 300x CompactFlash (CF) card. Developed for use with UDMA-enabled readers and digital SLR (DSLR) cameras, the Lexar Professional UDMA CF card is speed-rated at 300x and is capable of 45MB/s write speeds.

Lexar Media, a leading global provider of memory products for digital media, today announced the Lexar Professional UDMA 300x 16GB CompactFlash® (CF) card, a new memory card that provides an ideal combination of increased capacity, professional-level performance and reliability. Designed for professional photographers and photo enthusiasts, this lightning-fast card is UDMA-enabled (Ultra Direct Memory Access), resulting in exceedingly fast performance. Speed-rated at 300x, which represents a minimum sustained write speed of 45MB per second, the new Lexar Professional UDMA 300x 16GB CF card dramatically reduces post-production time thanks to an improved card-to-computer transfer rate when working in conjunction with a UDMA-enabled device. In addition, the very high capacity of the card allows photographers to store more images and shoot for longer periods without interruption.

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Hard Disks

10 September 2008

Toshiba recently announced its new 240GB 1.8-inch hard disk drive, the MK2431GAH. Developed for consumer electronics and PC devices, this dual-platter drive has an areal density of 344 gigabits per square inch, the highest in the industry. The MK2431GAH also spins at 4,200 RPM and features a 100MB/s parallel ATA interface.

Toshiba Corporation, the pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced the world's first dual-platter 240GB¹⁾ HDD (MK2431GAH). The new drive delivers the highest capacity¹⁾ and areal density in the 1.8-inch drive category for integration into portable media players, camcorders and mobile PCs. Toshiba also announced new 120GB (MK1231GAL)  and 80GB  (MK8031GAL)  capacity offerings, rounding out the most complete line of high-capacity 4,200 RPM 1.8-inch HDDs for consumer electronics (CE) and mobile PC system manufacturers.

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Other

09 September 2008

Audio Technica ATH-ANC7 Noise-Cancelling Headphones @ Hardware Zone
be quiet! Dark Power Pro 850 Watt PSU @ TweakPC
ECS GF8200A Motherboard @ Virtual-Hideout
Gigabyte & Foxconn AMD 790GX Motherboards @ InsideHW
Mega Fifteen-way USB 2.0 Flash Drive Roundup @ TweakTown
NZXT AVATAR Crafted Series Gaming Mouse @ Futurelooks
Seagate FreeAgent Go 120GB Portable Hard Drive @ ThinkComputers.org
Thecus N3200 3-Bay SOHO Network Storage System @ Bigbruin.com

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Software

09 September 2008

SlySoft has released a new version of its AnyDVD software. Along with the usual fixes and updates, AnyDVD (HD) 6.4.6.6 adds support for for AACS version 9. The AnyDVD ripper has also been updated so that it can create a .dvd file for better emulation with Virtual CloneDrive.

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09 September 2008

Pinnacle Systems recently announced two new ultra-compact, USB-powered digital TV tuners. The Pinnacle PCTV HD mini Stick and Pinnacle TV for Mac HD mini Stick come bundled with software to turn a PC or Mac into a personal video recorder (PVR) with timeshifting capabilities that enable users to record, pause or rewind live TV.

Pinnacle Systems, Inc., the consumer division of Avid Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: AVID), today announced its new Pinnacle PCTV^™ HD mini Stick and Pinnacle TV^™ for Mac^® HD mini Stick – just in time for the U.S. Fall TV season. The new ultra-compact HDTV tuners build on the features and ease of use that have established Pinnacle Systems as number one in the consumer PC-TV viewing market in the U.S.* What makes these USB-powered tuners unique is that they are the smallest TV sticks on the market that offer high reception sensitivity. The affordably priced miniature tuners have been integrated with powerful new signal booster technology that enables them to pick up digital TV even if the signal is weak.

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Flash Memory

09 September 2008

Intel announced this week that it has begun shipping its new X18-M and X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid State Drives (SSDs). The 1.8-inch X18-M and 2.5-inch X25-M are available in 80 GB capacities and are capable of 250MB/s read and 70MB/s write speeds.

Intel Corporation announced today it has begun shipping Intel® X18-M and X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drives (SSDs) based on multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash technology for laptop and desktop computers. The new high-performing data storage devices give computer buyers a new level of system responsiveness in a lightweight, rugged, low-power package that can replace traditional hard disk drives.

Validated for Intel-based computers, the X18-M is a 1.8-inch drive and the X25-M a 2.5-inch drive, offering several advantages over hard drives including faster overall system response, boot and resume times. With no moving parts, SSDs run cooler and quieter and are a more reliable option than hard drives. In addition, SSDs remove input/output (I/O) performance bottlenecks associated with hard disk drives that help maximize the efficiency of Intel processors, such as the company’s Core™ family of products. For example, lab tests show that the Intel X18-M and X25M increase storage system performance nine times over traditional hard disk drive performance.

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Other

08 September 2008