CyberLink Corp. (5203.TW), innovative solution provider for the connected digital lifestyle, today announced its release of CyberLink BD Advisor 2, the self-diagnostic tool that helps users identify if their system is able to play advanced Blu-ray Disc content such as interactive BD-Live features and Picture-in-Picture (PiP) movie commentary.
“CyberLink is committed to developing digital media applications for the Blu-ray format and continues to provide the most updated solution to our customers,” said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. “The BD Advisor is a free tool helping our users to check if their PCs are Blu-ray ready. It has won many appreciations since its first release.”
Blu-ray players are not flying off retailers’ shelves, at least not in the numbers the industry might hope for. A new consumer survey from ABI Research has revealed a widespread reluctance to commit to a Blu-ray player in the near future: over half of the 1000 respondents, citing “other priorities,” say they have no plans to purchase one; a further 23% are likely to buy, but not until sometime in 2009.
CMC Magnetics, who plans to adjust its OEM quotes for blank CD-R and DVD+R/-R discs up by 10% on average in August according to a previous report, plans to further hike OEM prices in the fourth quarter of 2008 in an attempt to significantly improve the profitability of optical disc production, according to company chairman Robert Wong.
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi) today introduced two new CinemaStar™ hard drives optimized for use in digital video recorders (DVRs) and set-top boxes. The CinemaStar™ 7K1000.B is available in a broad range of capacities up to one terabyte (1TB) and the CinemaStar 5K320 delivers up to 320GB of capacity and incorporates innovative Hitachi CoolSpin™ technology.