Over the past few years, Sony BMG has gotten a lot of bad press due to their antipiracy efforts. While not as well known as their infamous rootkit, SunnComm's MediaMax technology also caused its share of problems for the company. According to the LA Times, Sony BMG has now decided to sue the developer of the software, claiming that it "did not perform as warranted".
Sony BMG Music Entertainment is suing a company that developed antipiracy software for CDs.

Sony claims the technology was defective and cost the record company millions of dollars to settle consumer complaints and government investigations.

Sony BMG filed a summons in a New York state court against The Amergence Group, formerly SunnComm International, which developed the MediaMax CD copy-protection technology.

Sony BMG is seeking to recover $US12 million ($A14 million) in damages from the Phoenix-based technology company, according to court papers filed on July 3.
The Amergence Group has already responded to these allegations, stating that the problems were due to "Sony's under-tested release of a competitor's technology." Needless to say, this is going to be an interesting court battle. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
According to an article at DigiTimes, Toshiba plans to launch HD DVD recorders in China in time for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. To keep costs down, the company also plans to use Chinese manufacturers for OEM production.
Toshiba, in expectation of surging demand for high-definition (HD) video due to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, will launch HD DVD recorders in China in 2008 in a bid to promote the HD DVD standard over the Blu-ray Disc (BD) standard, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

TV broadcasters in China project eight million LCD TVs will be sold in China in 2007 and the demand will rise to 10 million units in 2008, the sources indicated. The growth in demand for LCD TVs reflects increasing demand for HD video, which is conducive to the sale of HD DVD and/or BD players/recorders, the sources said.
Toshiba and the rest of the HD DVD Promotions Group is banking heavily on the Chinese market. However, with the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games more than a year away, the format war could be over before Toshiba gets a chance to launch their HD DVD recorders. If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes. Add a comment
HD DVD is apparently doing well in Europe. According to Reuters, the European HD DVD Promotional Group recently stated that HD DVD players are outselling Blu-ray players by a 3 to 1 margin.
HD DVD video players have outsold rival standard Blu-ray players by a three-to-one margin in Europe's main markets so far this year, according to a lobby group.

The European HD DVD Promotional Group claimed it had 74 percent market share in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland for stand-alone players, citing sales figures it commissioned from market research group GfK.
Keep in mind that these numbers are spun heavily in HD DVD's favor. The HD DVD Promotional Group is only looking at stand alone players, the one area where HD DVD does have the advantage. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
TDK Japan has announced that they will be releasing their new 4x BD-R media to the Japanese market on July 25th. The company also plans to ship 4x BD-R DL media in late September.Here's part of their press release, translated from Japanese:

TDK marketing corporation (president: Matsui national rapture), the blue ray disk BD-R for the data which this each time corresponds to 4 time fast record (postscript type) single sided 1 layer (25GB) with single sided 2 layer (50GB) 2 types are merchandised, 1 layer type sells on July 25th. 2 layer type, the ink jet printer corresponding disk (1 layer type), we plan the sale September 20th.
According to AV Watch, TDK's 4x BD-R and BD-R DL media is expected to cost about 1,700 Yen ($14US) and 4,000 Yen ($33US) respectively. More information can be found here. Add a comment
Pioneer announced this week that they've started shipping their new Blu-ray Disc combo drive to retail stores. The BDC-2202 comes with Corel's digital media software and is expected to cost about $299.99.
Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. is now shipping the highly anticipated BDC-2202 combination Blu-ray Disc BD-ROM/DVD/CD computer drive to retail stores. The product can also be purchased online at pioneerelectronics.com. The new drive comes bundled with Corel Corporation’s digital media software for playback of multiple Blu-ray Disc (BD) formats, including new commercial film titles. Corel’s digital media software also provides enhanced reading and high-speed archiving of personal content to DVD and CD formats. The Pioneer BDC-2202 is available for a suggested price of $299.99.

“Our new Blu-ray Disc combo drive is one of the most exciting introductions for Pioneer, as it is one of the industry’s most advanced optical drives for business and consumer users,” said Andy Parsons, senior vice president at Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. “With BD-ROM compatibility, the new drive enables users to play Blu-ray Disc movies and explore their impressive new interactive features on their PC. We’ve also included a solid software bundle from Corel that allows creative individuals to assemble and preserve their own video, photo and music projects onto CDs and DVDs.”
If you'd like to read more, Pioneer's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment

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Logitech VX Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse for Notebooks @Futurelooks
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Corel announced today that Pioneer has chosen to bundle WinDVD 8, Ulead VideoStudio 11 and Ulead Burn.Now 1.5 with their new Blu-ray Disc combo drive, the BDC-2202. Here's part of their press release:
Corel Corporation (NASDAQ:CREL; TSX:CRE), a leading developer of graphics, productivity and digital media software, today announced that Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. is bundling its next-generation Blu-ray Disc (BD) combo drive, the BDC-2202, with selected titles from Corel’s digital media software lineup. The software bundle includes special editions of Corel’s WinDVD 8, Ulead VideoStudio 11 and Ulead Burn.Now1.5.

Affordably priced at $299.99, Pioneer’s BDC-2202 drive offers a compelling solution for consumers who want to use their PC to view the growing number of high-definition Hollywood movies that are being released on BD.

In addition to ensuring compatibility with commercially released Blu-ray Disc movies, the Corel software that comes bundled with the new Pioneer BD combo drive allows users to create and burn personal DVD movies and digital photo slideshows, backup files to a DVD or CD, and create and burn music to a CD.
If you'd like to read more, Corel's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Buying a computer with integrated graphics can save you money. However, when it comes to things like playing Blu-ray or HD DVD movies, they just don't have the horsepower. To give these computers the performance boost they need, Albatron has released a Blue Ray Decoder Card (Yes, they spell it "Blue"). By utilizing NVIDIA's Geforce 8500GT GPU, this low-profile VGA card can reduce CPU utilization by 60% during high-def video playback.

Albatron has recently announced the exciting new "Blue Ray Decoder Card" giving mainstream users a great alternative to Integrated Graphics. This low-profile VGA card can provide even the most basic systems with High Definition video playback including Blu-ray and HD-DVD. This card also supports DirectX 10, boosting 3D graphics performance for the Windows VistaTM operating system...

...The technology behind this high performance, high definition video playback is NVIDIA's PureVideo HD technology, embedded into the NVIDIA Geforce 8500GT GPU. One of the most practical aspects of this technology is that it focuses video playback mostly on the GPU, leaving your CPU to do other things. In fact, systems using Core 2 Duo processors with PureVideo HD usage has consistently shown CPU utilization under 20% during high definition video playback which also demonstrates up to a 60% reduction in CPU impact when using PureVideo HD versus using other technologies. This card also supports H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2 encoding/compression formats used to record data on both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray disks.
In reality, Albatron's Blue Ray Decoder Card is nothing more than a low-profile version of the 8500GT-256 graphics card. No word yet on price or availability. As we find out more, we'll let you know. In the mean time, Albatron's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
DigiTimes has reported that Samsung will introduce the Duo HD BD-UP5000 during the 4Q of this year. According to industry sources, this combo Blu-ray/HD DVD player will be priced at only $545.
Samsung Electronics, at an IFA (Internationale Funhausstellung in German) conference held in Hamburg, Germany last week, announced it will launch the Duo HD (high-definition) BD-UP5000, the world's second dual-format disc player model supporting both HD DVD and BD (Blu-ray Disc) next to the LG Electronics BH100. The device will be initially introduced in the European market at a tentative price of 400 euro (US$545) in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to industry sources in Taiwan.
It will be interesting to see if Samsung can deliver the BD-UP5000 at this price. If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes.

Update - Apparently, DigiTime's "sources" got the price wrong. According to heise online, the BD-UP5000 will cost about 400 euro more than their single format Blu-ray player, putting it in the same ballpark as the LG BH100. Add a comment
After more than a year of no updates, Padus has released a new version of DiscJuggler. This major release offers complete support for MP3+G, WMA+G and WAV+G as well as Blu-ray and HD DVD burning.

Among the many features introduced in this new build (see version history) we are proud to announce complete support for MP3+G, WMA+G and WAV+G. The MP3+G and WMA+G consist of two files, the audio track compressed to the MP3 or WMA (Microsoft Windows Media Audio) format and a separate CDG file containing the graphic data. Depending on the compression ratio, these two files combined occupy about one eighth of the disc space of a standard CDG track. This offers a convenient and effective way to back up your karaoke discs to your hard drive and to create CD+G compilations by mixing and matching songs from different sources.
Serial numbers for DiscJuggler 4 do not work with this new version. You will need to purchase an update ($5.99) or upgrade ($14.99) license. If you'd like to give DiscJuggler 6 a try before purchasing, a demo can be downloaded here. Add a comment