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27 April 2007

While 20th Century Fox won't be releasing another title on Blu-ray until June, that hasn't stopped the company from launching PerfectHiDef.com, a website dedicated to the Blu-ray Disc format. Taken from Blu-ray.com:

For the past few months, Amazon has been linking to a Blu-ray informational website hosted by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in their Blu-ray Disc Store. The webpage offers basic information on Blu-ray and its capabilities; it contains enough information to answer the questions of anyone looking to enter into the high definition movie arena. Fox has now moved this page to its own dedicated website: PerfectHiDef.com.

As many of you know, Fox has pushed back the release of many of their Blu-ray titles. While it is rumored that Mr. & Mrs. Smith will ship in June, its unknown when other postponed titles will show up. Add a comment

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27 April 2007

As most of you know, the once mighty BenQ has fallen on hard times. While the company has tried to cut its losses and return to profitability, sales have continued to decline. In response, the company has announced plans to spin-off its branded business.

BenQ's Board of Directors convened today to approve a plan to spin-off its branded business. The plan is a continuation of BenQ Group’s “Dual Core Competency Strategy”, which is to focus on the core competencies of brand & services and manufacturing & technology to maximize competitiveness and efficiency. After the spin-off, BenQ Corporation will be renamed Jia Da Corporation (temporary translation) and the spun-off company is scheduled to succeed the name of BenQ Corporation. The spun-off company will be a 100% owned subsidiary of Jia Da Corp. and the change is expected to elevate the operating efficiency and strengthen business competence of the BenQ Group.

The spin-off plan still needs to be approved by BenQ's shareholders. If approved, the spin-off is expected to take place on September 1, 2007. More information is available on BenQ's website. Add a comment

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27 April 2007

Axiom M3ti Bookshelf Speaker @Futurelooks
Gigabyte Aurora 570 Black Tower ATX Computer Case @Tweaknews.net
Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 500GB External Hard Drive @ThinkComputers.org
Samsung CLP-300 Colour Laser Printer @The TechZone
Kingston KHX9600D2K2/1GB Memory Kit @HardwareLogic
nForce 680i SLI vs. RD600 @ChileHardware

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27 April 2007

Plasmon has announced the launch of their UDO2 (Ultra Density Optical) archival storage solutions. Along with a maximum capacity of 60GB, UDO2 offers a 50% increase in performance over first generation UDO products.

Plasmon (LSE: PLM), the trusted source in archiving systems, today announced the launch of their second-generation UDO2 (Ultra Density Optical) archival storage solutions. UDO2 drives and media will be generally available at the end of April and the full range of UDO Archive Appliances and G-Series UDO libraries will be available by the end of May 2007. Plasmon has recently announced an £8m ($16m) new fundraising to support increased promotional activities and raise market awareness of UDO2 archive solutions.

Building on the success of UDO1 blue-laser storage technology, 60GB UDO2 offers customers double the capacity and a 50 percent performance increase over first generation UDO products. In combination with Plasmon’s flagship UDO Archive Appliance, customers can now consolidate and scale their archives from 1TB to over 76TB in a single Archive Appliance.

If you'd like to read more, Plasmon's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment

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27 April 2007

Earlier this week, the Blu-ray Disc Association announced that Blu-ray was the first high-def format to sell more than one million discs. Apparently, HD DVD isn't very far behind. According to a report by DailyTech, HD DVD has sold 998,059 units to date, putting it only 2,000 units behind Blu-ray.

In a recent battle of press releases, the Blu-ray Association announced that sales of Blu-ray Disc titles have surpassed one million units in less than a year since the format’s introduction. In a statement from the HD DVD Promotional Group received by DailyTech, it appears that sales of HD DVD movies are not far behind those of Blu-ray Disc.

According to stats cited by the HD DVD Group, which are based on recent data from Nielsen Videoscan, Universal, Warner and Toshiba, HD DVD titles are now at 998,059 units sold, representing less-than 2,000 units shy of Blu-ray’s announced figures. Of course, while the next-generation formats fight over claims of collective sales of one million, a single DVD title could easily sell over one million units on its own.

While the numbers are close, the sales gap between HD DVD and Blu-ray has been growing larger since the beginning of the year. Nevertheless, with cheaper players and new titles on the way, HD DVD could easily put itself back in the lead. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment

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27 April 2007

In a statement made to a Chinese website, electronics developer, Fuh Yuan, claimed that Walmart had placed an order with the Great Wall corporation for 2 million HD DVD players. While no one was able to confirm this news, it created quite a stir among HD DVD fans. Fuh Yuan has now corrected their original statement. According to a post on their website, Walmart has asked for a schedule and manufacturing costs but has not placed any orders yet.

We are sorry to correct the statement that we have two million HD-DVD players order from Wal-Mart and manufactured by China Great Wall Group. The actuality is that we had not received yet. We are asked to provide the schedule to Wal-Mart and cost to determine the quantity even more than two million, if the cost is good enough and timing is correct. So the capacity is under consideration. Any qualified manufactured base group will be welcome.

So there you have it. While its not a done deal yet, we at least know that Walmart is looking into HD DVD. Are they looking into Blu-ray too? I'm sure we'll find out in time. If you'd like to read more, Fuh Yuan's entire post can be found here. Add a comment

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27 April 2007

PC World has gone right to the source and asked Walmart about their rumored HD DVD player. While the company could not comment on their deal with Fuh Yuan, they denied that they had placed a substantial order for HD DVD players.

A spokesperson for the company said Thursday that reported leak concerning Taiwan-based consumer electronics manufacturer, Fuh Yuan, partnering with TDK in China to manufacture the $250-299 players, had no merit. The report first appeared in AVS Forums, and was picked up by other Web sites.

"The article… was full of inaccuracies and we had no participation in it," the spokesman said in an e-mail to PC Magazine. "Most of the facts, including the purchase, were untrue," she added. "Not sure how it originated."

And no, Walmart has not chosen a side in the battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD. When talking to PC World, the company said that it plans to support both formats, at least until there is a definite winner. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment

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Optical Storage

24 April 2007

Advanced Media has announced their new RIDATA Double-Sided 8x DVD+R media. With a capacity of 9.4GB, these double sided discs can hold four hours of DVD-quality video, 16 hours of VHS-quality video, or over 120 hours of MP3 audio.

Advanced Media, Inc., manufacturer and marketer of the popular RIDATA brand of recordable CD and DVD media, electronic storage products, and digital media accessories, is introducing a Double-Sided 8x DVD+R disc to its comprehensive DVD product line. With an amazing 9.4GB of storage capacity, the advanced, double-sided disc is a cost effective solution for virtually any business or household application. Shipments will begin immediately.

The double-sided disc is more cost effective for retailers to carry because it reduces shipping costs over traditional single sided DVD+/-R's. It is highly compatible with legacy DVD drives and many newer drives can close the disc as a DVD-ROM solving even more compatibility issues.

Advanced Media's Double-Sided 8x DVD+R media is available now for a suggested retail price of $0.70 per disc. If you'd like to read more, Advanced Media's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment

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24 April 2007

Could the battle between Gigastorage and Philips finally be over? According to DigiTimes, Gigastorage recently terminated the compulsory license granted by the Taiwanese government, giving them the right to use Philips' CD-R disc patents. The company will instead shift production to Thailand where the license is meaningless.

Gigastorage, a second-tier maker of optical discs in Taiwan, on April 23 applied at the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to terminate its compulsory license to use CD-R disc patents belonging to Royal Philips Electronics, bringing to an end the long-time dispute between the two companies, according to industry sources.

Gigastorage has decided to shift its production of CD-R discs to Thailand and the TIPO-granted compulsory license will thus become meaningless, the company pointed out.

While the move to Thailand will mean lower labor costs and relaxed export laws, Gigastorage will probably still be under pressure from Philips to license the necessary patents. If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes. Add a comment