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Home Entertainment

23 April 2007

Last week, the HD DVD Promotional Group announced that 100,000 HD DVD players had been sold since the format was introduced. Not to be out done, the Blu-ray Disc Association responded today, stating that Blu-ray is the first high-def format to sell more than one million discs.

Blu-ray Disc has become the first high definition format to sell more than one million discs, a milestone it has achieved in less than a year. Blu-ray Disc sales also accounted for 70 percent of the high-definition movies sold during the first quarter of 2007, according to sales figures published today by Home Media Research.

Blu-ray's sales lead has increased each month since the first of the year and nearly three out of every four high-definition movies sold in March were on Blu-ray Disc, according to the HMR sales figures.

Industry projections suggest that this steady growth trend will continue based on the fact that seven of the eight major studios are releasing an increasing number of blockbuster movies on Blu-ray Disc, most of which will only be available in high-definition on Blu-ray Disc. In 2006, 18 of the top 20 selling DVD's were released by studios that are publishing their movies on Blu-ray Disc.

While selling a million discs is a commendable feat, its still a drop in the bucket compared to the number of standard DVD's being sold. If you'd like to read more, the Blu-ray Disc Association's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment

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Optical Storage

23 April 2007

At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, LG and Nero unveiled their SecurDisc technology. This hardware and software based solution not only prevents unauthorized access to data, it increases reliability through a redundancy-based defect management system.


To give you an idea of what to expect from SecurDisc, I've put together a short article. This article not only gives an overview of the technology, it goes through the process of writing and reading a disc protected by SecurDisc. If you have any comments or questions, please leave them in the forum. Add a comment

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Optical Storage

23 April 2007

Acoustica has announced that they've released an update for Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker. According to their press release, version 3.08 adds support for simultaneous multi-drive LightScribe printing.

Acoustica Inc. has released Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker Version 3.08, which adds support for simultaneous multi-drive LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling.

Users with multiple LightScribe drives attached to their computers can print multiple copies of LightScribe labels simultaneously, or can now print multiple label designs on different drives concurrently.

Only the number of LightScribe drives attached to a user's computer limits the number of simultaneous LightScribe print jobs. LightScribe (www.lightscribe.com) -- a laser disc labeling technology found in many popular brands of disc burners, laptops and PCs -- gives people the ability to easily burn silkscreen-quality photos, graphics, images and text directly onto discs.

Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker is available now for $21.95. If you'd like to give it a try, a 7-day trial can be downloaded from their website. Otherwise, more information can be found here. Add a comment

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Optical Storage

23 April 2007

Buying Memorex apparently wasn't enough for Imation. The company has announced that they've agreed to buy TDK's recording media business for $300 million in stock and cash. Depending on the financial performance of the acquired business, TDK may also receive additional payments of up to $70 million.

ImationCorp. (NYSE: IMN) and TDK (NYSE: TDK) announced today that they havereached a definitive agreement under which Imation will acquire TDK brandworld wide recording media business and use of the TDK brand name forrecording media products, for $300 million in a combination of Imationcommon stock and cash with potential for payment of up to an additional $70million based on future financial performance of the acquired business. TDKwill retain its R&D, manufacturing and OEM business. The boards ofdirectors of both companies have approved the transaction.

As with Memorex, Imation will continue to supply TDK brand products to the market. TDK will also continue R&D and manufacturing operations for recording media and will supply Imation as well as its other OEM customers. If you'd like to read more, Imation's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment

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Other

23 April 2007

Sony sent out a press release this morning, announcing that their subsidiary, Sony Shiroishi, is currently the industry's leading producer of blue-violet laser diodes, turning out more than 1.7 million units a month. The company has also shipped more than 2 billion (yes, billion) laser diodes since it started production in 1986.

Sony Shiroishi Semiconductor Inc. (hereafter Sony Shiroishi), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation (hereafter Sony), today announced that as of March 2007, cumulative shipments of laser diodes have reached 2 billion units since it started production in 1986.

As of April 2007, Sony Shiroishi has also established industry-leading monthly production capacity of 1.7 million blue-violet laser diodes, offering a comprehensive product lineup of blue-violet laser diodes for the wide-ranging needs of external customers as well as for use in Sony products. Furthermore, with Sony Shiroishi scheduled to start mass production of high-power output 240mw diodes from November this year, Sony and Sony Shiroishi will continue to stand at the forefront of the technological development and market for laser diodes going forward.

Sony also plans to ship a low cost (~$8) blue-violet laser diode for Blu-ray Disc players in June. If you'd like to read more, the entire press release can be found here. Add a comment

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Home Entertainment

20 April 2007

If you've been following the Nielsen VideoScan sales data published by Home Media Magazine, it shouldn't be too surprising that they've declared Blu-ray the winner for the 1Q of 2007. According to their stats, 70% of the high-def discs purchased during 1Q were Blu-ray while only 30% were HD DVD.

Of the high-definition discs consumers bought in the first quarter of this year, 70% were Blu-ray Discs and just 30% were HD DVDs, according to sales figures provided by Home Media Magazine's market research department.

Blu-ray took the lead in February, and its percentage of total sales accelerated to the point that, in March, the format accounted for nearly three out of every four high-def discs sold.

While HD DVD backers are hoping that new releases and cheaper players will narrow the ever widening sales gap, they're going to need more than a mass buy by fanboys to pull it off. If you'd like to read more, Home Media Magazine's entire article can be found here. Add a comment

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Home Entertainment

20 April 2007

In the fall of 2005, we reported that Toshiba was making HD DVD technology available to Chinese manufacturers with the hope that they would be able to produce low cost players. It took longer than expected, but Chinese manufactured HD DVD players are finally on the way. According to an article at Engadget, Walmart has ordered 2 million HD DVD players from China's Great Wall corporation and plans to sell them for about $299.

Get ready to get your cheap HD on kids. Wal-Mart just threw down some serious green for a batch of Chinese-made HD DVD players. Just as they brought DVD players down to near-disposable status, their deal for 2 million HD DVD players produced by China's Great Wall corporation will ultimately do the same for hi-def optical. The guts are developed by Taiwan's Fuh Yuan with a touch of help from Japan's TDK. How much? A magical $299, that's how much -- $100 less than the cheapest available HD DVD rig (Toshiba's A2) and half of Sony's $600 BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc player. It's not clear when we'll see the first units on Wal-Mart shelves, only that the final shipment from the order is expected before 2008 is over.

With the Toshiba HD-A2 already selling for less than $330 on Amazon, the price of Walmart's player is a bit high. Then again, its very likely that the price will come down before it actually ships. If you'd like to read more, Engadget's entire report can be found here. Add a comment

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Home Entertainment

20 April 2007

Due to the growing DVD recorder market, Panasonic has announced that they will double production of its dual-wavelength high-power laser. At this rate, the company will be turning out more than 10 million units a month.

Panasonic, the leading brand by which Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is known, will double production of its dual-wavelength high-power laser for DVD recorders to 10 million units a month in FY'07.

Panasonic led the industry in November 2005 by pioneering production of a dual-wavelength high-power laser as a light source for DVD recorder pickups. This product has enjoyed a good reputation for high quality. The device offers several advantages over use of monochromatic lasers for each wavelength because it combines two laser wavelengths in a single chip: an infrared beam (with a wavelength of 780 nm, for CD use) and a red beam (with a wavelength of 650 nm, for DVD use) As a result, light source point adjustment is unnecessary, the optical pickup system can be simplified, and the number of peripheral parts can be halved. These benefits helped dual-wavelength lasers to capture a 15% share of the total market for DVD recorder pickups in FY'06.

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

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Other

19 April 2007

For the last month or so, there have been reports that Sony's more recent DVD releases will not play on some DVD players, including one of their own models, the DVP-CX995V. According to Video Business, Sony has come clean about the problem, stating that it was caused by an update to their ARccOS copy protection scheme. While Sony claims that they've received a very small number of complaints, they are offering replacement discs to those that are affected.

Sony said the problem was due to an update of its ARccOS copy-protection system, an additional layer of protection meant to prevent ripping. The studio has included ArccOS on its DVDs for the past two years. The copy-protection is continually updated to keep ahead of hackers.

"Recently, an update that was installed on approximately 20 titles was found to cause an incompatibility issue with a very small number of DVD players (Sony has received complaints on less than one thousandth of one percent of affected discs shipped)," the company said in a statement. "Since then, the ARccOS system has once again been updated, and there are no longer any playability problems."

While I'm sure this will give Sony haters one more reason to go off, you have to give the company credit for making things right. It's too bad they didn't do the same with the whole rootkit debacle. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment