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- Home Entertainment
The Xbox 360 HD DVD Player, arriving at retailers in North America, the U.K., France, and Germany in mid-November 2006, will retail for $199.99 in North America (ESRP) and €199.99/£129.99 (ESRP) in the U.K., France, and Germany. The Xbox 360 HD DVD Player comes with both the Universal Pictures blockbuster Peter Jackson's King Kong on HD DVD (for a limited time) and the Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote.Between this and upcoming games like Halo Wars, its becoming harder and harder to resist picking up an Xbox 360. If you'd like to read more, Microsoft's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
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- Optical Storage
Lite-On IT, the largest maker of optical disc drives in Taiwan, recently began volume production of an 18x Super Multi LightScribe DVD burner, model LH-18A1H, for OEM clients and will launch the model for own-brand sale in the Taiwan market at a recommended retail price of about NT$2,100 (US$64) in the middle of next month, according to the company.If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes. Otherwise, more information on the LH-18A1H can be found here. Add a comment
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- Optical Storage
Advanced Media, Inc manufactures and markets the popular RIDATA brand of recordable CD and DVD media, electronic storage products, and digital media accessories to the U.S. market. For years, high quality RIDATA CDs and DVDs have been the global media of choice by leading duplicators, archivists and other professionals. To answer this demand RIDATA has created a line of consistently high quality archival and duplication media called the PRO Series of discs. The new line features RIDATA PRO DVD-R 8X inkjet white, DVD-R 8X shiny silver, PRO 52X CD-R inkjet white, and 52X CD-R shiny silver.No word yet on pricing or availability. As we find out more, we'll let you know. In the mean time, RIDATA's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
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- Home Entertainment
Britain-based New Medium Enterprises (NME) (NMEN.OB: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it had solved a technical production problem that makes it possible to produce a cheap multiple-layer DVD disk containing one film in different, competing formats.While NME's new technology probably won't end the format war, it will hopefully lower the cost of multi-format discs. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
"Current technologies to create multiple layer disks mostly don't work. We've created a technology for mass production of multiple layers that does not suffer from the well known problem of low yields," said NME Chief Technology Officer Eugene Levich. A low yield means that many DVDs coming off the manufacturing lines are not working and have to be discarded.
The production costs of a multi-layer DVD using the new NME technology are estimated to be around 9 cents, compared with the 6 cents for a standard single-layer play-back DVD, according to Dutch company ODMS, one of the world's leading makers of production lines for optical disks.
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- Optical Storage
Royal Philips Electronics on September 25 announced Ritek has joined Veeza, its new licensing system for CD-R disc patents, with Ritek being the first Taiwan-based optical disc maker to sign on. Philips also announced a 41.7% reduction in its royalty charge for recordable DVD discs from US$0.06 to US$0.035, a step toward extending Veeza from CD-R to recordable DVD discs.With Ritek on board, it will probably be only a matter of time before other manufacturers start using Veeza. If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes. Add a comment
Ritek's five-year contract with Philips for licensed use of CD-R patents expired a few months ago and the company agreed to join Veeza to continue licensing the patents, Ritek pointed out. However, optical discs makers in Taiwan had originally boycotted Veeza, so Ritek's sudden reversal may cause some discontent among its fellow makers. As Ritek is currently the second largest maker of optical discs in Taiwan, its action will bring pressure on other makers, industry sources indicated.
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- Software
CyberLink Corp. (5203.TW), a world leader in digital home solutions, will share the stage with Intel at developer forums in the United States, Taiwan, and South Korea, showcasing the developmental experience of optimizing PowerDVD for Intel motherboards and personal computers.If you'd like to read more, CyberLink's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Supporting the latest generation of digital video content, discs formats, and technology, CyberLink delivers high-performance high-definition video playback on the PC. To achieve this, CyberLink has optimized PowerDVD 7 for Intel Clear Video Technology, enabling a wide range of features including MPEG-2 hardware acceleration decoding, advanced de-interlacing, and ProcAMP-enabled support on Intel G965 Express Chipset motherboards and personal computers.
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- Optical Storage
Memorex, the leading brand of optical media at U.S. retail and a portfolio brand of Imation Corp (NYSE: IMN), delivers a superior choice for the design and labeling of keepsake-quality CDs and DVDs. Memorex Inkjet Printable media with AquaGuard technology offers a brilliant white smear- and water-resistant disc surface, ideal for creating personalized video, photo, music and data discs with full-color labels of your own design.Memorex Inkjet Printable Media with AquaGuard will be available next month. More information, including pricing, can be found here. Add a comment
Featuring proprietary nanoparticle technology to grip and hold the ink in place, Memorex Inkjet Printable CDs and DVDs with AquaGuard surface resist smearing and color bleed of printed images, unlike standard inkjet media. Additionally, the bright white surface of each disc provides superior color reproduction and sharper images for eye-catching designs. Consumers can print directly onto the quick-drying surface of the media using inkjet printers that have a disc-printing feature. The discs are uniformly covered with the brilliant white AquaGuard surface from edge to hub, providing maximum real estate for a nearly continuous label.
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If you miss out on your free download, the software can otherwise be purchased for $24.95. More information on the launch of NTI Ninja can be found here. Add a comment
Starting at midnight tonight, NewTech Infosystems (NTI) will be making their new Ninja software - a USB data storage and protection software solution - available free on their web site, www.ntius.com. Unlike most fixed partition USB software, NTI Ninja allows users to adjust the size of their public and private partitions on their portable storage device. In addition, the software provides users with complete storage area anti-tamper encryption and password protection.
The new software was developed to meet the dramatic increase in today's mobile workforce, the increased use of USB storage devices and the need to protect content and data from being stolen or compromised on the small, portable devices.
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- Optical Storage
Royal Philips Electronics has revoked CD-R disc patent licenses for CMC Magnetics and Ritek, the top two producers of optical discs in Taiwan, as well as Prodisc Technology and Lead Data, two second-tier makers, according to a list of CD-R licensees published on Philips Intellectual Property & Standards' (PIPS') global website.As the article points out, this is most likely an attempt to get these manufacturers to accept Philips' Veeza licensing scheme. If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes.
Philips' withdrawal of CD-R licensing was due to the Taiwan-based makers, except for Ritek, violating existing licensing contracts, industry sources in Taiwan cited Philips as saying. Ritek lost licensing because its contract with Philips expired in May of this year, the sources noted.
Update: Thanks to Digital Dolphin and RJW, we've learned that Ritek is now licensed under Philips' Veeza licensing scheme. At the same time, Prodisc does not seem to be licensed for CD's nor DVD's. You can check the status of both companies here. Add a comment
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- Duplicators
Aleratec, a leading developer and manufacturer of "Prosumers' Choice" USB, DVD/CD duplicating, and DVD/CD publishing solutions, today announced its third generation LightScribe Personal Publishing system, the new Aleratec 1:2 DVD/CD Copy Cruiser LS. When connected to a PC via USB 2.0, the Aleratec 1:2 DVD/CD Copy Cruiser LS is a 1:2 DVD/CD Duplicator, that enables small and medium businesses to simply, conveniently and affordably burn or LightScribe label 2 CDs or DVDs at once. The new system will be available at 300 Best Buy for Business retail locations nationwide as well as www.BestBuy.com and www.aleratec.com.The 1:2 DVD/CD Copy Cruiser LS is available now for an estimated retail price of $299. More information can be found on Alera's website. Add a comment
