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Parallel to the new announcements to LiteOn BenQ communicated that one will withdraw oneself until further notice at least into Europe from the business with optical drive assemblies. The last DVD burner, which is sold under the label BenQ, is the DW-1670. The Blu ray burner planned first will appear no more. Support and warranty, inclusive firmware updates are however further ensured for past customers, since BenQ on other markets will offer further drive assemblies.We've heard rumors that BenQ is also pulling out of the US market. Considering that the company never released the DW-1670 over here, I'd have to say that this is probably true. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
As reason BenQ Germany indicated the extremely small profit margins in the range of optical data storage. BenQ had entered only 2003 by a Joint venture with Philips into the market of the DVD burners and in relatively short time a name with qualitatively high-quality DVD burners had made themselves.
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Royal Philips Electronics is pressing makers of pre-recorded discs in Taiwan to accept a licensing scheme similar to Veeza, a licensing scheme that was not well received by disc makers, according to industry sources. The new scheme is applicable to pre-recorded CD-R and DVD discs, and so far, only Bestdisc Technology has sign up for it while leading and second-tier makers are still watching developments, the sources said.The article also mentions that Philips is urging vendors not to place orders with unlicensed manufacturers. They're also going as far as to get customs agencies to confiscate discs without a Philips license. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
To date, there has been no disc makers in Taiwan and China who have accepted the Veeza licensing system, which applies to blank CD-R discs, the sources indicated. Philips is now pushing its new licensing scheme for pre-recorded discs on Taiwan-based makers by attaching it to existing contracts, the sources pointed out.
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The SPD7000 is expected to ship in September with the MCP8480i being available some time before the end of the year. The BDP9000 will also launch in the US this fall and be available in Europe in early 2007. Complete details on Philips' new Blu-ray Disc products can be found here. Add a comment
Philips, a founding member of the Blu-ray Disc Association is exhibiting its first range of Blu-ray Disc products at IFA 2006, including the Philips Showline Media Center MCP9480i, the Philips TripleWriter SPD7000 multi-format PC drive, the Philips BDP9000 Blu-ray Disc player and a full scope of Blu-ray Disc media, including single-layer BD-R (Recordable) and BD-RE (Recordable and Erasable) discs.
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The first new drive, the BDR-102 will also support CD-R/RW discs, another disc format missing from the company's current product, the BDR-101. The BDR-102 is due to ship early next year, possibly in two versions, one with an IDE interface, the other with a SATA connector. It's not clear at what speeds the BDR-102 will write single- and dual-layer, 25GB and 50GB BD-R and BD-RE discs.Talk about surprising news. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here.
Further out, the BDR-103 will bring on board support for HD DVD, presumably recordable and rewriteable versions of the format as well as pre-recorded discs.
Update: The German website, heise online, has reported that the BDR-103 will only be able to read HD DVD media and not write to it. They also mention that Pioneer plans to ship the drive in October of 2007. Add a comment
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On average it takes the PlexEraser 3 minutes to destroy a CD or single layer DVD and 6 minutes for a dual layer DVD. No word on price yet. However, the PlexEraser is expected to be available in September 2006. More information can be found here. Add a comment
Plextor today launches the environmentally friendly and high-tech alternative to the disc shredder - PlexEraser PX-OE100E. Designed for security-conscious organisations such as financial institutions, Government departments, the military, research establishments - and any company with commercially sensitive data - it is the first security device in the world which destroys data on a CD/DVD. The PlexEraser enables discs to be destroyed without the organic dye leaking from the disc - something not possible with a disc shredder/manual shattering - and leaves them ready to be recycled without any data being recoverable.
