Corel announced this week that WinDVD has been certified for BD-Live (BD Profile 2.0). With this new feature, WinDVD users will be able to enjoy Internet-connected activities such as social networking, multiplayer gaming and the downloading of movie trailers and subtitles.
Corel Corporation (NASDAQ:CREL) (TSX:CRE), a leading developer of graphics, productivity and digital media software, today announced that Corel® WinDVD® Blu-ray Disc® playback software has received BD-Live™ certification, also known as BD Profile 2.0. By receiving certification for BD-Live, WinDVD has passed the stringent standards and guidelines set by the Blu-ray Disc Association to ensure the best possible user experience.

With BD-Live support, WinDVD users will be able to enjoy a full spectrum of Internet-connected activities including social networking, multiplayer gaming, online shopping as well as the ability to download movie trailers and subtitles - all while viewing Blu-ray Disc movies and videos.
WinDVD with BD-Live support is available to OEMs immediately and will be available to retail customers beginning in early 2009. If you'd like to read more, Corel's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment

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Addonics has announced a new hard drive enclosure that provides native 256-bit AES hardware encryption on the fly with no detectable performance degradation. The Diamond Cipher enclosure can be connected to a computer via its built-in eSATA and USB 2.0 connectors or mounted into a 5 ¼” drive bay using Addonics cradle system.

Addonics Technologies www.addonics.com today announced a hard drive kit with built-in eSATA and USB 2.0 connectors that allows users to easily connect an external SATA hard drive to a system or use any SATA hard drive as a removable cartridge drive with the highest level 256-bit AES hardware encryption.

The 256-bit AES hardware encryption incorporated inside the Diamond Cipher enclosure is the most secure storage solution available today. AES is secure enough to protect classified information up to the “TOP SECRET” level, which is the highest security level and defined as information which would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security if disclosed to the public.

Diamond Cipher enclosure is also the first enclosure solution to provide native SATA encryption on the fly with no detectable performance degradation to the hard drive though a simple encryption key.
The Diamond Drive Cartridge system is available now and lists for $139. The system comes withDiamond Cipher drive enclosure, a Diamond drive cradle and a pair of 256-bit AES cipher keys. Full details can be found here. Add a comment

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Hitachi sent out a press release today, announcing its second-generation one terabyte hard drive, the Deskstar 7K1000.B. This 7,200 RPM drive features a SATA 3Gb/s interface as well as a new three-disk design that improves idle power consumption up to 43% over its predecessor.
With today’s announcement of its second-generation one terabyte hard drive, the Deskstar 7K1000.B, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi) is forecasting the dawn of a new age in technology that it has dubbed the “Tera Era.” As the amount of digital information created, captured and duplicated around the world continues to grow at an uninterrupted, unrelenting pace, Hitachi’s vision is that three elements - rich media content, culture, and increasing capacity - are uniting to create an entirely new landscape for enterprise and consumer data storage. It is against this exciting backdrop that Hitachi is announcing the Deskstar 7K1000.B, the world’s most energy-efficient 7,200 RPM one terabyte (1TB) hard drive.

The Deskstar 7K1000.B provides an exceptional blend of power efficiency and performance, making it an ideal solution for power-friendly consumer and commercial PCs. The new three-disk design improves idle power consumption up to 43 percent over its 1TB predecessor, which was already among the industry’s most energy efficient hard drives. Increased protection against data loss and piracy is provided via Bulk Data Encryption (BDE) which is available as an optional feature to users. Hitachi is also shipping the Deskstar E7K1000, designed to provide high-capacity storage for low-duty-cycle, 24x7 applications.
The Deskstar 7K1000.B and Deskstar E7K1000 will ship to customers worldwide in July. More information is available on Hitachi's website. Add a comment
Samsung Electronics announced this week that it has begun mass production of its new multi-level cell (MLC)-based 64GB and 128GB solid state drives (SSD). Samsung's 1.8- and 2.5-inch MLC-based SSDs offer 70MB/s write and 90MB/s read speeds are are expected to last 20x longer than traditional notebook hard drives.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced today that it has begun mass producing 1.8- and 2.5-inch multi-level cell (MLC)-based solid state drives (SSD) with a 128 Gigabyte (GB) storage capacity. Mass production of the Samsung MLC-based 64GB SSD also began this month.

With the 64 GB and 128 GB MLC SSDs, we are satisfying the density requirements of most business users and many PC enthusiasts, who will appreciate not only the performance gains and added reliability, but also the more attractive pricing,” said Gerd Schauss, Director Memory Marketing EMEA, Samsung Semiconductor Europe.

Samsung SSDs feature far greater reliability, faster boot times and faster application start-up times than hard disk drives. Power consumption for the Samsung SSD is exceptionally low in standby mode at approximately 0.2 watts and in active mode at 0.5 watts.

The Samsung MLC-based SSD has a write speed of 70MB/s and a read speed of 90MB/s - performance levels that approach those of single-level-cell (SLC)-based SSDs now in mass production. Moreover, the new 128GB SSD will last approximately 20 times longer than the generally accepted 4-5 year life span of a notebook PC hard drive.
No word yet on pricing or availability. If you'd like to read more, Samsung's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling sent out a press release this morning, announcing the worldwide availability of color-background LightScribe-enabled DVDs. These discs are offered by a number of leading media brands and come in five colors: red, orange, yellow, blue and green.
LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling announced today that LightScribe-enabled DVDs are now available worldwide in five new vivid color-background DVDs for LightScribe images: red, orange, yellow, blue and green. With the five rich and saturated background colors, consumers can add even more individuality, creativity and flair to their customized LightScribe DVD labels, just as they have with CDs.

Precise, silkscreen-quality black text and graphics labels can be burned onto the label-side of LightScribe-enabled stunning, jewel-toned background color DVDs. In addition to the distinctive, visual impact, the color-backgrounds make it easier to organize a collection of music, photos, videos, or file backups.

The color-background DVDs as well as color background CDs, are offered by leading media brands, including Aleratec, HP, Imation, Memorex, Philips, Primeon and Verbatim.
If you'd like to read more, LightScribe's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Pioneer announced today that it will launch its first Blu-ray recorder by the end of the year. According to Reuters, Pioneer's new recorders will be developed in cooperation with Sharp.
Japanese consumer electronics maker Pioneer Corp said on Tuesday it plans to launch Blu-ray DVD recorders by the end of the year, taking aim at a rapidly growing market after the end of a bitter format battle.

Pioneer is developing Blu-ray recorders with help from Sharp Corp, Pioneer's top shareholder with a 14 percent stake. Sharp already offers Blu-ray recorders.

Pioneer plans to start selling Blu-ray recorders in Japan before the year-end shopping season, followed by overseas launches.
There are some conflicting reports about the launch date and overseas launches. According to an AP report, the recorders will launch some time before March 2009 and that Pioneer has not made any overseas sales plans yet. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
CESI Technology announced today that it has been designated as the first official Blu-ray Disc Test Center in China. By establishing a test center in this country, the BDA hopes to shorten the time it takes Chinese companies to develop and launch fully compliant BD products.
CESI Technology Co. Ltd., a contributor member of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), has been designated as the first official Blu-ray Disc Test Center in China. CESI Technology’s joining BDA as a Contributor member and their establishment of the Test Center indicates the strong momentum building for the Blu-ray Disc format in China.

The establishment of this Blu-ray Disc Test Center is also a critical piece in the Blu-ray Disc value chain in China. From today, Chinese manufacturers can receive verification services for the official production of BD-ROM Movie Players at this center. This will dramatically shorten the time needed for product development and market launch of fully compliant BD products for Blu-ray Disc product manufacturers. the contribution of CESI Technology.”
Hopefully, this means that we'll be seeing Blu-ray players from more Chinese manufacturers. If you'd like to read more, CESI's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
The Blu-ray Disc Association is making a big push into the Chinese market. At SinoCES, the group announced that DigiRise DRA (DRA), a Chinese digital audio coding technology, has passed a technical evaluation and is one step closer to being adopted by the BDA. By making DRA part of the Blu-ray Disc format, the BDA hopes to compete with China's own high-def format, the China Blue High-definition Disc (CBHD).
The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has today announced that DigiRise DRA(DRA) digital audio coding technology has passed an important technicalevaluation. This represents a key milestone for a locally-developed Chinesetechnology to be potentially adopted by Blu-ray Disc format. This milestone is theresult of hard work by engineers in the Audio Codec Evaluation Technical TaskForce under the BDA’s Joint Technical Committee, and close collaboration withChina Hualu Group and DigiRise Technology Ltd.

"We are very happy that DigiRise DRA, an original Chinese audio coding technology,has passed the BDA technical evaluation. The BDA is now taking final steps to formallyadopt DigiRise DRA as part of the format. The BDA is always open to such discussionsand evaluations in its pursuit to creating the best format possible," stated Mr. Sumitaka Matsumura, Chair of the BDA China Task Force. The testing processstrictly followed BDA’s worldwide evaluation standards where contributions camefrom all major vendors in the value chain, including key hardware manufacturers and content providers.
If you'd like to read more, the BDA's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment