Earlier this year, we reported that Moser Baer had purchased Philips' R&D subsidiary, OM&T, with the hope that it would jumpstart their Blu-ray media business. This acquisition has apparently paid off as Moser Baer is claiming that they've developed the world's first 8x Blu-ray Disc.
Optical and magnetic storage manufacturer Moser Baer India has developed the world’s first high speed 8x Blu-ray disc (BDR), which is a major advance in next generation optical media formats. The 8x Blu-ray disc (BDR) technology has been jointly developed with newly acquired OM&T, the former R&D subsidiary of Philips.

With the latest development, end users will be able to have a faster media that can record a 2-hour transmission equivalent of HD (High Definition) quality data in less than 15 minutes. The next generation formats have a capacity ranging from 15 GB to 50 GB and offer over five to ten times the data storage capacity of standard DVD media. These next generation formats are best suited for reliable business backup, such as medical and government imaging, photography, videography, as well as high definition video recording.
No word on pricing or availability. As we find out more, we'll let you know. In the mean time, Moser Baer's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Nero released a new version of Nero 7 this morning. According to the release notes, version 7.9.6.0 includes a number of changes and bug fixes as well as new features like SecurDisc PDF copy protection. If you'd like to check it out, the update can be downloaded here or via BitTorrent. As usual, feel free to share your experiences in our forum. Add a comment
DigiTimes has reported that Ritek recently received certification for their HD DVD-R and HD DVD-RW media. According to the article, they are the first Taiwanese manufacturer to do so.
Ritek on May 21 announced it has received the certification for both HD DVD-R (recordable, write once) and HD DVD-RW (rewritable) formats, becoming the only Taiwan-based producer of optical discs to receive certification.

The technological barrier for HD DVD-R is quite high and that for HD DVD-RW is higher, Ritek indicated. Ritek's manufacturing capability for DVD+R/-R DL (single-sided double-layer) discs was helpful in obtaining the certification, the company pointed out.
The article also mentions that volume production of the two formats will begin during second half of this year at the earliest. If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes. Add a comment

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Aleratec sent out a press release this morning, announcing the 1:3 DVD/CD Copy Tower Pro HS and 1:7 DVD/CD Copy Tower Pro HS. These new Copy Towers feature a removable 160GB hard disk drive and can copy DVDs at speeds up to 20x with no computer required.

Aleratec, Inc., developer and manufacturer of Aleratec Award Winning DVD/CD Duplicating and Publishing Solutions, is announcing its next generation of its Award Winning DVD/CD Duplicator Solutions, the new high speed 1:3 DVD/CD Copy Tower Pro HS(tm) and 1:7 DVD/CD Copy Tower Pro HS(tm), stand alone DVD/CD Duplicators that copy DVDs at up to 20x with no computer required. The new Aleratec Copy Towers feature fast, 160GB, removable Hard Disk Drives for secure storage of frequently used source discs.
The 1:3 DVD/CD Copy Tower HS and 1:3 DVD/CD Copy Tower HS are available now for $899 and $1399 respectively. More information on these two duplicators can be found here. Add a comment
Fujitsu has announced a new one-chip LSI that can compress and decompress HD H.264 video in real-time. According to their press release, the MB86H51 is industry's first one-chip full HD H.264 High Profile LSI with embedded memory.

Fujitsu Limited today announced a new large-scaled integrated (LSI) chip that can compress and decompress full High-Definition (HD) video (1,920 dots x 1,080 lines) in the H.264 format(1) in real-time. The new chip, the MB86H51, is the industry's first one-chip LSI for full HD H.264 High Profile(2) video processing with embedded memory. Sample shipments will start from July 1, 2007.

This new chip enables high image quality recording, playback, and transmission of full high-definition video over a wide range of fields from consumer to industrial applications, such as for digital video cameras (camcorders), hard disk digital video recorders (DVRs), home network devices, security cameras, and broadcasting equipment.
Samples of the MB86H51 will start shipping on July 1st and are expected to cost about 30,000 Yen ($247US). More information can be found on Fujitsu's website. Add a comment

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At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Hitach-Maxell demonstrated a 4 layer 100GB Blu-ray disc. Since then, the company has taken this technology one step further, doubling the number of layers and boosting the capacity to 200GB. Here's part of their press release, translated from Japanese:
The hitachi, ltd. Research Center (chief: Yasushi Hukunaga/below, Hitachi), this each time, basic technology of the optical system which expands the regenerative signal output of the optical disk in 10 times was developed. As for this technology, it is something which makes the optical detection method which expands the regenerative signal making use of the interference of two lights the optical disk apply. With this technology, reflected light of the optical disk being weak, accurate reading of the regenerative signal becomes possible, you say that reflected light becomes weak by the fact that the number of record layers increases fundamental topic of the multilayer optical disk is solved, the blue ray disk whose record playback of the single sided 100~200 gigabyte is possible at 4~8 layer (Blu-ray Disc) actualization of the device is expected.
While details are sketchy due to the translation, Hitachi appears to be splitting the laser in half to create a reference beam. This second beam helps cut through the interference caused by the layers being so close to each other. According to other, unconfirmed sources, Hitachi plans to bring this 200GB disc to market by 2009. If you'd like to read more, their entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Power Quotient International (PQI) has announced that they've released the H series Traveling Disks. Along with faster read and write speeds, these new USB flash drives feature support for ReadyBoost and a built-in offline web browser.

Power Quotient International Co., Ltd. (PQI) have released their performance Traveling Disks series labeling it “H Series”. Current models with H series performances include Cool Drive U310H, U350H and U339H. H series are all Windows Vista ReadyBoost supported to give your PC that extra performance. In addition to performance, Webaroo offline browser comes built-in in every H series Traveling Disk. Webaroo downloads and saves internet packets of the website you choice making it available to the user to browse online contents offline on a laptop, PDA or a smartphone.
The H series is available now in capacities ranging from 512MB to 4GB. More information is available on PQI's website. Add a comment
Samsung recently announced that they have developed an 8GB microSD (Secure Digital) memory card. Ideally suited for mobile phones, this fingernail-sized card can store up to 2,000 MP3's or approximately 5 DVD-quality movies.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, today announced that it has developed an 8Gigabyte (GB) microSD (Secure Digital) memory card, a size optimal for today’s multimedia mobile phones. Featuring the highest capacity today for a microSD card, the new fingernail-sized card is capable of storing 2,000 MP3 music files, 4,000 digital photos, or approximately 5 DVD-quality movies...

...With a read speed of 16 Megabytes (MBs) per second and a write speed of 6MB/s, Samsung’s 8GB microSD card well exceeds the Speed Class 4 SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) standard which requires a data write speed of 4MB/s. This is also much faster than the SD Speed Class 2 designation carried by most competing microSD cards currently on the market.
No word on pricing or availability. As we find out more, we'll let you know. In the mean time, Samsung's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment