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The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) today announced that its member companies have successfully resolved yet another breach of contract lawsuit involving non-compliant DVD chips that enable piracy. This is the sixth such lawsuit that has concluded with a court-ordered injunction mandating a DVD chip manufacturer to adhere to the content security features of the CSS license. With the new injunction against Sunplus Technology Co., Inc., the world's second largest DVD chip manufacturer, all of the major DVD chip manufacturers are now bound by court order to honor the CSS license. The studios now plan to focus greater attention on other products, such as DVD players, that may also violate the license and expose copyrighted material to piracy. Investigations have been underway for months, and the studios are considering appropriate enforcement action.With HD DVD and Blu-ray on the way, the movie industry is making it clear that they do not want companies producing products that can bypass the protection schemes they've put in place. If you'd like to read more, the MPAA's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
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- Home Entertainment
Atmel Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML - News), a global leader in the development and fabrication of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced today the availability of its new ATR0885 laser diode driver IC for use in combined HD-DVD/Blu-ray, DVD, CD players and PC CD-ROM drives. HD-DVD and Blu-ray are new disc standards, which will offer significantly more storage capacity than today's DVD standards. Since the new ATR0885 is available in very small packages, it is particularly suitable for small SLIM drives used in notebook computers, as well as for half-height drives used in desktop PCs and consumer DVD players. The ATR0885 is the industry's first available product for such applications and enables outstanding cost-effectiveness, an important factor for high-volume consumer products.Hopefully this will help lower the cost of HD DVD and Blu-ray players some. If you'd like to read more, Atmel's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
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As a result, Euclid Discoveries says a full-length movie that requires 700 megabytes of storage when compressed using MPEG-4 would use just 50 megabytes when compressed with EuclidVision. At that size, 14 movies could fit on a standard CD-ROM disk. As for video downloading, it would take an hour for someone with a 1.5 megabit-per-second broadband connection to download a 700-megabyte file. But 50 megabytes would take less than five minutes.If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
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We have not heard if or when the SH-S182D will be available in the US. As we learn more, we'll let you know. In the mean time, feel free to leave your comments in our forum. Add a comment
Writing Speeds: DVD+R: 18x
DVD+RW: 8x
DVD-RW: 6x
DVD±R DL: 8x
DVD-RAM: 12x
CD-R: 48x
CD-RW: 32xRead Speeds: DVD-ROM: 16x
DVD±R: 12x
DVD±RW: 8x
DVD±R DL: 8x
DVD-RAM: 12x
CD-ROM: 48x
CD-R/RW: 40x
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We have not heard if or when the SH-S182D will be available in the US. As we learn more, we'll let you know. In the mean time, feel free to leave your comments in our forum. Add a comment
Writing Speeds: DVD+R: 18x
DVD+RW: 8x
DVD-RW: 6x
DVD±R DL: 8x
DVD-RAM: 12x
CD-R: 48x
CD-RW: 32xRead Speeds: DVD-ROM: 16x
DVD±R: 12x
DVD±RW: 8x
DVD±R DL: 8x
DVD-RAM: 12x
CD-ROM: 48x
CD-R/RW: 40x
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No word on price yet. However, Toshiba expects to ship the Qosmio G30/697HS by the middle of May. More information can be found here. Add a comment
Toshiba Corporation today continued its roll out of next generation HD DVD products with the announcement of the launch of the world's first notebook PC with an HD DVD-ROM drive. "Qosmio G30/697HS" will be available in the Japanese market in mid May, as the latest product in Qosmio line-up of AV notebook PC series. Along with playback of HD DVD content, the new Qosmio can read and write to current DVD and CD discs, including DVD+/-R DL (dual-layer) and DVD-RAM.*2
The groundbreaking Qosmio series has consistently redefined the capabilities and performance of AV notebook computers. "Qosmio G30/697HS" continues this tradition by being first in the world to integrate an HD DVD-ROM drive. The slim-type 12.7mm-thick drive achieves this thin form factor with an optical system requiring only a single objective lens to read HD DVD discs and to read and write to DVDs and CDs. The PC's combination of a high-performance dual-core CPU, the "Intel CoreTM Duo Processor T2500 (operating frequency 2.00GHz)," and high-performance graphics accelerator, the "NVIDIA GeForceTM Go 7600," with advanced PC software technology delivers stunning image quality in playback of HD DVD content.
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TDK's press release also mentions that they've created 100GB, quad-layer Blu-ray Disc prototypes and have pushed recording speeds to 216Mbps (6x). The company is also in the process of developing the world's first 200GB Blu-ray Disc prototype. If you'd like to read more, TDK's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
TDK, a world leader in digital recording solutions, today announced that it has begun shipping 25GB recordable and rewritable Blu-ray Disc media to retailers nationwide. A pioneer of blue laser recording technology and founding member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, TDK is the first to market with bare Blu-ray Disc media. Retail pricing is set at $19.99 for a 25GB BD-R (recordable), $24.99 for a 25GB BD-RE (rewritable). In addition, TDK will ship 50GB Blu-ray Disc media later this year with retail pricing set at $47.99 for a 50GB BD-R (recordable) and $59.99 for a 50GB BD-RE (rewritable).
The revolutionary single-sided discs are bare, cartridge-free media. The 25GB products are single layer whereas the 50GB products have a dual layer recording material structure. TDK first shipped mass production samples in December 2005, and with the subsequent issuance of the relevant license, the company immediately commenced full force manufacturing.
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Lite-On IT and BenQ today announced that they have formed a strategic alliance that will bring together two of the industry's leading players and enhance the overall competitiveness of Taiwan's storage sector. The transaction is expected to increase Lite-On IT's global market share to 27%, making it the world's No. 2 optical disk drive (ODD) maker.I must admit that I am a little surprised by this bit of news. Nevertheless, its going to be interesting to see what happens. If you'd like to read more, the entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
As part of the alliance, Lite-On IT will acquire BenQ's storage-related assets, including BenQ's ODM customer portfolio and the rights to use BenQ's technology portfolio. Lite-On IT will also receive order commitments on BenQ-branded storage products.
"This strategic alliance combined with our manufacturing advantages, will allow Lite-On IT to further sharpen its competitiveness in the ODM market and become the No. 2 ODD manufacturer worldwide," expressed Raymond Soong, Chairman of Lite-On IT. "In partnering with BenQ, Lite-On IT expects to benefit from increased manufacturing efficiency, greater economies of scale, and a larger market share."
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Your favorite drive didn't make it onto the list? Then go and vote for April's top DVD writer. Add a comment
- BenQ DW1650/1655
- LG GSA-4167B
- Plextor PX-716A
- BenQ DW1640
- NEC ND-3550A/3551A
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As our introductory price, we will be offering the following subscription options:
For instructions on how to subscribe, please see this forum thread. Add a comment$1/month subscriptions, with the option of auto-renewing
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