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The draft legislation, created by the Bush administration and backed by Rep. Lamar Smith, already enjoys the support of large copyright holders such as the Recording Industry Association of America. Smith is the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees intellectual-property law.It's easy to see where all the RIAA's and MPAA's money is going. It isn't cheap to buy off a congressman like Lamar, let alone an entire administration. Anyway, if you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Smith's press secretary, Terry Shawn, said Friday that the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006 is expected to "be introduced in the near future."
"The bill as a whole does a lot of good things," said Keith Kupferschmid, vice president for intellectual property and enforcement at the Software and Information Industry Association in Washington, D.C. "It gives the (Justice Department) the ability to do things to combat IP crime that they now can't presently do."
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InterVideo, Inc. (NASDAQ:IVII - News) and its partner Ulead Systems, Inc. announced today VideoStudio 10 and VideoStudio 10 Plus, the newest versions of its consumer video editing and DVD authoring software. The new releases allow users of all levels to easily turn photos and video into high-quality productions for sharing on DVD, tape, the Internet or mobile devices.While boxed versions of VideoStudio 10 won't hit store shelves until May, it can be purchased now through Ulead's website. More information can be found here. Add a comment
"With version 10, VideoStudio adds some exciting new features," said Eldon C. M. Liu, president of Ulead. "Users new to video editing will find the software easier than ever. Advanced users can now take advantage of multiple overlay tracks, true 5.1 channel surround sound and complete support for high-definition video."
For the first time, VideoStudio will be offered in two versions. VideoStudio 10 gives entry-level users affordable and easy-to-use editing and authoring tools for great home movies. An advanced version, VideoStudio 10 Plus, delivers unique and powerful features for next-generation quality and creativity.
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While Panasonic has not announced a price, its not going to be cheap, especially considering I-O DATA's LF-MB121JD based drive, the BRD-AM2B is going for 105,000 Yen ($899US). If you'd like to read more, Panasonic's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Panasonic, the brand for which Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is known, today announced that the company will introduce a half-height internal Blu-ray Disc (BD) drive for desktop computers* in Japan on June 10, 2006. The LF-MB121JD BD drive can read and write single- and dual-layer BDs as well as DVDs and CDs. Prior to the introduction of the BD drive, Panasonic releases 2x-speed 25 GB and 50 GB non-cartridge BD-R and BD-RE discs for PC drives on April 28.
Increasing data volume on personal computers and the rapid and continued growth of high definition (HD) television have accelerated consumer demand for an optical drive that can read and record massive PC data as well as HD content at home. The new BD drive and discs will meet this growing demand.
The LF-MB121JD, complied with Blu-ray Disc Association's BD-R, BD-RE and BD-ROM standards, can read and write single-layer 25 GB and single-sided, dual-layer 50 GB BDs. Supporting the three generations of optical discs, the 41.3-mm high internal BD drive is compatible with 11 different writable optical discs and 13 different readable optical disc formats**.
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Hitachi Maxell plans to introduce SVOD as early as the beginning of 2007. The company also hopes to boost the capacity to as high as 5 TB by utilizing a blue-violet laser. More information can be found here. Add a comment
Hitachi Maxell, Ltd. has developed an optical storage technology "stacked volumetric optical discs (SVOD)" that can boost per-volume capacity by using a film-type disc medium with a thickness of 92 μm. The prototyped disc is a recordable disc with a diameter of 12 cm which is equivalent to that of DVDs. It includes two 92 μm thick disc media that are bonded with each other, and the capacity on both sides totals 9.4 GB.
Based on the new technology, the company has succeeded in the development of a high-capacity optical storage system having 940 GB by accommodating 100 newly developed discs in a dedicated cartridge (thickness: 6.5 cm; width: 13.3 cm; depth: 16.1 cm). The system has an advantage that its size can be significantly reduced compared to the typical DVD library systems for the same capacity.
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InterVideo, Inc. (NASDAQ:IVII - News) and its partner Ulead Systems, Inc. (TSE:2487 - News), industry leaders in video, image and DVD software, members of the HD DVD Promotion Group, today announced that they will showcase their complete HD DVD solutions, from authoring and burning to playback, at the HD DVD seminar in Shanghai, China on April 22rd.If you'd like to read more, InterVideo's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
HD DVD has been selected by the DVD Forum to be the next-generation, post-DVD standard for high-capacity, high-definition HD DVD discs. In addition to DVD's MPEG-2, HD DVD also adopts core video formats such as H.264/AVC and VC-1 as well as advanced technologies for enhanced disc interaction.
The global HD DVD seminar is held for its members to exchange views and to share technological advances. It aims to encourage the broad acceptance of HD DVD on a world-wide basis among members of the group, related industries and the public. Attendees of the seminar include Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, Memory-Tech, Ulead and InterVideo.
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Global prices of optical-grade polycarbonate (PC), a key material for making optical discs, have fallen from above US$3 per kilogram at the end of last year to US$2.80 per kilogram this quarter, but the recent hikes in the price of crude oil to more than US$70 per barrel might push the price of PC to US$3 or even higher next quarter, according to local makers of optical discs.If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes. Add a comment
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Toshiba's HD DVD player started shipping to US retailers this week, four months ahead of Sony's scheduled release of its Blu-ray format players. North America represents by far the most important market for the new high-definition formats, accounting for more than 60% of all HDTVs that ABI Research expects will be shipped during 2006.Studies like this make me laugh. It really isn't too hard to declare a winner when the competition hasn't even started to ship their products yet. Anyway, if you'd like to read more, ABI Research's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
What does this mean for the prospects of the rival formats? Will HD DVD's earlier entry to the market and substantially lower price tag give it the edge over Blu-ray? The answer is "yes" in the short term, but as time passes, complicating factors may shift the balance.
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New 24-karat gold CD-Rs and DVDs that extend the storage life of data, music and images for many decades are being introduced by KMP Media, LLC of Rochester, NY. Operating under trademark license from Eastman Kodak Company, KMP Media is marketing them as the KODAK Preservation CD-R and the KODAK Preservation DVD (-R).KMP Media's KODAK Preservation CD-R and DVD-R media is available now in both jewel cases and spindles. More information can be found here. Add a comment
"The gold Preservation CD-R can safely store digital data for up to 300 years," said Steve Mizelle, President of KMP Media. "The gold Preservation DVD (-R) protects videos and other very large digital files for 80 to 100 years. This is especially important for consumers trying to save precious photos, critical data, music or movies."
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Plextor is a leader when it comes to optical drives. They haven't always been the first to adopt new technology or produced the fastest drives, but they are committed to quality. The PX-760A is an attempt in the right direction, but I believe it falls a little short as they reached too far. 18x writing offers very little performance advantage over a good clean 16x write, and the potential for errors is greater as the spindle speed must increase. That being said, the drive burns very quickly with a very low error count at 18x when using Verbatim 16x DVD+R media. However on other media, the drive produces more PI errors that I'd like to see - even at slower speeds.If you'd like to read more, the entire review can be found here. Add a comment
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It performs up to the mark for most burns, though at mediocre speeds that barely raised our heartbeats. The burn quality was for the most part, pretty decent and that could be one of its strengths. While BenQ drives have been noted for their ability to 'over-speed', that is an unofficial 'feature' missing from the LITE-ON drive, which needs to be manually enabled via their bundled utility. Its main advantage probably lies in its 'jack of all trades' card of supporting all the media formats and to top it off, it has LightScribe technology. Crucially, all these features do not make it unique but just another player in a crowded market with more add-ons to offer.We too have a review of the SHM-165H6S in the works. In the mean time, head on over to Hardware Zone and check out their review. Add a comment
