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With Plextor recently announcing its PX-760A 18x DVD burner (DVD+/-R/RW CD-R/RW), Lite-On IT stated it also plans to volume produce 18x DVD burners in the third quarter of this year, though BenQ currently does not have any plans for the segment at the moment, according to executives from the two Taiwan-based companies.The article mentions that Sony and Pioneer may also introduce 18x DVD burners. However, BenQ has no plans to do so. Instead, the company will focus on Blu-ray drives. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
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Toshiba America Consumer Products, L.L.C. ("Toshiba"), announced today details of an integrated marketing communications plan to launch its line-up of HD DVD players. The Toshiba HD DVD players, models HD-XA1 and HD-A1, will be the first HD DVD players to hit the U.S. market and will begin shipping to retailers inThe tour starts on February 20th and will continue through April, stopping at more than 40 US cities along the way. If you'd like to read more about the HD DVD Tour, Toshiba's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
The multi-tiered initiative is designed to educate retail salespeople, provide them with support materials to aid in the sale of the HD DVD players and continue to increase consumer awareness of HD DVD players.
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Following the successful demonstrations with leading Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD partners at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, CyberLink has released archiving software PowerBackup 2.5 and packet-writing solution InstantBurn 5. The announcement adds to CyberLink's recent retail release of data burning solution Power2Go 5.PowerBackup 2.5 and Power2Go 5 are available now and can be purchased through CyberLink's website. More information on both programs can be found here. Add a comment
"Next-generation disc formats Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD significantly increase the amount of data that users can store to disc, including content such as high-definition video," said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. "With our recent success at CES we have demonstrated not just a commitment to these two disc formats, but our ability to provide ready solutions for OEM and retail customers alike."
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Taiwan's Supreme Court recently sent back for retrial by Taiwan's High Court a civil lawsuit filed by Royal Philips Electronics against Taiwanese manufacturer Digital Storage Technology (DST) for violating licensing agreements for CD-R discs. Philips will review the decision and then make an appeal, according to the Taiwan Office of Philips Intellectual Property & Standards.One thing I've learned over the years is that you don't mess with Philips, especially when it comes to royalty fees. If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes. Add a comment
DST, which produces CD-R, CD-RW and DVD-R discs, signed a license agreement with Philips in July 2001 to use CD-R patents at a royalty charge of US$0.06 per disc. Due to intense competition, DST defaulted on the royalty payments resulting in Philips taking legal action against the Taiwanese maker. Philips won the lawsuit at a district court and Taiwan's High Court but lost in DST's appeal to the Supreme Court.
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No word on pricing yet but according to Pioneer's press release, the DVR-A11 will be available in Japan in early March. More information, including a full list of specs, can be found here. Add a comment
Pioneer Corporation announced today its new internal DVD multi writers with ATAPI interface for Windows-based PCs - the DVR-A11-J (pure white), DVR-A11-JBK (black), and DVR-A11-JSV (silver). The new DVD drives, employing the company's newly-designed Disc-Resonance Stabilizer, assure stable write and read operation with high accuracy. At the same time, they realize impressively quiet operation even during high-speed rotation owing to Pioneer's proprietary technologies including honey-comb structure.
Pioneer's new DVD drives support the recording and playback of recordable discs in seven DVD formats (DVD-R, Dual Layer DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R, DVD+R Double Layer, and DVD+RW) as well as CD-R and CD-RW discs. The new drives offering industry-leading write speeds realize the high speed recording of max. 8x on single-sided double-layer DVD formats (Dual Layer DVD-R and DVD+R Double Layer).
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India-based Moser Baer India (MBI), a leading global manufacturer of optical discs, last week announced halting capacity expansion for CD-R and DVD+R/-R discs, a move that will avoid a potential oversupply of DVD+R/-R discs, according to industry sources in Taiwan.If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes. Add a comment
MBI will not add manufacturing equipment but plans to convert part of its existing CD-R production lines into those for DVD+R/-R discs, the sources pointed out, adding that MBI also plans to step into production of photovoltaic modules in the third quarter of this year.
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Last Friday, the meeting of the AACS LA was to resolve the final specifications of the new Advanced Access Content System (AACS). But insiders are reporting that no such agreement was reached. Instead, it is said that an important member of the Blu-ray Disc Association is still voicing concerns about the interaction of AACS and the additional BD+ protection for Blu-ray movies. The next meeting is scheduled for February 23rd and 24th.Let's hope that they can come to some sort of agreement at the next meeting. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Without the AACS specification, the copy protection keys that manufacturers of drives and media need cannot be produced. For instance, manufacturers such as NEC, Pioneer, Samsung, and Toshiba are eagerly awaiting the specifications so they can implement AACS in their equipment.
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The NEC ND-4550A being a so called "Multi Recorder" and supports recording on currently available media formats (CD-R/CW, DVD+R/+RW/+R DL and DVD-R/-RW/-RAM/-R DL).If you'd like to read more, head on over to CD Freaks and check out their review. Want a second opinion? Our review of the ND-4550A can be found here. Add a comment
The NEC ND-4550A can write CD-R/RW media with excellent/very good quality, and can write those media types at high speed. DVD±R/RW writing quality is good with most media, and once again the NEC ND-4550A can burn the media fairly quickly.
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New DVD format specifications, entitled "DVD-RAM 6X/8X/12X/16X," were recently established by the DVD Forum. Media meeting the new DVD-RAM formats will be available in the near future.Before trying DVD-RAM2 media, I highly recommend checking the list on TSST's website to see if your drive is subject to these issues. Add a comment
Conventional DVD-RAM discs supported up to 5X speed (Class0: standard writable speed 2X). New DVD-RAM format discs will support 6X, 8X, 12X and 16X speed (Class1: standard writable speed 6X), which could enable faster recording.
It is recommended that you playback or record data on new DVD-RAM format discs with optical disc drives labeled as compatible with such new DVD-RAM format media (such as those bearing the following "RAM2" mark).
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The PX-760A is expected to ship in April for suggested retail price of $119.00. More information on Plextor's new drive can be found here. Add a comment
Plextor Corp., a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, today announced the PX-760A DVD±R/RW CD-R/RW drive. The multifunction internal drive is aimed at professionals and power PC users who require reliability, lightning-fast performance, and premium recording features.
The PX-760A is a versatile DVD/CD burner that delivers state-of-the-art recording speeds of 18X DVD±R on certified 16X DVD±R media. Users can burn up to four hours of high-quality MPEG-2/DVD video on a single 8.5 GB disc using 10X DVD+R on Double-Layer media and 6X DVD-R on Dual Layer media. The drive also supports 8X DVD+RW and 6X DVD-RW Rewriting; 16X max DVD-Reading; and 48X CD-R Writing, 24X CD-RW Rewriting, and 48X max CD-Reading. DVD±VR is supported for direct disc recording, while DVD+RW background format eliminates the need to manually format a DVD+RW disc.
