CyberLink Corp. today launched the new PowerDVD 12 Ultra, the latest version of the world’s leading Blu-Ray and Media Player. With its new companion apps PowerDVD Mobile v.4 and PowerDVD Remote v.2, PowerDVD 12 is the ideal single solution for the multi-platform home, as the world’s only universal multimedia player to provide a unified solution for the Windows, iOS and Android platforms. Now, users can easily stream, store and share their multimedia content across any device in their home—including iPhones, iPads and Android tablets and smartphones.  With enhanced TrueTheater® technology, users can enjoy a unique experience and enrich any content to its best possible HD & 3D quality, including DVDs, low-resolution videos and content from popular social media sites.

“PowerDVD 12 Ultra delivers the total freedom to enjoy all types of media content in enhanced quality on any device at home or on-the-go,“ said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. “With the proliferation of devices and operating systems, PowerDVD automatically converts videos at the optimal quality to play on iPads, iPhones and Android devices. PowerDVD 12 Ultra is truly a premium media experience for the consumers.”

The latest version of PowerDVD comes with more than 30 new features and additional media format support, including the ability to intelligently sync media gallery content with Android devices, convert Blu-ray movies from 2D to 3D, and deliver 7.1 channel surround sound audio from DTS and Dolby, together with new lossless audio format support for OGG and FLAC files.

Add a comment

Pioneer Japan sent out a press release this morning, announcing its new professional-grade Blu-ray Disc writer, the BDR-PR1. Designed for businesses, libraries and museums looking to archive important data to Blu-ray Disc, the BDR-PR1 features like a SATA 3 Gb/s interface and is capable of 6x BD-R, 6x BD-R DL, 6x BD-R LTH, 2x BD-RE and 2x BD-RE DL writing speeds. The drive also comes with software which can be used to check the recording quality by measuring the RSER (Random Symbol Error Rate) and the number of Burst Errors. The  BDR-PR1 is scheduled to ship at the end of January and, while a price has not been announced, its expected to cost about three times as much as a consumer grade Blu-ray writer ($300-$400).

In support of Pioneer's new Blu-ray Disc writer, Mitsubishi Chemical (MKM) has released its new professional, archival-grade 50GB BD-R DL media. Designed to work with the BDR-PR1, these new discs have a lifetime of more than 50 years when stored at room temperture (25° C) and 80% relative humidity. Contrary to earlier reports, Mitsubishi's archival-grade BD-R DL media has been developed in-house and will continue to be manufactured in the company's own factory.

CDRLabs has taken an in depth look at Sony's new portable 6x Blu-ray Disc writer, the BDX-S600U. This sleek and lightweight drive is capable of 6x BD-R, 6x BD-R DL and 2x BD-RE writing speeds and a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 6x. On top of that, it offers support for 3 and 4-layer BDXL media, which can hold up to 128GB of data on a single disc. The BDX-S600U is also designed to be powered completely off a computer's USB bus and includes features like a 6MB buffer, Power-Burn buffer underrun protection and CyberLink's Media Suite 8.

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced the release of new enhanced IOPS firmware (v1.13) for the Octane SATA 3.0 Series SSDs. The random write performance has been significantly improved, in some capacities over double that of the previous specifications, for users looking to push their SSD performance to new heights.

For all Octane SATA 6Gb/s models, the improved IOPS made possible by this new firmware allow for greater transactional performance, especially during small file and random access speeds in everyday computing applications. When compared to the previous revision, random write IOPS performance doubles across nearly all capacities when tested in Iometer 2008:

OCZ strives to offer the fastest, highest performing solutions on the market and continues to support customers by offering firmware innovations to their storage investments. The new enhanced IOPS firmware will begin shipping in the next batch of drives to resellers, and the upgrade file will be made available to existing customers via the company's website.

Add a comment