Volume production of 16x DVD+RW burners for Japanese optical drive manufacturers such as Pioneer and Sony and their Taiwanese competitors including BenQ, Lite-On IT and Accesstek may be behind schedule due to a tight supply of LDs (laser diodes), a key component, and a lag in the availability of 16x DVD+R discs, Taiwanese optical disc drive makers indicated.

Flash has noticed an interesting development with Datawrite Yellow v2 4x DVD-R, "I have just been advised by a Datawrite spokesman that some of the new Datawrite Yellows v2 4x speed discs are in fact RITEKG05 media and customers are finding that some of these discs actually burn at 8x speed so do not be surprised if your burning finishes quicker than expected. Evidently the discs that were printed at the Ritek factory were mixed with the RITEKG04 media and wrongly printed with the Datawrite Yellow 4x design. These discs are in 25 tubs sealed at the factory and there is no way of telling the dye stamper without breaking the seal and checking the leadin code. These discs are apparently Grade A and every bit as good as any other G05 disc, so you may be pleasantly surprised when you open your next tub."

A spokesman for Datawrite says the mix-up was at the Ritek factory and they have no intention of increasing the price and are pleased to be able to offer media that is even better value for money than it was before.

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, has gone on record as a technology maven who thinks that Hollywood should not work with a new technology because of the threat of piracy. Mr. Jobs was speaking more as CEO of Pixar when he made the comments at a supposedly private meeting with Hollywood and tech execs.

The newest 16X DVD burners that will be shipping soon will run into the same physical limits as CD-ROM drives, ending the "X race" of faster and faster speeds.

A Dutch company's cunning plan to deliver DVD movies to customers' TV sets digitally without having to pay additional performance rights has already run into trouble. Dvdstream's partner Homelink - the Danish manufacturer of the Palmbutler 600 set-top box - has gone into receivership and may not be able to deliver the hardware on time.

The games industry is poised to launch an aggressive anti-DVD copy software drive, with some of the biggest names in the sector targeting programs which, it has been claimed, are widely used to copy DVD-based game discs.

Apple's pioneering online music service iTunes has launched in the UK, Germany and France, offering more than 700,000 songs for 79p or 0.99 euros each.

Flash has contacted us because he has been in correspondence with Ritek about some of the shoddy DVD-Rs which have thankfully washed up less and less on the European market. An update to that article can be found here.

The DVD Forum has given is official thumbs-up to DualDisc, a DVD/CD hybrid format. The approval paves the way for a more rapid adoption of the DVD Audio format. DualDisc essentially sticks a CD onto the back of a DVD or DVD Audio disc. The idea is that punters will be able to, say, play higher quality DVD Audio content at home and use the same disc to play the same music in their car's CD player.

Researchers have observed a new type of liquid crystal - long theorised, but not observed until now - that promises faster and cheaper liquid crystal displays.

Video Island, a UK online DVD rental service, has raised £6m in a funding round to expand it's business. The firm, which launched in September 2003, said it would use the money to expand its business in the UK, its sole market.

RealNetworks has finally got its hands on a movie service to show-piece its own video player alongside its market leading Rhapsody online music service. It has done it in a deal with Starz Encore, the cable TV film supplier, which was cut two years ago, but which is finally going ahead after what appear to be legal delays.

A new site called Peerflix.com seeks to blend two trends: online DVD rental sites like Netflix and music-file-sharing services like Kazaa.

The DVD Forum has approved the first version of its next-generation High Definition DVD (HD-DVD) specification. The organisation, which controls the DVD format, has also approved the mandatory use of the Apple-favoured AAC for audio tracks stored in the DVD-ROM partition of future DVD Audio discs.

Ritek will begin volume production of DVD+R DL (single-sided double-layer) discs later this month, said CEO Gordon Yeh at the company's 2004 shareholders meeting.

Digital radio broadcasts that bring CD-quality sound to the airwaves could lead to unfettered song copying if protections are not put in place, a recording-industry trade have warned.

One in three hard drives returned to Seagate for repair is "actually in perfect working order", says Guy Weavers, director of EMEA field applications engineering at Seagate. So customers are wrongly blaming the drive when their PC breaks down. This means that they lose data, time and maybe money, by sending it back to the Seagate factory. Time and money is lost down the line by Seagate resellers too.

The DVD Forum is meeting in Seattle this week with one of its goals being the approval of the first commercial version of the HD-DVD blue-laser based disc format aimed at high-definition television and movies.

BenQ will become the first Taiwan company to deliver 16x DVD burners this week, according to the company which expects to ship 40,000-50,000 16x DVD burners this month, accounting for 30% of its optical disc drive sales. 16x DVD burners will start moving toward the DVD drive mainstream beginning next month, replacing 8x models, the company indicated.

A new website has been launched which aims to calrify the murky area of the European Union legislation as regards copyright and how that legislation is implemented amongst the European member states.