Once a leading earner that helped lift electronics manufacturers out of a period of financial stagnation, DVD recorders have degenerated into little more than a burden as the companies slog through a drawn-out price war.

Our latest contributor, share trading guru MinTeD, has asked me to publish a quick apology. Due to pressure of work he hasn’t been able to reply to any of the dozens of emails he received about the investment/stock market column he has started writing for us.

Sony has now released the specs of the upcoming DRU-720A, the newest Sony burner that supports 16X DVD+/-R writing speeds...

Nero announced today that it has partnered with LightScribe to bring the Direct Disc Labeling technology to Nero’s vast community of users.

Pioneer have reported that because of severe price competition its third-quarter net profits had fallen 80 percent, to 1.79 billion yen (£9.2 million), with sales down .09 percent from the previous year.

ITV, the UK’s biggest commercial TV operator, launched its anticipated assault on the online DVD rental market today through its tie-up with Video Island.

The Pioneer US website is carrying information about a recommended firmware update. The site says: "Version 1.09 improves the writing quality on +RW discs during buffer underrun conditions and improves writing quality on DVD+R DL and CD recordable media" and in big red letters, "(RECOMMENDED UPDATE)". You can download them from the Pioneer website.

The Blu-Ray Association have said that games giants Electronic Arts and Vivendi would both support its DVD format. The next generation of DVDs will hold high-definition video and sound.

ASRock, a subsidiary of ASUSTeK Computers that produces entry-level PC components, recently expressed interest in manufacturing of affordable graphics cards targeting customers in budget.

Undoubtedly the next revolution in home entertainment will be high-definition, which gives incredible, 3D-like pictures and surround sound. The DVD disks and the gear to play them will not be out for another year or so, and there at are still a number of issues to be sorted out.

Sony Europe has announced the launch of a new portable DVD player for 2005 – The Sony MV-700HR. Sporting a new portable concept, different from current laptop syles, the Sony screen faces out, taking up less space and provides a convenient new way to watch movies on the go.

Ritek, the second-largest producer of optical discs in Taiwan, will invest up to US$137 million to establish a subsidiary manufacturer of CD-R discs, with a monthly production capacity of 20 million discs in Vietnam, the company’s board of directors have decided.

The body that represents the US movie industry has released its latest tool in its campaign to clamp down on movie file-sharing, aimed at parents. The Movie Association for America's (MPAA) free Parent File Scan software lets parents check their children's computers for peer-to-peer programs.

Sony is to make a second attempt to challenge Apple's lead in the digital music download market and the Mac maker's almost-ubiquitous iPod courtesy of the PlayStation Portable.

Our resident DVD technician Flash has his favourite DVD burning programme but finds it is getting a bit outdated with lack of support for all the latest 16 speed drives he is using. He will not give it up and has come up with solutions to make Record Now Max 4.5 work with all his 16x speed drives. Read how he has achieved it in his review Record Now Max 4.5 working with the new DVD Burners.

DVD-Recordable would like to welcome a new member to the team. Respected financial whiz kid MinTteD will be providing in-depth market intelligence for investors from the frontline of DVD and other emerging technologies. So if you are interested in playing in the stock market and would like some ideas on companies which may or may not do well have a look at MinTeD’s new column here for the latest views on what’s hot and what’s not in the stock market. He’s already posted in his first Market Analysis.

Our friends at disQworld have been putting the Datawrite through its paces and their report seems to be very favourable. Have a look <a href=http://www.dvd-recordable.org/Reviews+index-req-showcontent-id-135.phtml>here for the full review.

Worldtech, the exclusive Taiwan sales agent for Hewlett-Packard (HP) LightScribe 16x DVD Dual DL (single-sided double-layer) burners, aims to sell 100,000 burners, accounting for 20% of the DVD-burner market, according to company president Susan Liu.

Storage spending is on the up across Europe, but there may not be so much joy in it for the makers of big storage boxes, according to an IDC survey. The market research company predicts that much of the spend will be on high-capacity, low-cost arrays.

ECMA has created Technical Committee 44 (TC44) to develop a standardization strategy for Holographic Information Storage (HIS) systems, initially based upon the Collinear Technologies of Optware Corporation, a leading developer of Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) storage products. TC44 was set up at the request of Optware Corporation and several of its partners, including CMC Magnetics, Fuji, Pulstec, Strategic Media Technology and Toagosei.