Topic: News

It was all going so well. But then one morning our resident DVD guru woke up and things just weren't happy in DVD land: the discs and drives that had been burning just dandy had gone bellyup. Not to be detered, our plucky reviewer (Flash) went through several processes to rectify this state of affairs and has written this article about his experiences to help anyone else who might have these problems.

Memory maker Micron has begun sampling what it claims is the world's first third-generation DDR SDRAM chips developed specifically for graphics applications.

TEAC’s new DVD+/-RW DVD-Recordable drive writes at 4X speed to DVD+R and DVD-R, rewrites at 2.4X speed to DVD+RW and 2X speed to DVD-RW media and plays DVD movies at 12X speed. The drive is also capable of recording to CD-R media at 16X speed, rewriting to CD-RW media at 10X speed, combined with a higher read speed for CDs at 32X speed maximum.

Press Release: Iomega have launched the Iomega DVD Internal 4X Dual Format Drive (DVD±RW/CD-RW EIDE/ATAPI), thus eliminating any confusion customers may have as to which format DVD drives to buy. This latest DVD±RW/CD-RW drive from Iomega can read and record CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW as well as read DVD-ROM and CD-ROM.

Both retail and contract manufacturing prices for recordable DVD drives have plunged since early this year despite tight supply, and prices of some products have declined by as much as 30% during the past month.

Gateway are set to launch a range of 50 products in 15 new categories by the middle of November. These products, organized under six or seven new product lines, will include a new line of plasma televisions, LCD televisions, DVD players, home theaters built around digital projectors and connectivity products, CEO Ted Waitt said. Gateway is also working on digital video gear and gaming products, which will take longer to come out.

Samsung has committed itself to investing around £10bn on flat screen manufacturing plants, which means flat monitors and televisions will get bigger and cheaper.

Press Release: Warner Music Group, Silverline Records, BMG, EMI Recorded Music, 5.1 Entertainment Group, Meridian Audio, Dolby Laboratories and Panasonic (MEI) have announced the formation of the DVD-Audio Marketing Council. The DVD-Audio Marketing Council will serve as a complete resource for all technical, press and marketing information related to the DVD-Audio format in the United States and Europe. The council will also function to educate hardware and software retailers to the benefits and features of DVD-Audio while simultaneously promoting consumer awareness of this exciting new format.

Sony Electronics bumped up the high-end features in its Vaio notebook line, betting that jazzed-up multimedia and wireless will draw buyers and help revive its flagging PC fortunes.

Pioneer have released a new official version of their firmware for the A05/105. The new firmware is claimed to give DVD-R/RW writability and playability improvement, DVD-Dual Layer playability improvement and CD-R/RW writability improvement. You can download the new firmware here.

A research team has unveiled a new system to turbocharge the Internet, claiming to be able to achieve speeds so high an entire movie can be downloaded in mere seconds. The team is already talking to Microsoft and Disney to look into using the system to deliver high-quality video over the Web.

Korean electronics giant Samsung has launched a massive 40-inch LCD display which will go head-to-head with plasma screens, the traditional kings of the wall-mounted flat-screen world.

The Japanese giant behind the Panasonic brand name is to test a movie rental system that combines DVD discs with file downloads. Besides Matsushita, Nikkei Business News said the trial will involve four other companies -- networking equipment provider Oki Electric, software maker Japan Wave, Internet cafe operator InterPia and systems developer PFU.

Denon have announced that the PAL version of their DVD-2900 universal DVD-Audio/SACD player will be the only machine capable of delivering ‘legal’ PAL progressive video. The DVD-2900 brings Denon’s audiophile and videophile performance features to a price point that most enthusiasts can afford. Many of the technologies and construction elements developed for the flagship DVD-A1 have been used in the 2900, which will go on sale in the U.K. with a recommended retail price of just £850.

Thanks to Flash we a have a review which tries to answer that vital question.

In the home of the future, Michael Dell will be perched in front of a personal computer while Goran Lindahl, chairman of Sony in Europe, will be slumped on a sofa in front of the television. This high-tech odd couple disagree on whether the PC or a games console, such as Sony’s new PlayStation (the PSX), will form the heart of home entertainment.

A legal dispute that threatened to derail Gateway's groundbreaking plan to load music on its computers has been quietly resolved amid growing interest in such offerings by rival PC makers, executives and analysts said.

Three small companies that manufacture technologies that filter out the sex, gore and violence from DVD movies are hoping to avoid a protracted legal fight with Hollywood. ClearPlay, Family Shield Technologies and Trilogy Studios have filed a motion in the United States District Court in Denver to dismiss claims that their products infringe on the copyrights of motion pictures.

Ulead Systems and ADS Tech completed a worldwide agreement to include VideoStudio 7 SE DVD, Ulead video editing software, with its recently announced DVD Xpress. DVD Xpress, a compact, USB 2.0 external MGEP-2 capture device bundled with VideoStudio 7 SE DVD, enables consumers to easily capture video and create DVD movies in minutes.

The Salerno Finance Police have wrapped up the case of a true colossus of video and audio piracy in Salerno, Italy. The racket involved the fabrication and under-the-counter sale of counterfeit copies of popular DVDs in stores throughout the country.