Topic: News

Our resident DVD guru Flash has be exercised by a slew of very poor quality Ritek discs that have been coming onto the UK market. Known widely as 'Landscape' or 'Mountain Water' Riteks these discs would appear to fail even the most rudimentary quality control tests. You can read Flash's survey of the current situation under the headline What’s Happened to Ritek DVD-R Quality?.

Pioneer have released an official firmware upgrade for the DVR-A07/107 whichs boasts a clutch of improvements in writing and playability. You can download the new firmware from our firmware downloads section or click the headline to find out more details.

The UK's record industry has issued illegal music downloaders with a warning that they must stop pirating music or face action in the courts. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has said 7.4 million people in the UK are swapping songs online illegally.

Sony has committed itself to shipping second-generation consumer-oriented Blu-Ray video recorders by the end of the year, the company said today. The new systems will support single-side, dual-layer Blu-Ray rewriteable discs with a total capacity of 50GB. Current Blu-Ray rewriteable discs provide 23GB of storage on a single layer.

Press Release: 321 Studios, unbowed by their recent trials and tribulations, have introduced the next evolution of the company's DVD and CD creation software. DVDXTREME is said to be a complete digital media toolbox that allows you to create, edit, back up, rescue, and share your photos, home video, music, and data with only a few clicks.

As widely expected, the European Commission issued a precedent-setting ruling against Microsoft today for anti-competitive practices. The Commission has imposed a fine of €497m (£331m) and ordered Microsoft to offer versions of Windows without Windows Media Player within 90 days and release up-to-date documentation of application interfaces for its server software to rivals within 120 days.

The DVD Forum has denied the report which we published under the headline 'DVD Forum Picks Apple' yesterday. That story claimed the DVD Forum has adopted the AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) standard as part of its specifications for DVD-audio discs.

Memorex has introduced the world's first 8cm, 1.4 GB, DVD-R discs - the Mini DVD. At eight centimeters in diameter, the discs are designed for home video recording with DV camcorders like the Sony Handycam, as well as mobile storage of multimedia presentations, videos, MP3 files and data.

The AAC (Advanced Audio Codec), the audio format supported by Apple's iTunes Music Store, has been chosen as a key future DVD Audio disc technology by the standard's governing body, the DVD Forum. According to an unnamed Forum member cited by web site High Fidelity Review, AAC beat Microsoft's Windows Media 9 format, MP3 and Sony's ATRAC because it "sounded better than the others".

InterVideo has added new Personal Video Recorder (PVR) capabilities and DVD burning functionality to its InstantON technology, a Linux-based media-centric operating system that it hopes to license to PC makers as a dual-boot option. InterVideo claims InstantOn boots in under 10 seconds, turning standard x86 PCs into complete Linux-based home entertainment centers operated by remote control.

Panasonic Japan have unveiled details of their very stylish new DVD Super Multi Drive, the snappily titled LF-P667C, which will be available there from March 20th. The LF-P667C will be compatible with Microsoft Windows ME/2000/XP, record onto seven different kinds of disks and read nine.

Sony has announced that its PSX console will be available in time for Christmas this year in the UK. The console, which is a Playstation2 with a hard disk, DVD recorder, is online ready and includes the ability to play back mp3's and other media formats, sold out in its first day of release in Japan in 2003.

Ritek recently passed the certification for 4x DVD+RW discs by Philips, the first of Taiwan's optical disc makers, according to company CEO Gordon Yeh. Only a few companies such as Philips, Mitsubishi and Ricoh have 4x DVD+RW technology, Yeh emphasized during an interview at the CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany. The certification will help Ritek compete for OEM orders, Yeh noted.

Microsoft plans to drop the price of its Xbox video game system by $30 to $149 (£81) next month, according to published reports. Citing people familiar with the company's plans, The Wall Street Journal have reported that Microsoft may also start selling a limited-edition Xbox packaged with its "Halo" shooting game, for $169 (£92).

Press Release: Japan's Mitsubishi Kagaku Mediahave (MKM) have announced the successful development of a 1-16x dye for DVD recordable discs.

Sony is adding two DVD+R Double Layer (DL) DVD drives to its family of Dual RW burners. The internal DRU-700A and external DRX-700UL drives mark Sony's entry into Double Layer recording.

Fraunhofer have announced their upgrade to the ubiquitous mp3. The new and improved mp3, called the 'mp3 Surround technology', provides a multi-channel listening experience with minimum effort and maximum compatibility.

Consumer electronics heavyweight Sony wants to be in your living room -- from the moment it's built. Sony have launched a new set of luxury home entertainment systems designed for home builders and multimedia specialists looking to wire new houses from the ground up for audio and video.

Apple has updated DVD Studio Pro to version 2.0.5. Very brief notes on the release from Apple say the update: "Includes critical fixes for the placement of the dual layer break point on DVD-9 titles."

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled last Thursday favorably to Taiwan's Gigastorage and Princo Corporation in an infringement claim sought by U.S. Philips Corp.
The ITC says that "six CD Recordable (CD-R)/Re Writeable (CD-RW) patents owned by Royal Philips Electronics (Philips) were valid and infringed, but not enforceable in the proceedings before the commission due to patent misuse." It also ruled that Philips shall not execute an injunction order.

In June, 2002, Philips filed a complaint with the ITC against 19 optical disc manufacturers and U.S.-based trading companies for infringement of Philips' patents covering CD-R and CD-RW technologies. Among the 19 defendants, two of them are Taiwan disc companies Gigastore and Princo.

The case was initially decided favorably to the two defendants last December, but Philips requested a review.

In response to the ITC's final decision, Philips announced last Friday that it would appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) and hence the decision is not final yet. And negotiations for royalties on DVDs have been suspended temporarily.

In Taiwan, disc makers are hoping that because of the ITC ruling, Philips will soften its stance over the DVD-R royalty charge.

The DigiTimes says disc makers widely feel that Philip's DVD-R patent rate, about US$0.06 per disc, is too high. It says Sony has signed several agreements with some major Taiwan producers of optical discs fixing royalty charges of 1.5-3.5 percent for DVD-R/+R discs.

According to local manufactures, Taiwan paid NT$1.5-2 billion in royalties to Philips in 2002, of which RITEK Corp. paid NT$700 million, CMC Magnetics Corp. NT$500 million, and Jxxx NT$300 billion. The total amount in 2003 could be a lot more.

As DVD-R burners are getting more and more popular, many say that they will eventually eliminate CD-R burners. Analysts have predicted that Taiwan's DVD-R disc producers, given its role in supplying to the swelling U.S. market, will see rising revenues this year.

CMC Magnetics is expected to double its output to 60 million discs this year, RITEK to see a rise of 75 percent, or 35 million in its production, and Prodisc Technology may also produce 24 million, a report says.