Topic: News

TCL, a large 3C (computer, communication, consumer electronics) manufacturer in China, plans to expand its monthly DVD+R/-R disc production capacity to 50 million discs by adding a total of 80-100 additional production lines, according to suppliers of polycarbonate (PC) and manufacturing equipment of optical discs in Taiwan.

Second-tier manufacturers of blank optical discs in Taiwan, seeing top makers successfully raising OEM prices by 10%-15% for this quarter, would also like to do the same, but so far have only been able to raise prices 3%-5% due to immediate financial needs and therefore have had to accept low-price orders to bring in revenues quickly.

Comcast is working with TiVo on an advertising system that will insert new, updated commercials into already-recorded programs, the company said.

In the US the first million of the widescreen movie-, music- and game-playing $250 (£135) PSPs were expected to be gone within hours of the launch March 24, but a survey a week later found that two-thirds of stores still had them in stock.

The race to be first with commercial perpendicular based storage devices is hotting up. Hitachi claims today that it will cram 230 gbits per square inch meaning it will produce a 1 inch 20gb drive.

The internet's transformation into a really dodgy public access cable channel continues a pace. Google co-founder Larry Page has announced that the company wants the public to send in its homemade videos - and he doesn't mind how mucky they are.

A man who ran a fake CD and DVD 'factory' in his home has been given the longest sentence for counterfeiting in Scotland. Ian McNaughton, 44, who tried to flood the Christmas market with £120,000 of fake goods, was jailed for 20 months.

Sales of Apple's iPods are soaring. Hoping to cash in on the trend is a growing side industry of companies that convert people's CD collections into digital music libraries.

JVC has created the world's first single-sided, dual-layer DVD-RW disc, boosting the format's storage capacity from 4.7GB to 8.5GB.

The Xbox 360 will see an unprecedented downloadable demo offering from day one, with Xbox Live being shaped to deliver massive levels of on-demand content.

Israel has confiscated 41,000 dvd players from China after tests found them “dangerous” due to excessive levels of radiation, which could even result in malfunction of pacemakers, a media report said.

In response to the latest 2005 blank DVD global demand projection by Japan-based consulting firm Fujiwara-Rothchild, CMC Magnetics chairman Robert Wong, indicated late last week that the global market for all kinds of blank optical discs is rebounding and supply may be short of demand in the fourth quarter of this year.

Sony wants to create its own sort of "iTunes for Films" by making the most popular 500 Sony movies available for download within the next year. Sony has an impressive movie catalogue of about 2,500 and also hopes that by launching the website they can scupper the internet pirates.

Philips Electronics stated that it had won its civil law suit filed with the US District Court in the Southern District of New York State against Princo and Gigastorage.

"If you can't beat them hire them" - This seems to be Apple's new motto. The reason being, it has hired DVD Jon. The very same Jon, who's broken into iTunes thrice giving them sleepless nights.

Windows XP 64-bit final version is currently available for download, for all the MSDN subscribers. The retail version is expected to be available in three weeks.

Ritek is shifting manufacturing equipment for CD-R discs from its two subsidiaries in Germany and another two in Northern Ireland to its subsidiary in Vietnam, Ritek Vietnam, according to the company.

Ritek is shifting manufacturing equipment for CD-R discs from its two subsidiaries in Germany and another two in Northern Ireland to its subsidiary in Vietnam, Ritek Vietnam, according to the company’s March 31announcement.

Press Release: Pioneer announced today the introduction in Japan of the DVR-530H and DVR-555H, the world's first*1 DVD recorders with built-in HDD to incorporate the Dual Layer DVD-R (DVD-R DL) technology, which allows recording up to 24 hours*2 of content on a single DVD-R DL disc.

Sony have downplayed widespread reports of 'dead pixel' LCD screen problems for their new Playstation Portable (PSP) handheld games console and media player, saying that the warranty is still in effect and defective units can be exchanged.