Topic: News

The new Cell processor, announced by Sony, Toshiba and IBM yesterday, looks set to burst through the approaching limitations of the x86 architecture used by Intel and AMD and provide a platform for multimedia entertainment well into the future. Is it competition for the traditional 'PC in a box' or will it usher in a new era for the beige chunk of plastic we all love?

Sick of DVD pirates ruining his business, Roland Digby took matters into his own hands and swiped illegal copies worth hundreds of pounds.

Illegal DVD-ripping software is flourishing, despite well-publicized wins by DVD piracy foes and laws against copying Hollywood movies. Although copyright laws outlaw the sale of software that bypasses DVD copy protection, many companies continue to make the software packages available.

Press Release: Pioneer have announced the PRV-9200 which boasts a 160-gigabyte built-in hard disk drive (HDD) and high-speed copying, the PRV-9200 offers speedy, simplified and convenient creation of compliant DVD-Video discs without the need for a computer or authoring software.

Forget HD DVD, forget Blu-ray Disc, the future is the HVD - the Holographic Versatile Disc. So claim six Japanese companies, led by Optware and including Fuji Photo Film, who last week launched the HVD Alliance to promote the "revolutionary" format to hardware manufacturers, disc pressing firms, content providers and end-users.

Toshiba and Sandisk have just announced the latest in high capacity flash chips at ISSCC. This one is an 8 Gbit chip built on a 70nm process by Toshiba. It will allow Sandisk to make 1GB memory sticks out of one chip, lowering costs quite a bit. There is also talk of stacking two of them to get a 16Gbit/2GB module.

According to the latest market research from IDC, 2004 was a "strong year" for the UK PC industry. Some 2.6 million units were shipped in the final quarter, more than a third of which were notebooks. There was bad news for Microsoft's Media Center PCs, however, which accounted for low volumes in the desktop market due to stiff competition from digital TV hard drive recorders and recordable DVD players.

We reported in 2003 that Disney were to start selling self-destructing DVDs. Basically you could watch these discs for 48 hours after you buy them, but the discs coating reacts with oxygen and turns black and unreadable after that time. Disney marketed it as a rental that you never had to remember to bring back to avoid late fees.

A raid on a DVD pirating gang produced a haul worth £200,000. Officers from Operation Halifax swooped on a flat in Manor Park Parade, Lee High Road, London, looking for a counterfeit DVD factory.

Due to intense competition and the slimming margins of standard optical discs, CMC Magnetics and Optodisc, two of the largest producers of optical discs, have begun production of LightScribe-enabled and 8cm DVD discs in order to capitalize on these unique market niches, according to the two makers.

Movie studios must offer a broader range of films over the internet to prevent illegal downloading spreading into the mainstream, analysts have warned.

pjclark1 has kindly sent in a review of the differences between two popular DVD burners: BenQ 1620 vs NEC3500A.

An American lady called Gertrude Walton has been sued for allegedly making 700 counterfeit tracks of pop, rock and rap music available under the nickname "smittenedkitten". But the lawsuit was filed more than a month after the 83-year-old woman died in December, and her daughter says Gertrude hated computers anyway.

One of the biggest dealers of pirated Bollywood films in the country has been busted at his Cambridge base.

Estimates suggest that 50% of all DVDs sold in 2005 will have an inkjet printable surface. This has resulted in several product launches this week of new DVD discs. The most notable one being Datawrite with their new TransPrint Printable Surface DVD-R.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released a preliminary study of the potential lifespan of CD-Rs and DVD-Rs. A good starting point for deciding what type of media to purchase to keep those backups and photos kicking around longer.

Lewisham police had a result on sunday when they accidentally stumbled on a Pirate DVD factory. Officers stumbled across the haul when they turned up to make an unrelated arrest at a flat in Manor Park Parade in Lee. As well as confiscating 4000 bootleg DVD’s they also seized The movie copying equipment including DVD burners and a laptop set up to make counterfeit copies of the latest Hollywood hits from Meet The Fockers to Million Dollar Baby.

Elpida has licensed a technology that applies the same technique used in rewriteable optical discs to non-volatile memory chips.

Japan's Optware Corp. and five partners - CMC Magnetics, FUJI, Nippon Paint, Optware, Pulstec and TOAGOSEI - have announced that they would form the Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) Alliance to accelerate development and standardization of the HVD system.

According to our friends at Discwrite.co.uk Datawrite have sneakily adopted the new TransPrint technology on their new range of Full Face Silver (Hub) Printable 8X DVD-R. TransPrint is a new process which involves spraying the disc with a thin film of clear lacquer. The results are, according to some industry watchdogs, greatly better than standard printable surfaces, which use the conventional method of applying an inkjet friendly surface. The cost of the process has been the main factor in most brands not adopting this technology.