Topic: News

Matsushita, better known for its Panasonc brand, is considering setting up a European production plant in Germany as it seeks to maintain it's 50 per cent share of the booming DVD recorder market. As the machines gradually supersede video cassette recorders, the company expects the global market to grow to 4.42 million units in the year to March 2004 and to 13.65 million units in the following year.

While Sony and Microsoft see their consoles as hubs for various forms of living-room entertainment, Nintendo takes an opposite tack (perhaps hamstrung by its proprietary disc format) and continues to emphasize games while downplaying the importance of non-gaming features like DVD-playback.

Matsushita, the world's second largest consumer electronics maker, have said they aim to double their share of the fast-growing flat-panel television market by the 2005/06 business year. Matsushita, maker of Panasonic products, had a 16 percent global market share in 2002/03, but wants to capture 30 percent within three years.

VSO-Software has issued a warning for HP-DVD300E owners. It seems that the combination of this drive together with CopyToDVD kills the drive somehow. The cause of the problem remains unknown but the software developers and HP are working on a solution. HP-DVD300E owners are encouraged to contact customer support.

The Dutch PC-Active magazine has done an extensive CD-R quality test. For the test the magazine has taken a look at the readability of discs, thirty different CD-R brands, that were recorded twenty months ago. The results were quite shocking as a lot of the discs simply couldn't be read anymore.

Zippymilk, the elusive trader who's left hundreds of people waiting weeks for the arrival of DVDs they've paid for after winning auctions on eBay, has denied any wrongdoing. As first reported on The Register earlier this month, patience is wearing thin among the estimated 800 customers of zippymilk (aka Adrian Bailey, 33, of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk). They are growing tired of a succession of excuses he has offered for the non-arrival of goods they secured in eBay auctions.

The Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) has launched its appeal against an April US District Court ruling that the Grokster P2P media-sharing network does not infringe copyrights juts because its software may allow users to do so.

Mobile phone giant Nokia is to acquire the assets of Sega's online and wireless gaming operation to boost its own N-Gage online games device. The Sega Network Application Package (SNAP), which enables networked multi-player games, will form the core of Nokia Mobile Phones' Entertainment and Media Business Unit's online games service.

Panasonic today announced that it will expand its DVD MULTI Drive support for Linux through a set of new customers that includes KOM Networks, Luminex and Objective Data Storage. These three join a prestigious list of Linux supporters, including LoneStar Software, MusicMatch and InterVideo, Inc. Support for the Linux platform continues to make strides in the PC industry year after year. Panasonic recognized this trend early on and has been working to accelerate adoption of DVD-RAM technology with products that support Linux, enhancing the workstation environment and consumer applications.

The European video market grew last year by 27% to a retail value of 11.2bn Euros according to trade body, the International Video Federation (IVF). The figures are a significant increase on the IVF's preliminary estimate of 15% expansion. The new figures also show an acceleration when compared with 2001, which registered a growth rate of 20%.

Major Japanese home electronics manufacturers such as Toshiba and Pioneer are preparing to release DVD recorders overseas according to Japanese sources. In September, Toshiba will begin marketing DVD recorders in North America, aiming to sell 10,000 units a month. It will start selling them in the U.K. in October, and in such other countries as France and Germany in November and beyond. Toshiba is targeting monthly sales of 5,000 units in each of these markets.

NewTech Infosystems has announced a new version of Dragon Burn, a disc burning utility for Mac OS X. The new 3.0 release offers new performance, stability and feature enhancements and is available now.

Philips Electronics is the latest major consumer electronics maker to license Sony's Memory Stick technology, which continues to gain support from large manufacturers and expand its potential for wider distribution.

Video on demand is a growing business for cable companies, according to a new study that predicts that 15 million cable subscribers worldwide will be paying for the feature by 2007.

Roxio has announced Toast 6 Titanium, the latest version of its industry standard CD and DVD burning application. Scheduled to ship in September, Toast 6 will cost £69.99 (including VAT) and features a host of improvements.

The recording industry is insisting its antipiracy campaign will refrain from taking legal action against small-time song swappers and will focus only on those copying "substantial" amounts of music via the Internet.

A handful of technology and consumer privacy experts testifying at a California senate hearing Monday called for regulation of a controversial technology that's designed to wirelessly monitor everything from clothing to currency.

Computer makers are increasingly looking to hard-core gamers to make up for a lackluster PC market. Gateway is the latest to try to take advantage of the trend. The company plans to release this week customized versions of its midrange and high-end desktops, which it aims specifically at gamers.

The printable online coupon (voucher) is getting more and more attention from studios looking to beef up DVD sales. "Daredevil" is the latest example -- and is also the first time Fox has embraced the fairly new technology. Within the studio's monthly e-mail newsletter, which goes out to 1 million subscribers, 20th Century Fox featured a $5-off coupon for the Ben Affleck superhero film. The e-mail went out the weekend before the DVD's street date.

Movie bosses have formed a task force to tackle a £400 million film piracy racket in the UK. Piracy increased by more than 80% in the past year, according to figures from the Federation Against Copyright Theft.