Topic: News

HP and Sony will team up to launch a DVD video service. The offering will allow customers to order Sony Pictures Home Entertainment movies and TV shows on discs which can be individually printed for each order.

In Japan, Sony have blamed technical problems for delaying the planned introduction in late January of a Skype Web phone service for PlayStation Portable (PSP) users.

Stateside, Sony has introduced a new High Definition version of its spherical digital living system - the VAIO TP Home Theater PC.

The DVD6C Licensing Group consisting of nine leading developers of DVD technology and formats have announced that it has revised its worldwide patent licensing program including offering a new license agreement (the "New DVD6C License"), which offers reduced royalty rates on certain products and additional licensing options.

Boffins behind the original MP3 and MPEG4 codecs have come up with a new audio format which could make CDs obsolete.

Yahoo is in early discussions with major record labels over offering unprotected MP3s either for sale or for free as part of an ad-supported service, two record company executives familiar with the talks said Wednesday.

US retail giant Best Buy has apologised to Heath Ledger's family and fans after one of the firm’s employees erected a makeshift movie display in memory of the Brokeback Mountain star.

Sony has licensed MTV programming for viewing on the PlayStation Portable, which represents some of the first new non-Sony product released for the PSP in some time.

The online community MySpace is partnering with the BBC to bring some of the British broadcaster's programs to a worldwide audience in the site's first global content deal involving a major network.

Copying music from a CD to a home computer could be made legal under new proposals from the UK government.

Ritek, one of the world's largest producer of blank optical discs, has obtained OEM orders for blank HD DVD-RW (rewritable) discs from Toshiba, with shipments to begin in the first quarter of 2008, according to Chinese-language newspaper Economic Daily News (EDN).

Following the bad press the HD DVD format had received in the CES, Toshiba debuts a new marketing campaign in an effort to attract cash-conscious U.S. consumers.

50 Chinese websites, including China.com.cn, People.com.cn and 163.com, have agreed to stop providing access to pirated movies.

A House of Commons public spending watchdog has accused BBC chief Mark Thompson of illegally supporting Microsoft. In failing to ensure iPlayer on demand services are available to all licence fee payers he has been blinded by the novelty of the internet, it's charged.

Ritek, the second largest Taiwan-based producer of optical discs, has signed a Qflix technology and IP licensing agreement with US-based Sonic Solutions, a global provider of digital media software, according to press materials released by the companies.

CyberLink demonstrated its latest offerings for premium TV-on-PCs, TV-on-the Go, and placeshifting TV solutions during CES.

At the company's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Sony demonstrated Blu-ray movie discs embedded with a lower-resolution version of the film for portable devices.

Verbatim is showing off an expanded line of Blu-ray writable media at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. While already having 2x BD recordable (BD-R) and BD rewritable (BD-RE) media on the market, the company is showing 6 new BD products scheduled to begin shipping in the first half of 2008. The new products include 4x BD-R discs, Single-sided Double-layer (DL) 2x BD-R and BD-RE discs, Mini BD-R and BD-RE discs and 1-2x BD-R LTH TYPE discs.

AT&T are looking for ways to scan customers' communications for copyright violations According to Brad Stone of the New York Times.

Paramount is poised to drop its support of HD-DVD following Warner Brothers' recent backing of Sony's Blu-ray technology, in a move that could sound the death knell of HD-DVD and bring the home entertainment format war to a definitive end.