Press Release: With summer just around the corner, Disney is expanding its popular line of electronics for kids, with new portable DVD/CD players. Available in a variety of styles and character-themed designs for kids of all ages, including Mickey, Disney Princess and Power Rangers, the new Disney Personal DVD Players are format-friendly and can play DVDs, CDs, mini-discs and more.

In response to a report that China-based TCL recently landed OEM orders for DVD+R/-R discs from Samsung and LG, major Taiwanese makers of optical discs indicated that they are not under substantial competitive pressures because the OEM orders.

Press Release: PowerDVD 6 allows users to enjoy brighter, more natural images, smoother DVD playback, as well as output onto standard-size and wide-screen displays. The PowerDVD 6 also has a Mobility Pack for notebook users, which lets them extend DVD viewing time via a choice of three power-saving profiles. CyberLink's testing delivered an average increase of 20-30% playback time.

Brand Managers Jane Hannah (Datawrite) and Tim Smith (Ridisc) have today announced that their European Distributor E-Net are offering a reward of up to £100,000 to any person for information resulting in the arrest and conviction of those responsible in Europe for selling counterfeit E-Net products.

A vacuum in digital copyright law has made Canada a haven for DVD pirates, who make bootleg copies of popular American television shows and sell them on-line.

Sony's PlayStation Portable will launch in the UK and the rest of Europe on 1 September, the handheld console's maker has revealed.

Global prices of polycarbonate (PC) are at a high of US$3.5 per kilogram and are making production of optical discs almost profitless in spite of a significant increase in orders, Taiwanese makers in the industry pointed out.

Pioneer announced the introduction in Japan of the DVR-RT7H, the company's first combination VHS/DVD recorder with built-in HDD offering a variety of easy dubbing features among VHS, DVD and HDD.

Several images of the soon-to-be-released Xbox 360 console have surfaced on the net. While pictures have surfaced in the past, the one seen now could be the one that will be shown at E3.

Thanks to DVD guru Flash, we have a new review looking at the new 16x DVD-R from Datawrite Titanium and Philips. According to Flash the Titanium media "gives the full 16x speed burning capabilities with excellent results especially with the speed read graphs which are all PERFECT".

Hollywood executives think DVDs should be released quicker to combat the growing threat of piracy, according to the Hollywood Reporter. And they predict that the day may not be far off when some major films are available on DVD at the same time as their theatrical release.

The competing Blu-Ray and HD-DVD camps are quietly considering two proposals that could avert a format war and create a single next-generation DVD standard. A source close to the effort said a final decision may not be announced for as long as two months.

Dropping prices of DVD burners is driving replacement of CD-ROM drives and CD-RW burners with DVD-ROM drives, DVD burners and Combo drives (combination of DVD-ROM and CD-RW), according to major Taiwanese makers of optical disc drives (ODDs).

Two Americans have been sentenced to jail in Shanghai for selling pirated DVDs over the Internet, China's state-run media have reported.

A British judge today ordered five ISPs to name another 33 music file sharers. The individuals concerned had uploaded more than 72,000 music files to the internet, according to a statement by the BPI (British Phonographic Industry), which sought the court order as part of its broader legal offensive against illegal downloading on P2P networks.

In December 2004, Datawrite launched a competition to help young British art students get their 'foot in the door' of the art world and gain unprecedented exposure for their creative talents. They were asked to produce funky, original designs to be printed onto premium quality blank media and sold throughout the UK and Europe. The response was phenomenal! Datawrite received thousands of entries of the highest calibre. Ten winning designs were chosen and are set to take the optical media world by storm!!

For more information on this new range visit www.discs.co.uk.

Note:
According to our sources, due to prohibitive printing costs, Datawrite are only producing a very limited quanity of this product. So it might be worth buying a pack to stick in the attic for some future date with Ebay ;-)

InPhase Technologies have announced that it has successfully demonstrated a data density of 200 gigabits per square inch, significantly higher than any other optical format.

Among DVD+R/-R discs of varying speeds, 16x discs will account for the largest portion in terms of shipment in beginning the third quarter of this year at the earliest, according to Taiwanese makers of optical discs.

Press Release: Microboards have unveiled a manual duplicator that records ten full DVDs in under seven minutes. The unique controller architecture used by the CopyWriter Tower makes this tower-style disc copier the fastest available on the market.

At a three day press event in Bordeaux Sony this week announced it is going to add Blu-ray and DSD (Direct Stream Digital) to its Vaio series of PCs and notebooks.