Physicists at Imperial College London are developing a new optical disk with so much storage capacity that every episode of The Simpsons made could fit on just one. Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Data Storage Conference 2004 in Taiwan today, Dr Peter Török, Lecturer in Photonics in the Department of Physics, will describe a new method for potentially encoding and storing up to one Terabyte (1,000 Gigabytes) of data, or 472 hours of film, on one optical disk the size of a CD or DVD.

HDV (high-definition digital video) is competing with EVD (enhanced versatile disc) to become China’s next-generation national DVD standard, according to the China-based Beijing K-City High Definition Electronic Technology, the leader of the group developing HDV.

The DVD Forum makes little noise in the public these days. Behind the scenes, the organization however is busy in improving its existing and developing new standards. Among others, the DVD-R this week received speed increases to 12x and 16x, the DVD-R video recorder spec was approved. Also, HD DVD got its official logo and a rewritable disc spec.

A man who had pirate CDs and DVDs worth more than £53,000 could be jailed. David Brady (32) admitted 10 charges of producing the counterfeits at his home in Horsegate Lane, Whittlesey, at Peterborough Magistrates' Court, yesterday.

Super Multi, DVD technology that simultaneously supports +RW, -RW, +R, -R, -RAM, CDR and CD-RW formats, may place competitive pressure on the current mainstream technology, DVD Dual (+RW and -RW), according to makers of optical disc drives (ODDs) in Taiwan.

Press release: Kopin the largest U.S. manufacturer of microdisplays for consumer, military and industrial applications has unveiled multimedia "virtual movie theater" eyewear that lets users watch DVDs while doing everything from riding the train to waiting for a flight or sitting on the beach.

Hwang's law is a reality at Samsung, where developments in memory are expected to see flash cards with 16GB of storage appear next year. The Korean company has announced that it has developed an 8GB NAND-type flash memory chip with a 60-nano design rule, paving the way for 16GB flash disks.

The film industry is hunting down sites selling illegal copies of movies by download - 'the worst elements of the pirate community'. The Motion Picture Association of America says it has sued a company that sells Internet downloads of current movies like "I, Robot" and "Spider-Man 2" without permission.

A Scottish man who pirated computer software valued at an estimated £750,000 was this week jailed for nine months.

Subsequent to its announcement in Tokyo about a month ago, Sony Computer Entertainment today issued a press release confirming its commitment to use the Blu-ray Disc ROM format as the primary storage medium for its next game console.

Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair is to test a new a fee-based in-flight entertainment system.

Sony have showed a smaller, book-sized PlayStation 2 that will go on sale worldwide next month and help the Japanese electronics giant cut costs as video-game consoles continue to drop in price.

Sony will announce next month that it has developed an 8-layer version of the Blu-ray disc that is capable of storing 200GB of data, according to a company spokesman.

Although OEM quotations for 16x DVD burners have fallen to US$60-70 (£33-£39), the prices will remain stable till the end of the year, according to Taiwan makers of optical disc drives (ODDs).

Retail prices of 12x DVD Dual burners dropped below NT$3,000 (£49) last week as Sony and Lite-On IT are trying to clear out their stock, according to sources in the channel.

Davie Lu, who started Infodisc with just NT$250,000 (£4,000), has stepped down recently amid insider trading charges and losses at the optical disk firm.

Not only is the CD format alive and well, but it's emerging from the "online" revolution looking healthier than ever. 92 per cent of DRM-store downloaders surveyed by Entertainment Media Research prefer the plastic platters to their MP3 downloads, Revolution magazine reports.

China’s domestic market response to EVD players has not been as positive as originally expected, but the platform appears to be struggling to gain acceptance as it competes with various alternative formats, according to Taiwan optical disc drive (ODD) makers.

Apple's iTunes music download service has been accused by the UK Consumers' Association of overcharging users. The group accused the service of charging UK-based customers nearly 20% more than those with addresses and payment details in France or Germany.

Press Release: Epson's newest inkjet, the Stylus Photo R320 printer supports PC-free printing, 13 memory card types, a built-in color monitor for viewing and selecting images before printing them and it will generate a variety of popular borderless print sizes. It also prints directly onto ink-jet printable CD-R and DVD-R recordable media.