Although there is uncertainty about when the current oversupply of optical discs will ease, the market for discs involving more advanced technology should recover first, according to Gordon Yieh, CEO of disc maker Ritek.

Following up on last week's reports that Japanese discount stores were drastically discounting the PSX, Sony itself has now lowered the price of the PS2-DVD-recorder hybrid. However, the company made no official announcement regarding the price drop.

Grouper - a temporarily stealth software project - has gone up for download and instantly created a confusing divide between the old world and the new. Unlike most P2P software that shares music and other files with world+dog, Grouper focuses on sharing files between friends. Users can set up mini-P2P networks and open up their photos, music, movies and documents. This approach seems much more similar to old-style content swapping where friends handed each other a mixed CD or recording, just with a techie twist.

Press Release: Advanced Media, a subsidiary of Ritek, have announced the addition of ultra fast, new 16x DVD+R discs to its Radata brand lineup. The new discs will be available through selected retailers, Ridata distributors and at various online outlets this month.

A suspended LAPD police captain was placed on probation and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service for selling pirated and counterfeit DVDs.

CMC Magnetics, Taiwan's largest manufacturer of optical discs, is increasing production of 16x DVD+R discs, with shipments expected to rise from 10% of the total sales volume of DVD+R discs currently, to 30-40% in the fourth quarter of this year, according to company vice president and spokesperson Andria Wong.

OEM quotations for 16x DVD burners have dropped from US$90-100 (£50-£56)in the second quarter of this year to US$60-70 (£37-£39) in late August due to competition among manufacturers in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, according to Taiwan optical disc drive (ODD) makers.

Fraunhofer has announced its latest MPEG-4 AV solutions – now available as free evaluation software. At IBC 2004, Fraunhofer IIS will present “DSL-TV”, a combination of MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding and the most advanced low bit-rate multi-channel audio coding scheme.

Press Release: Ahead Software will exhibit a formidable line-up of Nero Digital technologies. Centred around MPEG-4, Digital offers a complete codec solution embracing MPEG-4 video, and AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), LC and HE (High Efficiency) with Parametric Stereo extensions.

Our friends at Bulkpaq seem to be right up to their necks in it. Apparently, the media trade newspaper CTO has refused to run their latest advert claiming it’s "too raunchy" and "indecent". Here’s a sneak preview of part of the campaign.

Bulkpaq have offered readers of DVD-Recordable the chance to be famous in a stunning competition they are running as part of their "Save Your Favourite Home Video Moments to DVD" campaign, which is going to be running in various enduser and trade magazines throughout Europe and the Middle East. They are offering a prize of £1000 worth of Bulkpaq products.

Press release: Samsung has announced the newest entry in its optical disc drive family, the Writemaster TS-H552B 16X DVD ReWritable drive. The double layer-capable TS-H552B supports all the popular DVD recordable/rewritable formats. The TS-H552B provides double-layer data storage up to 8.5GB in one disc with supported DL media. To reduce noise when recording or reading at high speeds, the TS-H552B features Samsung's Silent Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM) technology and an Automatic Ball Balancing System (ABS).

Press Release: Sonic have launched MyDVD Studio Deluxe 6, a significant upgrade to the consumer DVD and CD creation software. MyDVD Studio Deluxe 6 includes many new features and enhancements including freeform button placement, state-of-the-art encoding for up to four hours of video on a single-layer DVD, true anamorphic widescreen support, up to 1,000 photos per slideshow, enhanced audio control, and a new interface that elegantly integrates all DVD and CD creation tasks.

Press Release: ViewSonic has announced two new networked media devices which allow users to enjoy their digital music, videos and pictures on their TV and home stereos.

Press Release: Panasonic have unveiled five new models of DIGA DVD recorders. The recorders have 160 to 400 GB hard disk drives, providing massive recording and storage, high-speed dubbing, and superb home and mobile networking capabilities. The new products, DMR-E500H, DMR-E330H, DMR-E220H, DMR-250V and DMR-E87H will be introduced in the Japanese market from September 21.

Sales of Microsoft's Xbox console tripled in the UK in the week following its price-cut to £99, according to sources in the UK retail sector - bringing weekly sales of the system up to around the 15,000 mark.

Netflix and TiVo are to team up to deliver movies over broadband, according to NewsWeek. The magazine expects the partnership to go public later this month, although neither company would comment, and details on pricing and availability have yet to be disclosed. It's hardly unexpected: the two companies are natural partners and are already close: TiVo's CEO is a Netflix board member.

Japanese retailers have slashed the price of Sony's PVR-*****-games-console, the PSX, by almost 50 per cent in a bid to drum up consumer interest, according to Internet reports.

Japanese newspaper the Nihon Kaizai Shimbun said that Mitsubishi has mastered a technology to improve the response speed of pixels on LCDs by 100 per cent or more.

A new startup d_skin LLC is bringing out a "skin" for optical discs. This thin sheet of clear plastic grabs on to the edges of the disc and protects the playing surface. Crucially, you can leave it on when you insert the disc in the player -- the laser pickup shines right through the "skin." When you're finished playing the disc, you can leave it lying around in good conscience, saving you the 15 seconds it would take to put it back in the case.

The gap in time-to-market for 16x DVD+R/-R and 8.5GB DVD+R DL (single-sided double-layer) discs between top- and second-tier manufacturers of optical discs in Taiwan is expected to increase, compared with the existing disc market due to increasing technological barriers, local makers of optical discs indicated.