DVD-Audio sales doubled in 2003 and are more than five times that of SACD, according to an RIAA survey.

Scientists claim to have worked out that there is a theoretical speed limit to data retrieval. According to the popular science mag Nature, researchers at Stanford have discovered that you can only write and retrieve data so fast before quantum randomness gets in the way.

Press Release: Pioneer have announced that a new external DVD/CD writer will be available in early May, 2004. The DVR-S706-J is an external high-speed rewritable drive in a sleek design, capable of recording at up to 8x write speed with DVD+/-R discs and at up to 4x with DVD+/-RW discs with very low operation noise levels.

The price level of entry-level DVD recorders without built-in hard disk drives (HDDs) is likely to drop 20%-30% by the end of the year, Taiwanese makers of optical disc drives indicated.

DVD Burning Guru Flash has posted in his latest review which takes a hard look at the burning speeds available for the new 8x DVD-Rs from Ritek under the Datasafe and RiDisc brands. The review is here.

Trading standards officers have raided the Barras market for the first time in more than a year. The operation comes after Glasgow City Council investigators were accused of allowing organised crime to flourish at the market.

Slated to hit the market in mid-June, the WOOO MS-DS400 from Hitachi comes with a built-in 400GB hard drive and a multi-drive that can playback and record on all available DVD formats: DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+RW and DVD+R.

Some Taiwanese manufacturers, in view of decreasing channel market demand for CD-Rs in the US and Europe, have reduced prices from US$0.18-0.20 (10p-11p) to US$0.15-0.16 (8p-9p) per disc to stimulate orders from distributors, according to Taiwanese makers of blank optical discs.

China will export an estimated five million DVD recorders this year, a huge increase over the 3,000 units exported last year, Chinese makers of DVD players/drives indicated.

Datasafe Media have just sent us this press release regarding 8x DVD-R:

Datasafe introduces the revolutionary DVD-R 8X
Datasafe, the leading brand in digital media, is the first in Europe to launch 8X speed DVD-R media enabling consumers to record at speeds twice as fast as before and leaving competitors behind in the race to meet customer demands.

DVD-R 8X can be recorded at speeds of up to 88 megabits per second, taking less than 9 minutes to write an entire disc. The disc can then be read more than 1 million times. The new format is also characterized by a very low rate of write error and offers excellent image stability.

DVD-R 8X media is for use in DVD-R/RW drives. The product's full compatibility with DVD+ drives ensures excellent stability and reliability as well as durability. More than two hours of high quality video, 120 minutes of audio or 4.7GB of data can be written to a single disc making it a completely versatile storage solution. The packaging of the new Datasafe DVD-R 8X also strives to be at the cutting edge of technology.

"We are delighted to be the first in World to offer a Ritek manufactured 8X DVD-R media" said James Mitchell, Marketing Manager of Datasafe Media LTD. "Now Datasafe customers can experience exceptional high burning speeds as well as the high storage capacity, excellent quality and genuine value that define the product range."

Key features of DVD-R 8X media

• Speed - it will take less than 9 minutes to write 4.7 GB of data or 120 minutes of video onto a Datasafe DVD-R 8X.
• Complies with DVD-R 4.7GB version 1.0 standards
• Compatible with existing DVD-ROM and DVD-VIDEO drives and recorders
• Single format for the storage of video, images and data

Datasafe is a worldwide brand leader in digital media. All Datasafe DVD products are manufactured exclusively by Ritek and undergo rigorous testing in order to achieve the highest quality. Datasafe's product range includes CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, compact portable memory and disc storage solutions

A report commissioned by directline claimed that many people in the UK upgrade their existing personal technology by committing insurance fraud. According to the survey, single people are the most likely to claim existing kit has been lost or stolen, with one in 10 admitting they'd made fraudulent claims.

Sony and Toppan Printing, a large Japanese printing company, have developed a Blu-ray Disc based on a paper substrate which promises to be more environmentally friendly and secure when destroyed than traditional discs, they announced.

Major Taiwanese manufacturers of optical disc drives, including BenQ, Lite-On IT, Quanta Storage and Accesstek, are aggressively preparing to offer 16x DVD burners, hoping to start volume production, at the earliest, by the end of this quarter.

The working group WG-11, under the Technical Coordination Group (TCG) of the DVD Forum recently visited leading manufacturers of DVD drives and discs in Taiwan, with the goal of winning their support for HD-DVD, a next-generation DVD format promoted by Toshiba and NEC, according to the Taiwanese makers.

The BBC is planning to appeal to the iPod generation by making some of its radio shows available as MP3 files for the first time, a move that could lead the corporation to open up its vast archives to digital downloaders.

According to Japanese weekly magazine Shukan Gendai, Sony's HDD/DVD Recorder and PlayStation 2 media system PSX stopped production in the beginning of April. In response to the magazine, Sony Electronics' public relations spokesman confirmed that production has ceased, and that production will resume depending on how the current inventory sells.

Iomega has begun selling its 'son of Jaz' removable hard drive, Rev. Pitched as an alternative to tape back-up rigs, Rev provides 35GB of uncompressed storage capacity per 2.5in removable disk. The disk is mounted inside a 10 x 8 x 8cm cartridge, and yields a 25MBps transfer rate - eight times faster than DDS-4 tape, Iomega claims.

The UK's data protection authorities seem to be smiling on Google's plan to offer Web users a gigabyte of email storage in return for targeted adverts. Google's forthcoming email service probably won't run into legal issues in Britain, as long as the company doesn't deceive customers about how their personal information will be treated.

Eager to move its proprietary audio/video codec into Europe's steadily growing digital radio market, Microsoft has brokered a full membership in the global industry group now developing digital audio broadcasting (DAB) technology.

A removable hard disk drive system first unveiled more than two years ago will see its commercial launch later this month. IO Data Device, a Tokyo-based manufacturer of computer peripherals, will put on sale a drive and disk based on the IVDR (Information Versatile Disk for Removable usage) standard in late-April.