Ritek recently passed the certification for 4x DVD+RW discs by Philips, the first of Taiwan's optical disc makers, according to company CEO Gordon Yeh. Only a few companies such as Philips, Mitsubishi and Ricoh have 4x DVD+RW technology, Yeh emphasized during an interview at the CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany. The certification will help Ritek compete for OEM orders, Yeh noted.

Microsoft plans to drop the price of its Xbox video game system by $30 to $149 (£81) next month, according to published reports. Citing people familiar with the company's plans, The Wall Street Journal have reported that Microsoft may also start selling a limited-edition Xbox packaged with its "Halo" shooting game, for $169 (£92).

Press Release: Japan's Mitsubishi Kagaku Mediahave (MKM) have announced the successful development of a 1-16x dye for DVD recordable discs.

Sony is adding two DVD+R Double Layer (DL) DVD drives to its family of Dual RW burners. The internal DRU-700A and external DRX-700UL drives mark Sony's entry into Double Layer recording.

Fraunhofer have announced their upgrade to the ubiquitous mp3. The new and improved mp3, called the 'mp3 Surround technology', provides a multi-channel listening experience with minimum effort and maximum compatibility.

Consumer electronics heavyweight Sony wants to be in your living room -- from the moment it's built. Sony have launched a new set of luxury home entertainment systems designed for home builders and multimedia specialists looking to wire new houses from the ground up for audio and video.

Apple has updated DVD Studio Pro to version 2.0.5. Very brief notes on the release from Apple say the update: "Includes critical fixes for the placement of the dual layer break point on DVD-9 titles."

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled last Thursday favorably to Taiwan's Gigastorage and Princo Corporation in an infringement claim sought by U.S. Philips Corp.
The ITC says that "six CD Recordable (CD-R)/Re Writeable (CD-RW) patents owned by Royal Philips Electronics (Philips) were valid and infringed, but not enforceable in the proceedings before the commission due to patent misuse." It also ruled that Philips shall not execute an injunction order.

In June, 2002, Philips filed a complaint with the ITC against 19 optical disc manufacturers and U.S.-based trading companies for infringement of Philips' patents covering CD-R and CD-RW technologies. Among the 19 defendants, two of them are Taiwan disc companies Gigastore and Princo.

The case was initially decided favorably to the two defendants last December, but Philips requested a review.

In response to the ITC's final decision, Philips announced last Friday that it would appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) and hence the decision is not final yet. And negotiations for royalties on DVDs have been suspended temporarily.

In Taiwan, disc makers are hoping that because of the ITC ruling, Philips will soften its stance over the DVD-R royalty charge.

The DigiTimes says disc makers widely feel that Philip's DVD-R patent rate, about US$0.06 per disc, is too high. It says Sony has signed several agreements with some major Taiwan producers of optical discs fixing royalty charges of 1.5-3.5 percent for DVD-R/+R discs.

According to local manufactures, Taiwan paid NT$1.5-2 billion in royalties to Philips in 2002, of which RITEK Corp. paid NT$700 million, CMC Magnetics Corp. NT$500 million, and Jxxx NT$300 billion. The total amount in 2003 could be a lot more.

As DVD-R burners are getting more and more popular, many say that they will eventually eliminate CD-R burners. Analysts have predicted that Taiwan's DVD-R disc producers, given its role in supplying to the swelling U.S. market, will see rising revenues this year.

CMC Magnetics is expected to double its output to 60 million discs this year, RITEK to see a rise of 75 percent, or 35 million in its production, and Prodisc Technology may also produce 24 million, a report says.

Disney hopes to capitalize on exploding interest in its self-destructing DVDs by expanding trials of the discs into Florida and other major markets in April, the company have said.

In an age when viewing screens are becoming thinner and thinner, what could possibly come next? Perhaps no screen at all. Once a conceit of movies like "Star Wars" and "Minority Report," the science-fiction staple of images floating in midair is becoming reality. A handful of firms have rolled out devices that create moving 3-D images in crystal balls, hovering neon shapes manipulated with the flick of a finger, and ethereal video walls that shimmer as people stroll right through.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, recently subjected CDs and DVDs to a series of stresses. Researchers built chambers increasing heat, humidity and light to mimic aging and found the recordable DVD it tested should last 30 years if stored at 77 degrees and at 50 percent relative humidity. You can read a full summary of the reseach results in our review How to Handle and Store DVDs.

CyberLink, a leading developer of digital video software and training solutions, announced today PowerProducer 2 is the world's 1st DVD authoring software to be endorsed by the DVD Forum. PowerProducer 2 will now carry the world's only true symbol of DVD-Video format compliance, the DVD-Video logo for PC Authoring.

Our resident DVD expert and hardware boffin Flash has kindly sent us in a very useful article for people that could be experiencing an unwanted and easily avoidable degradation in their burner's performance. If you are having such troubles you'll want to find out if your drive is in the write operating mode and how to get there if it isn't: we have all the info here.

And this weeks daffy Friday story is... A number of news channels in the States are reporting how the advent of portable DVD players is changing the face and indeed, erm, experience of driving statside. The problem is exemplified by Andrea Carlton who hadn't planned on telling her daughter about the birds and bees until she was 8 or 9. But that changed the night then-4-year-old Catherine spotted a porno movie flickering on a screen in a minivan nearby. Could this be coming to a road near you?

Hitachi has announced the world’s highest capacity 3.5-inch ATA hard drive, the 400GB Deskstar 7K400. According to the Hitachi press release, "a new industry-standard AV feature set makes the drive well-suited for use in high-end digital video recorders (DVRs) that are designed to record substantial amounts of high-quality digital programming".

Ahead Software have announced that Nero 6 Ultra Edition, a very comprehensive set of CD and DVD recording tools, has received PC World's coveted "Best Buy" award. PC World's editors selected Nero 6 Ultra Edition over six other competitors' products, securing the top position as the most powerful and comprehensive DVD burning application available today.

Royal Philips Electronics has introduced its Nexperia semiconductor reference design for one of the industry's fastest DVD+R/+RW recorders. According to Philips, DVD recorders based on the new reference design will allow consumers to record a complete DVD+R disc in less than 5 min at speeds of up to 16x. The reference design, powered by the company's Nexperia chipsets and software, also features the recording of dual-layer DVD+R media, which increases the data storage capacity on a DVD disc from 4.7GB to 8.5GB.

Matsushita, best known for being the company behind the Panasonic brand, have said it will join Sony in July as the second manufacturer to offer Blu-ray disk recorders. Matsushita have unveiled a prototype of its Blu-ray DVD-RAM recorder that uses a two-layer 50GB disk. The prototype incorporates tuners that cover all digital TV broadcasting in Japan and is also compatible with present DVD-RAM and DVD-R formats. Other details won't be revealed for another several months, the company said.

The major software house Ulead, whose products include popular DVD authoring and burning packages, have said they will increasingly collaborate with leading consumer electronics and mobile device manufacturers as well as telecom operators to create software with MPEG-4 support to complement mobile phones, digital cameras and camcorders with MPEG-4 technology. While DVD & MPEG-4 remain integral to Ulead’s product development strategy, it will also soon launch a media center solution which turns the PC into a complete entertainment center for viewing photos, video and listening to music.

Infomedia have introduced a single-sided double-layer (also called dual-layer) DVD+R disc, with volume production to begin in May this year. The company claims to be the first to show this type of disc in Taiwan.