Sony has signed agreements with several major Taiwanese producers of optical discs fixing royalty charges of 1.5%-3.5% for DVD-R/+R discs, according to some of the Taiwanese makers concerned.

I have just seen on eBay someone cashing in on the 8x for all firmware for the Pioneer DVR-107 by offering CDs with the otherwise freely available hacked firmware burnt on to them for the less reasonably priced £1.50 a disc. This firmware was produced by >NIL: for everyone to use free of charge. I was deeply involved in its development and it was done not for financial gain. Finding it offered for sale on EBay disgusts me: to think that all this effort has enabled someone else to cash in on it.

This firmware is offered free to the end user and is freely available from this site and the sites associated with the firmware forum and will remain FREE. Anyone thinking of purchasing such firmware should put their money elsewhere. The firmware for sale is the same that is available on this site and can be downloaded free of charge.

FLASH

Pioneer's technical support website carries some details of two new A07 drives - the DVR-A07XLA and the DVR-A07XLB - which will be avilable from the second week in March. It would seem the two new models will have new designs, new firmware and new software. Watch this space.

Our resident DVD guru Flash has contacted us about our report of Pioneer releasing a utility that allows users to use different noise settings for their DVR-A07-J. The drive now allows three modes of operation: quiet, performance and standard. He wanted us to know that this utility does not work with the current pioneer 107 - it only works with the retail box pioneers that are to be released next month. So now we know and so do you.

In the run up to this year's Academy Awards on Feb. 29, Thomson has revealed it's collaboration with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to embed traceable, individually-watermarked technologies. The technologies were used in advance copies of nominated films distributed to the Academy members late last year.

The maker of DVD-duplication software found to violate copyright law is pledging to keep selling it -- but without a built-in tool for descrambling movies. For the popular DVD Copy Plus and DVD X Copy programs to successfully make copies of DVDs, users will need to obtain a descrambler available on the Internet, said Robert Moore, founder and president of 321 Studios.

Pioneer have released a utility that allows users to use different noise settings for their DVR-A07-J. The drive now allows three modes of operation: quiet, performance and standard. This is useful for those who are annoyed by the spinning up noise the drive makes when watching movies.

Lite-On IT, one of the top producers of optical disc drives in Taiwan, recently announced the LVW-5005, claimed by the company to be the world's first set-top DVD recorder model capable of writing CD-R/RW discs.

Press release: DivXNetworks, the company behind the DivX video compression technology, and Plextor have announced a partnership to enable consumers to easily encode and edit high-quality video content. The two companies also announced that the Plextor ConvertX Digital Video Converter is the first official DivX Certified hardware encoding and editing device to hit the market.

Both Netherlands-based Philips Semiconductors and Taiwan-based MediaTek expect to begin offering solutions for dual-layer DVD+R technology in the second quarter of this year at the earliest, according to sources.

Ritek, Taiwan’s second-largest optical disc producer, on February 19 introduced its RiDATA Pro CF, the first 4GB CompactFlash (CF) card in the world, following SanDisk’s recent launch of a 2GB CF card.

Pioneer have released a new firmware for their DVR-107. The new firmware is version 1.09 and adds media support at 6x and 8x for the following media codes: MXL RG02, CMC MAG. AF1, SONY08D1, TYG02, FUJIFILM03, TTG02. Flash tells us he hopes a hacked (and therefore region free) firmware will be released in the coming days so stay tuned folks. You can download the new version from our 107 firmware page.

Toshiba has unveiled two new DVD recorders recently, the SD-R5272 and the slim line SD-R6372 for notebook use. Both drives are dual format recorders but the SD-R5272 supports 8x recording to DVD±R media while the SD-R6372 supports 4x recording to DVD±R media.

Intel has outlined it's vision of the digital home at it's developer forum. The high-performance PC can store, record and play every kind of digital media and connects directly to your TV.

Japan's consumer electric giant Sony has announced that its latest DVD players, due out this autumn, will be housed in a nonflammable, environmentally-friendly biomass plastic casing.

Flash has posted into us his independent review following our report of the rave reviews the disc is getting around the web. The good news for anyone looking for high quality budget media that burns well at 8x is that even after after being sceptical in the beginning and putting the discs to a number of vigourous and high-tech tests Flash says "I still cannot believe that these Bulkpaq Branded discs are so consistently good." High praise indeed from the guru.

EDITORS NOTE:
Since publishing this review we have had many enquires from dealers enduser and distributers who wish to purchase this product.Sorry we cannot help you with this!!! so please do not email us. We would suggest you contact Bulkpaq directly to visit the bulkpaq website please click here.

If you are looking for a new color printer, are a digital photo buff and always wanted to print your CD and DVDs, this hardware may be of interest. The 6 color printer can print directly to printable optical media and claims it is "fast". We have seen this before, but not for such a low price. Available soon in UK for about £75.99 from Epson retailers.

Federal agents targeting movie bootleggers filed charges Thursday against three former employees of a post-production company and a fourth man who got his films from a veteran Hollywood character actor.

InPhase Technologies, the leader in holographic data storage media and systems, have announced that it has developed and is shipping the first blue laser holographic media that enables greater amounts of information to be stored on a single disc.

The two top manufacturers of optical discs in Taiwan (Ritek and CMC) are confident of maintaining gross margins on DVD-R discs at 40-50% this year, despite falling product prices.