MADRID, Spain - Police arrested 40 people and needed two large trucks to cart away more than 240,000 CDs and DVDs in Spain's biggest crackdown on pirate recording, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said Monday.

Microsoft announced on Saturday new digital rights software aimed at helping music labels control unauthorized copying of CDs, one of the biggest thorns in the ailing industry's side. Stung by the common practice of consumers copying, or burning, new versions of a store-bought CD onto recordable CDs, music companies have invested heavily in copy-protection technologies that have mainly backfired or annoyed customers.

Here is the report by our resident DVD expert Flash on the new 4x Datawrite DVD-R...

It looks like the new 4 Datawrite 4 speed disc which is based on the RITEKG04 media will be an ideal replacement for the discontinued RITEKG03. I have just acquired a Pioneer A05 and trying the new Datawrite 4 speed media which has been manufactured for Datawrite by Ritek with the following ID code
00 6C 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 52 00 02 35 0E 0B .L...@....R..5..
FE FF 80 00 03 52 49 54 45 4B 47 00 04 30 34 00 .....RITEKG..04.
00 00 00 00 05 88 80 00 00 00 01 00 06 06 0F 12 ................

My test with these discs show that they live up to the Ritek standard that I have come to expect. The 4 speed burns were marginally less perfect than at 2 speed until I updated the firmware to 1.21.
I also did some burning in both my A03 & A04 which to my surprise they both recognised and burnt the discs at 2x speed with the latest official firmware. The resultant discs were perfect and Nero CD speed showed a perfect curve.

Click Here To View The Results

I tested my discs which were all movies and the playback right to the outer edge of the disc was perfect in all my DVD players. This disc is rapidly decreasing in price and will soon be a comparable price to the now discontinued RITEKG03 media.

I forwarded this report to Datawrite who made the additional comments

Your report confirms that we are the innovator in the DVD-R field. . From now on, Datawrite 4x DVD-R media users will be able to enjoy not only large capacity and high quality storage but also high-speed recording performance, all at affordable prices: We feel our disc is the only disc on the market which writes at four speed but still does not lose the playback quality which has previously been associated with high speed writing. The other bonus which our disc offers is that it is the only disc on the market which incorporates the Datasafe unique “Double protection” System which prevents the disc from smears and scratches.

A quick trawl of various discussion groups and forums on the internet has shown that Datawrite are possibly onto a winner with their new 4x DVD-R . Here are some comments we found about the disc, which according to Datawrite is the only 4x disc on the market, which actually works. Here are some comments we had on the new disc.

Tested on ps2 and four DVD players, two of which are sometimes fussy, but they all played back no problems. Even the ps2 which is usually jumpy at times on dvd-r playback.

I am well impressed with was the 4x Datawrite……….. they are the K9s Gonads. They burn perfectly at 4x approx 15mins to do a full 4.7 gb.

....yep agreed these discs are spot on 15 mins a disc no skipping or nothing play perfect as at 1x !! so cant go wrong still not gonna buy many at that price though another 30/40p off and then ill have some.

Bought 10 of these to try and burnt a movie at 4x it played without problems and as well as any ritek at 2x ive previously been doing.

The 4x Datasafe (DATAWRITE)(RITEK G04) are without doubt the best disc i have ever used.

Our regular Contributor Flash took delivery of 100 of these discs this morning and we will publish his indepth evaluation as it is made available.

Click Here for a Picture of the new Datawrite disc

Worldwide demand for recordable DVD discs (DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW) will reach 300 million units this year, but despite rapid growth, supply will continue to fall short, according to the Taiwan-based Photonics Industry and Technology Development Association (PIDA).

According to Wall Street Journal, the music industry association RIAA is about to join almighty technology companies, led by Intel, HP and Microsoft, to oppose so-called Hollings' bill which is strongly supported by the movie industry association MPAA. The bill would make it absolutely, totally illegal to copy or backup copyrighted material in the United States and would require hardware and software manufacturers to implement blocks to make it reality.

Though the stand-alone DVD recording decks destined to replace VCRs are drawing understandable attention, the selection of DVD burners for PCs continues to grow. Hewlett-Packard, TDK, Samsung, Archos Technology, Philips, and Yamaha are all among the vendors who have recently unveiled rewritable DVD drives. Most were on display at the Consumer Electronics Show last week in Las Vegas.

Just a quick reminder about our monthly newsletter. Anyone who joins before the 30th of January will be entered into a prize draw to win a Pioneer A05 and 200 Blank DVD Discs. Details of how to join our mailing list are on the left hand side of our homepage.

Sonic Solutions announced at the International CES Convention that Sonic MyDVD(R), the world's leading DVD creation software, fully supports the new Plus! Photo Story feature in Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition for Windows XP, the photo, music and movie enhancement pack for Windows XP. This new support enables users to create great-looking DVDs with their digital photo albums.

Marking its entry into the emerging digital home entertainment Arena, Zenith Electronics Corporation introduced its first DVD recorder and hard-disc recorder at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Sony is launching a new series of Camcorders that record video to rewriteable DVD discs. Pricing for the low-end model, the DCR-DVD100, will start at around $1000 (£650.00), and the devices should be available as soon as this summer.

Panasonic is once again leading the way as an innovator in the world of DVD entertainment with the introduction of the sleek VDR-M30 DVD camcorder. This innovative camcorder records high-quality digital video and still images onto removable 8cm DVD-RAM and DVD-R1 discs, offering the ability of non-linear editing of home videos right in the camcorder. The innovative DVD-RAM and DVD-R video recording technology employed in the new unit complies with the recording formats standardized by the DVD Forum. The new model VDR-M30 also features an SD Memory Card slot. It will be available in the spring of 2003 and will have a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $899.95 (£599.99).

Panasonic is leading the recordable DVD industry into mainstream acceptance with the introduction of the easy-to-use DMR-E50 DVD recorder at the 2003 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Panasonic’s fourth-generation recorder offers consumers many of the features and technology benefits they have come to expect from digital recording, combined with a user-friendly interface and an unexpected manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $599.95 (£399.99).

Two Major developments on the DVD+R standard have again made us reconsider the question which standard will win the DVD format war. The “+” or the “-“.
Datawite sent us an email asking us if we would like to Test review a new product: they will be distributing a 7 Writer DVD+R duplicator.
This is the first time a volume distributor of DVD products has produced such a product. Our DVD guru FLASH accepted this offer as quick as well a flash.

To read the review by flash please click here.

Bulkpaq, announced in a press release that they too would be promoting the dvd+r standard. And launching a +R format disc at a very affordable price.

"Our new “+R” Confirms our position as being the innovator in the DVD field. It is our belief that only by understanding customers' needs and exceeding their expectations can we bring customers superior value while maintaining our leading position. From now on “+” format media users will be able to enjoy not only large capacity and high quality storage but also high-speed recording performance, all at a very affordable prices."

These two developments by two of Europe’s leading brands will undoubtedly lead to an increase in DVD+R sales only time will tell what sort of increase.

Samsung Electronics Co. announced yesterday it had agreed on a strategic partnership with Matsushita Electronics Corp. in pursuing the digital versatile disc player business. Samsung decided to support Matsushita's DVD recording format (DVD-R) by producing DVD recorders based on that standard in a bid to secure a dominant position in competition among different recording standards. The decision by Samsung, the second biggest producer of DVD players, to support Matsushita's format is expected to influence other electronics manufacturers in selecting a standard for themselves.

Toshiba has announced two new portable DVD players and a high-definition projector, along with a digital media server that is part of its new collaboration with TiVo.

The Recordable DVD Council (RDVDC) rallied consumers to demand "Real DVD" (or as you may know it: DVD-R) as they launched a new DVD Recordable awareness campaign today during the RDVDC press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show. Staying one step ahead of the hottest industry in Consumer Electronics history, RDVDC is dedicating 2003 to helping consumers understand and embrace recordable DVD technology through feature-rich, easy-to-use cutting edge products from CE giants including Hitachi, Matsushita (Panasonic), Samsung, and Toshiba.

Press Release: Pioneer, a world leader in technologies for home and mobile entertainment, today introduced a broad range of new products at the 2003 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Primera Technology Inc., a developer and manufacturer of CD-R/DVD-R duplication and printing equipment, will announce what the company claims is "the world's first integrated CD copying and printing system with Mac compatibility" today at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco.

Verbatim® Corp. and Peripherals Group Inc., the exclusive licensor of Verbatim optical hardware products and a subsidiary of CenDyne Inc., jointly unveiled Verbatim 4x "Producer" DVD+R/RW drive at CES, Booth #18000 today.