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Home Entertainment
While Blu-ray is dominating the market in the US, the Financial Times has reported that a number of Europe's independent film studios have decided to support the rival format, HD DVD. According to the article, this decision was primarily due to HD DVD's lower production costs and the belief that HD DVD players will come down in price faster than Blu-ray players.
About 35 European films are available on the HD-DVD format, compared with less than 10 for Blu-Ray. The larger European studios such as Studio Canal and Pathé in France, Filmax and DeAPlaneta in Spain, and Imagion and Nixbu in Germany have all announced plans to use the HD-DVD technology.

Although most commentators agree that the deciding battles in the format war will be fought in Hollywood, analysts such as Richard Cooper at Screen Digest say the importance of European independent studios should not be underestimated. European independent films account for only 30 per cent of the market in the UK, but 50 per cent in France, 40 per cent in Germany and 35 to 40 per cent in Spain.
While HD DVD has a market lead in Europe, this could very well change with the recent launch of the PS3. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment

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According to an article at Reuters.com, Toshiba has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), claiming that Daewoo Electronics and 16 other companies violated patents related to DVD recorders and players.
Japanese electronics conglomerate Toshiba Corp. (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) has filed a complaint against a unit of South Korea's Daewoo Electronics and 16 other companies for allegedly violating its patents related to DVD recorders and players.

Toshiba Corp. and Toshiba America Consumer Products LLC filed the complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on Friday, according to a document on the ITC's Web site.
No word on what patents were violated.However, Toshiba has reportedly asked the ITC to investigate Daewoo Electronics America Inc. and the other 16 companies. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment

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Home Entertainment
A few weeks ago we reported that the Blu-ray Disc Association had mandated new minimum specifications for players produced after October 31. With these specs requiring increased memory and support for picture-in-picture video, many people, including myself, were concerned that first gen players would become obsolete. To find out the truth, PC World talked with Andy Parsons, chair of the Blu-ray Disc Association's U.S. Promotions committee about these concerns. In their article Mr. Parsons tries to calm the waters a bit stating "your existing Blu-ray player will continue to play future titles as it does today."
All current Blu-ray Disc players support the BD-Java spec. (BD-Java is the programming language used to design the menus and present interactive content on a Blu-ray Disc.) In fact, says Parsons, this was a requirement from the get-go: "All players introduced since day one must support BD-Java."

Already, movie titles like Chicken Little and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen are taking advantage of BD-Java's capabilities; in both of those cases, the movie discs offer interactive games.

If BD-Java is shipping today, why the confusion? "This fall," explains Parsons, "is the end of a grace period. Any new Blu-ray Disc player model introduced after October 31 must now fully comply with the full range of existing Blu-ray Disc player specifications."
While first gen players will continue to play titles the same as they do today, PC World points out that they will not play on-demand picture-in-picture commentary nor can they access interactive functions via the internet. Unless you really need these features, its probably not worth upgrading to a second gen player. However, if you haven't bought one yet, I'd save my money and wait until fall. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment

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Home Entertainment
While many people are blaming Universal and their HD DVD/DVD combo format for the latest round of playback problems, the issue may actually be a result of the verification process. According to jimby_99 of the AVS Forum, there is no way to burn and check a disc in various players. To make matters worse, the verification software Toshiba provides does not always catch all of the bugs in the authoring before a disc is replicated.
There are two problems with making titles for HD-DVD that Blu-ray doesn't have:

1. It's not possible to make a full HD-DVD burn yet to check the entire title; you have to preview the title on an emulator, which does NOT give you the ability to QC in various players. This is a huge disadvantage compared to Blu-ray, where you can make a Blu-ray burn and run it in specially modified production players.

Without the ability to burn check discs, there is virtually no way to do proper QC...

2. The verifier software that Toshiba is responsible for is (in my opinion) not currently up to the task. For those who don't know what verifier software is...this is the software that is run when the title is received at the manufacturing plant to verify that the authoring is "legal" and to the specification. It's meant to catch specification-related bugs in the authoring BEFORE the disc is replicated.
If you're wondering, jimby_99 was the production supervisor for "Nine Inch Nails: Beside You in Time" which was recently released on both Blu-ray and HD DVD. If you'd like to read more, head on over to the AVS Forum. Add a comment

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Flash Memory
Thanks to our friends at Everything USB we've learned that the Taiwanese manufacturer InnoDisk has come up with an internal USB drive. Developed with Vista's ReadyBoost technology in mind, the drive connects directly to the motherboard, freeing up your computer's USB ports.


According to Everything USB, the drive operates at 3MB/s for 512KB random read/write and 5MB/s for 4KB which is more than enough for ReadyBoost. InnoDisk's new internal drive is available in 2GB and 4GB capacities with prices starting at $15. More information can be found here. Add a comment

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Other
Yeeehaaww.. It's roundup time! Tom's Hardware has taken five "cheap" DVD writers from LG, Pioneer, Samsung and Optiarc and put them head to head to see which is the best. Here's a sample of what they had to say:
It has been over a year since we last took a look at DVD burners. One reason for the delay is that there were few developments on which to report ever since the write speeds hit 16X. Manufacturers then focused on value-added features such as built-in disc labeling called LightScribe. Another reason is the incredibly cheap price level: It is absolutely possible to purchase a DVD burner for as little as $25. But there still are differences in quality.
Sadly, like most big review websites, Tom's forgets to look at two very important things: writing quality and media compatibility. All the speed in the world doesn't mean much if a disc isn't readable. Anyway, if you'd like to check it out, the entire roundup can be found here. Add a comment

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PowerColor X1650 Pro Year of the Pig Edition @Overclockers Online
ViewSonic VX2235 22-inch HD Widescreen Monitor @ThinkComputers.org
Gigabyte N680SLI-DQ6 nForce 680i Motherboard @TweakTown
Mushkin XP2-8500 2GB Kit DDR2-1066 Memory @Redaktion ocinside.de
Motorola Moto Q Smartphone @Project PDA
Plantronics Explorer 350 Bluetooth Headset @BlueTomorrow.com
Ultra X-Pro 600 Watt ATX Power Supply @Tweaknews.net
SuperTalent 2GB DDR-1000 Kit @BCCHardware
Overclocking the Intel X6800 With Liquid Nitrogen (LN2) @Madshrimps
Jetart HCA06 HDD Guard at Overclockers Online @Overclockers Online
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Optical Storage
Plextor LLC has officially announced their new 18x Super-Multi drive, the TurboPlex PX-800A. According to their press release, the PX-800A sports 18x DVD±R and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and is fully compatible with Windows Vista.

Plextor LLC, a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, today announced the immediate availability of the TurboPlex PX-800A DVD Super Multi Drive. Fully compatible with the new Windows Vista(TM) operating system, the new DVD+/-R/RW CD-R/RW drive introduces a new level of performance and features, including 12X DVD-RAM and a software bundle that includes Roxio Easy Media Creator 9.

The Plextor PX-800A drive features an E-IDE ATAPI interface for easy connectivity with personal computers running the Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Vista operating systems. The PX-800A drive also supports industry-leading 12X-speed DVD-RAM functionality for removable data storage applications. A user simply inserts a blank DVD-RAM disc and the system automatically formats the disc and assigns a driver letter. Users can drag-and-drop files, use the "save as" command, and remove the disc, which can then be read in any PC or desktop player with a drive that supports the DVD-RAM format.
The PX-800A is expected to ship later this month for a suggested retail price of $79.99. More information can be found here. Add a comment

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In February, Lite-On announced that they would be taking the place of BenQ in a joint venture with Philips. This new joint venture, named Philips Lite-On Digital Solutions Corporation (PLDS), was recently given the green light by the European Commission and will go into operation on May 1st.
The earlier announced joint venture between Royal Philips Electronics (Philips) and Lite-On IT Corporation (Lite-On) is starting to take shape. The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the entry by Lite-On IT into Philips & BenQ Digital Storage Corporation (PBDS) of Taiwan. Lite-On IT has taken over BenQ's shares in PBDS and the name has now changed to Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions (PLDS).

PLDS will be effective in Europe from 1st of May 2007. Lite-On IT BV, the European head office of Lite-On IT Corporation, will continue to provide the same service to it's customers under the new flag of PLDS. The company will handle sales, marketing, service, finance and logistics of Optical Disc Drives (ODD). PLDS will continue to sell ODD under the brand names Lite-On and HP (under exclusive license from Hewlett-Packard).
If you'd like to read more, Lite-On Europe's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment

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Earlier this year, Steve Jobs posted an open letter on Apple's website, urging record companies to abandon DRM technologies. Apparently, someone at EFI took this to heart as the company recently signed a deal with Apple, allowing them to sell DRM-free versions of their music through iTunes.
Apple today announced that EMI Music's entire digital catalog of music will be available for purchase DRM-free (without digital rights management) from the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) worldwide in May. DRM-free tracks from EMI will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording, for just $1.29 per song. In addition, iTunes customers will be able to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 30 cents a song. iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today -- 128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM -- at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside DRM-free higher quality versions when available.
While some may not paying a premium for DRM-free music ($1.29 vs. $0.99 per song), this is definitely a step in the right direction. Hopefully, other record companies will see the light and offer DRM-free music through iTunes as well. If you'd like to read more, Apple's entire announcement can be found here. Add a comment

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