DVD Hardware - HD DVD Blu-Ray DVD Writers DVD News

Pioneer announces in Europe a cool new digital video recorder and DVD player. The Pioneer DVR-940HX-S features a 500GB HDD, 1080p upscaling and DVB-T Tuner.

The Pioneer DVR-940HX-S incorporates the newly designed VQE10 core video chipset, which enables a scaling up to 1080p via HDMI. The maximum recording time on the 500GB hard-drive is 1422 hours.
Via the front-side USB port you upload digital images or compressed audio files from portable devices. Link

Technicolor Home Entertainment Services Extends Existing Agreements for U.S. and International Replication and UK Distribution, and Wins New Business for U.S. and Canadian Retail Distribution

Paris and CAMARILLO, Calif. -- November 30, 2006 -- Thomson (TMS) through its Technicolor Home Entertainment Services business, today announced it has extended its worldwide DVD replication agreements with Paramount Home Entertainment. Territories covered by the agreements are the United States, Canada and all international territories excluding Japan and Russia. In addition, Technicolor's existing distribution services agreement was extended in the United Kingdom and Technicolor was awarded new business to provide retail distribution and returns processing services in the United States and Canada. These new multi-year agreements include DVD replication and distribution services for all Paramount titles.

"As the world's leading manufacturer and distributor of DVDs, we are exceptionally pleased to be continuing and expanding our support for Paramount both in North America and International territories," said Quentin Lilly, president of Technicolor Home Entertainment Services. "With the industry's most comprehensive portfolio of mastering, replication, printing, custom packaging, anti-piracy, technology development and supply chain management services for standard definition and next-generation formats, we remain uniquely positioned to fully support the critical needs of Paramount in the global home entertainment market."

Paramount Home Entertainment is responsible for the worldwide sales, marketing and distribution of a vast array of home video titles for prestigious, internationally-recognized labels including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, MTV, CBS, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks Animation, PBS, PBS Kids, Hasbro, Peanuts and Spike TV. Recent releases include Failure to Launch, M:I:III, Nacho Libre and DreamWorks Animation's Over the Hedge.

"Technicolor has demonstrated to us that it has the capabilities of meeting and exceeding the myriad demands of today's home entertainment marketplace," said Kelley Avery, President, Worldwide Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures. "We have been very pleased with the company's service and look forward to expanding our partnership as we continue to develop and grow our business worldwide."

In addition to its worldwide DVD replication capabilities, Technicolor Home Entertainment Services is the leading provider of turnkey fulfilment and distribution services for DVD and CD projects. Backed by a proven track record, the company delivers high-quality, cost-effective distribution and fulfilment services, and manages all facets of retail distribution. In addition, Technicolor has the world's most extensive returns operation in North America with its facility in Memphis, Tennessee. Currently, the facility offers the industry-leading capability to process more than one- half million units per day. Link

Leading Taiwanese optical disc drive ODD makers, including BenQ, Asustek Computer and Lite-On IT, have reduced Taiwan retail prices of their external 16x DVD burners by an average of over 20% to around NT$2,000 (US$61), but despite the price cut, internal drives are still expected to remain the mainstream, according to sources in Taiwan's ODD industry.

Aside from Taiwan-based brands, Hewlett-Packard has lowered retail prices of its external 16x LightScribe-enabled DVD burners to below NT$3,000 in Taiwan and TEAC, Sony and other Japanese brands have also cut prices of external 16x DVD burners to NT$2,500 or below, the sources indicated. Consequently, prices of external 16x DVD burners have fallen to less than half that of corresponding internal models, the sources noted.

However, the demand for external 16x DVD burners in relation to that for internal ones will remain unchanged mainly because of fast growing use of slim-type Combo drives or DVD burners in notebook PCs and the usage habits of consumers, the sources pointed out. Link

Pinnacle Studio Plus customers can download the latest version from the Pinnacle Systems website: www.pinnaclesys.com. Once upgraded or installed, consumers can unlock the Pinnacle HD DVD Authoring Pack for $49.99 USMSRP by clicking on the Activate button to instigate an online transaction the first time the HD DVD option under Make a Disc is selected. From there, customers can download the content pack that contains the Pinnacle Studio Plus HD format menus.

First-time customers can also test Pinnacle Studio home editing software before purchasing by visiting: www.pinnaclesys.com/Studio_Demo/index.html.

About Pinnacle Systems, Inc.

According to The NPD Group, Pinnacle Studio is the number one consumer video editing software, based on U.S. retail unit and dollar sales from October 2005 through September 2006. Pinnacle Systems, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc., is an industry leader in video editing solutions, TV tuners for the PC, and digital media adapters for the consumer market. The company's product lines include Pinnacle PCTV(TM), Dazzle(R), Pinnacle ShowCenter(TM), Pinnacle Studio MediaSuite(TM), Pinnacle Mobile Media(TM) and its flagship Pinnacle Studio(TM) line. For more information, visit www.pinnaclesys.com. Link

ntroducing the PlayO 16X DVD+/-R by Abcron

Affordable Large Storage Capacity DVDs for Professional Recording

CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif., November 28, 2006 – Abcron Corporation today announced the addition of PlayO brand 16X DVD+/-R discs to its large line of optical media products. The new, dependable, discs features fast read and write times as well as crisp, clear, recording quality.

“With a fast 16X write speed, our discs are perfect for power users who require consistently fast recording times for large video or data files, While the battle on the blue laser formats wages on there is still a strong demand for high quality DVD media.” stated Abcron Vice President Andy Huang.

The new discs have a storage capacity of 4.7GB and a write time of 120 minutes. They are available in 25, 50 and 100 piece cake box packaging. The time it takes to write a DVD varies with the writing speed of the burner, the amount and type of information being written and the writing mode of the burner. On average, the transfer rate for 16X DVD is 21.13MB/sec. and it takes about 5 minutes to write 4.7GB of content to a PlayO 16X DVD.

PlayO 16X DVD’s are compatible with popular 1X-16X DVD+/-R drives and burners. The discs are ideal for recording up to 2 hours of DVD quality home movies and video clips. The large capacity and fast burning times make the discs ideal for archival and back up purposes as well. The discs are read compatible with most DVD-ROM drives and DVD video players and are available at Staples.com and Staples stores nationwide. A 60 pack cakebox (50 discs plus 10 bonus discs) retails for $27.99. All PlayO discs feature a Limited Lifetime Warranty. Link

iSymphony continue to grow their range of "Made for iPod" home audio/video products with the introduction of the M2UK. We've already featured its first incarnation — the M2UK sports some new features:



* Progressive scan front-loading DVD player able to play all DVDs/CDs/MPEG4, with ID3 display and 64 track memory.
* Stereo home cinema sound
* It can be hooked up to a TV for displaying both DVD material and video and images from your iPod.

* It has a 14 in 1 card reader and USB port, allowing for memory stick music playback.
* Comes with a 50-button remote control giving full access to the iPod menu structure.
* Larger LCD
* new styling

Overall, the system has proper amplifiers and speakers (2 x 25W into 6 ohms), a 2-way bass-reflex wooden speakers, 25mm dome tweeter and 100mm woofer, dynamic bass boost and equaliser, analogue radio with 40 station memory, clock radio.

Naturally as it's a dock it'll charge and synchronise your iPod.

It's coming in mid-December priced at £180, available from John Lewis and Comet.
Link

Standing before two giant TV screens and clutching a remote control in each hand, Tony Sardo grappled with a question that will confront millions of Americans this holiday shopping season.

For nearly an hour, he toggled between two new types of video-disc players offering brilliant image quality. He questioned a sales associate and weighed the none-too-low prices of the players, known as Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD. Finally, he did what many electronics customers are doing: He walked away without buying either.

"It's too early to know which one to go with," said Sardo, 28, after browsing a Fairfax, Va., store for a next-generation DVD player to go with his new 42-inch high-definition television. "It's like betting on which team will win the Super Bowl before pre-season games start."

The fight between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, reminiscent of the 1980s battle between Betamax and VHS tape formats, isn't just vexing consumers like Sardo. It's shaping up as a business disaster for movie studios, electronics companies and retailers that had counted on a robust holiday selling season for the new players — which cost $500 to $1,000 — and movies to play in them.

Technology companies have divided into two warring camps, each backing one of the formats. Attempts to come up with a single format collapsed last year, so the two sides decided to duke it out in the marketplace. As they do, consumers are mostly staying on the sidelines, causing sales to fall far short of initial projections.

A winner could still emerge, but some experts say it's just as likely that consumers, fearful of buying an expensive player that will turn out to be worthless, will just say no to high-definition discs In the best case, analysts predict, the format war will go on for another year or so before a clear winner emerges, delaying an industry switchover to the improved discs.

"By and large, it's going to result in the season where no one buys anything," said Gartner research director Van Baker. "Manufacturers have put an awful lot of investment into these players, and they're not going to see a return on that anytime soon."

In January, the Consumer Electronics Association predicted that more than 600,000 high-definition DVD players, worth $484 million, would be sold this year. Shipment delays and production problems have twice caused the organization to lower its forecast, and it now expects U.S. sales to reach only 200,000 players, worth $181 million, by the end of the year.

Those numbers don't include sales of video game consoles, which manufacturers hope will give the new formats a boost. Sony's PlayStation 3, released last week, doubles as a Blu-ray player, and Microsoft's Xbox 360, released last year, can play HD-DVDs with an accessory component. Sony expects to have shipped 2 million PS3s by the end of the year, trailing Microsoft's total shipments of 10 million Xbox 360s.

Movie studios Disney, Fox, Miramax and MGM have sided with Sony's Blu-ray technology; Universal and Warner Bros. have chosen to produce movies in Toshiba's HD-DVD format. Paramount and Warner Home Video are releasing movie titles in both formats, an expensive undertaking when consumers are reluctant to buy either.

"There's no guarantee that every top movie that's going to come out is going to be available on the format you want," said Ben Bajarin, a consumer technology analyst with Creative Strategies. "Retail is one of the biggest challenges. How do you promote the technology without confusing the customer and losing the sale on both?"
Link

JUST WHEN YOU thought DVD-R drives were getting a little stagnant, Lite-On comes out with two new 20x burners, the LH-20A1P and the LH-20A1H. Both are 10 per cent or so faster than the 18x units that recently made no splash on the market, and 25 per cent faster than the prevailing 16x units.

The difference between the two is the P is a normal drive, the H is a Lightscribe unit. The P will be out first, December in Europe, and run about 30 pounds. The H will come out in early 07 and cost more due to the lightscribe tax. In any case, the difference in cost between these and the 16x models should be pretty minimal. Link

iPod users had petitioned for the right to break the encryption technology on DVDs they legally own in order to rip the movies to iTunes and to their iPods.

However, the Library of Congress has loosened the rules protecting DVD encryption to allow professors of movie studies to break copy protection for educational use.

Professors had been asking for - and have now received - the right to break the copy protection on DVDs in order that they could put together compilations of movie clips for their classes.

Under US laws, they were unable to legally do this, and studios had argued that they could use VHS to do the same thing. Link

HP has entered the high-definition optical disc foray, on the side of HD DVD. The external drive, the hd100, can read HD DVD-ROM, DVDR/RW and R double-layer discs. It can also read CDR/RW and CD-ROM discs.

Meant as an adjunct to your computer rather than a central part in a home-entertainment system, the HD DVD-ROM drive connects to your PC or notebook with a USB 2.0 connection.

The drives should be available in the UK mid-December with recommended retail pricing of £399 and they will be bundled with Cyberlink playback software. The hd100 is actually a Lite-On device, but HP has been branding its products since early 2005.

When it comes to HD DVD products, Toshiba is already pushing ahead, unveiling its second-generation machines - the HD-XF2 and HD-XA2 players - in Japan earlier this month. This is unsurprising given its leadership of the HD DVD cause.

The likes of Sony, Samsung, Philips and Apple are lined up behind Blu-ray blue laser technology, with NEC, Intel and Microsoft among those joining HP in the rival HD DVD camp. Link

CD/DVD recorders and media are pretty mature and stable products at this point. But if you aren't careful, a bad burn could still happen--and leave you with only a bicycle reflector for your effort. Here are the five most common disc-burning errors, and how to avoid them.

1. You didn't verify: If there's a golden rule for burning discs, it's "Thou shalt verify." Using your burning software's verify (or validate) function to compare what has been written with what was read is your best hedge against nasty surprises down the road (see FIGURE 1). The verify function won't increase your chances of burning a disc successfully, but it will let you know of a problem in time to burn another disc. Many a seemingly successful burn will bug out when you play it--not because the disc has gone bad, but because the burn was bad to begin with.

2. It's the wrong media: In a perfect world, choosing the right media wouldn't be an issue. But nothing is more frustrating or embarrassing than sitting down in front of Grandma's TV at the family reunion only to watch her DVD player choke miserably on the photo album you labored over so dutifully. The moral of the story? Select media that you know your player (or Grandma's) will support. In the case of DVDs, that means choosing from DVD/RW or DVD-RAM.

If you buy bare, no-name blank media (CD or DVD), follow the golden rule above (verify!)--and prepare to run into the occasional bad disc. In my experience, DVD media tends to be a lot more reliable than CD media; but generally speaking, the lower a disc's cost, the better its chances of heading straight to the scrap heap.

3. You're going too fast: Nobody likes waiting around for a disc to burn. Unfortunately, going as fast as you can isn't always the best strategy. While I've rarely had problems burning rewritable CDs and DVDs, their recordable counterparts are a different story. Some CD-R and DVD-R discs burn at top speed correctly, but I've experienced blowouts with many others. Once you factor in the time you spend trying to determine what the problem is, you might be better off stepping your burn speed down a notch (see FIGURE 2). And unless you're using a stopwatch, you'll never notice the difference between, say, 18X and 16X anyway.

4. The firmware's gone soft: With the intense pressure to get products out the door in a competitive market, your burner's firmware or software bundle may not have been exactly perfect when you bought it. Shocking, I know, but the point is that the firmware or software has almost certainly been updated (or soon will be), and if you're not happy with your burner's performance, you should avail yourself of those updates, which you'll find on the vendor's Web site. Still, there's a heap of truth to the old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Updates all too often cause problems of their own. If your discs are burning fine, let your burner be. (Even drive vendors will tell you that.) But if your drive habitually stutters when you switch to a new brand of disc, for example, a firmware or software update will likely help. Link

Microsoft has dedicated a separate part of Xbox.com to the 360's forthcoming HD-DVD player, it has been revealed

On said page, the American giant showcases the performance of the add-on, with attractive pictures of the device featured throughout. The American version of the site also has a link to an official HD-DVD advertisement - one we previously brought to you earlier this month. Link

BenQ DW1800 and DW1680 offer superior optical writing with BenQ’s exclusive SolidBurn technology and QSuite Support –

Mumbai, November 15, 2006 – BenQ, a leading player in digital network devices today announced the launch of BenQ DVD Re-Writers DW 1800 and DW 1680, further expanding the optical storage line-up of the brand.

The DW1800 and DW1680 offer 18x and 16x writing speed respectively and both feature BenQ’s exclusive SolidBurn technology and convenient QSuite application package. The DW1800 Re-writer offers a fast DVD RAM writing speed of up to 12x, currently the fastest available on the market and supports both DVD+R and DVD-R Double Layer recording at 8x. The Re-Writer’s offer superior optical writing with over-speed burning while maintaining an excellent burning quality.
Jimmy Ju, Business Head – IT , BenQ India, said, “The DW 1800 and DW 1680 Re-Writer’s are a step towards the brand’s commitment to its customers to provide the latest technologies in a compact user-friendly device. The SolidBurn technology along with the Qsuite support, which allows the user to make full use of features like Qscan and Test Write functions, will revolutionize the DVD re-writing experience.”

SolidBurn Technology
The BenQ SolidBurn technology uses a smart self-learning writing strategy that allows drives to burn unknown discs with solid burn quality. The BenQ SolidBurn technology addresses the age-old dilemma of disc compatibility versus burn quality. While many drive manufacturers require users to frequent firmware updates in order to ensure compatibility with new discs, the BenQ SolidBurn Technology uses a sophisticated self-learning writing strategy algorithm that eliminates the need for frequent firmware downloads and the output of the algorithm is a writing strategy with optimal jitter value.

QSuite Application Package

In addition to the SolidBurn technology, the BenQ DW1800 and DW1680 also come bundled with the QSuite application package. The QSuite application package provides easy settings to activate or deactivate the SolidBurn technology as well as other convenient functions such as, Book type Management function for a better DVD compatibility, QScan function for an optimized over-speed burning quality and Test Write function for writing simulation. Link

Below are the release notes for version 4.5 of Beyond TV, SnapStreams premier personal video recorder software product. In brief, users will now have a refined Web Admin to manage TV recordings (with lots of the improvements coming from the user community) and a better on-screen media navigation for users with large content libraries.

Also available is Beyond TV's new DVD burning plug-in that creates custom, high-polished DVDs that retain all your show's information (i.e. show name, episode title and original air date) and provides navigation menus (includes 10 sec. thumbnail video previews) with the look of the Beyond TV interface. More details are available on SnapStream Blog. Link

The MPAA, the trade group representing the film industry, contends that the company, Load 'N Go, isn't licensed to sell DVDs or rip them to customers' media players.

"This company is in the business of offering unlawful copies of DVDs," said Kori Bernards, an MPAA spokeswoman. "It makes unauthorized copies of movies and TV shows from encrypted DVDs and copies them on to portable video players."

On Friday, attempts to reach the operators of Boston-based Load 'N Go were unsuccessful. The company's Web site could not be accessed. A customer service number was disconnected and e-mails bounced back.

Fred von Lohmann, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called the suit Hollywood's attempt to force consumers to pay multiple times for the same content.

"This (lawsuit) would apply to you making a copy of your own DVDs in your own home," von Lohmann said. "The movie industry is not just fighting piracy. They are in fact trying to take away your fair use rights and sell them back to you later." Link

CMC Magnetics Corporation (CMC) exhibits it?s achievement for new HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD) and featured products such as LightScribe Disc, Hard Coating and Color Disc at GITEX 2006.

CMC said that HD DVD-R/RW for both Single Layer (15GB) and Dual Layer (30GB) media as well as the single layer BD-R/RE (25GB) discs are ready to launch.

In addition to the company's storage media portfolio including 3.5" Floppy Disc, highest speed CD-R/RW, DVDR/RW and DVD+R DL, CMC also produces a 8cm DVDR/RW for camcorder use, Hard-Coated Discs, Color Discs and the newest color-background LightScribe discs, verification by HP on October 2006. Link

HD DVD showed continued momentum in the next generation DVD race, with the format's backers announcing Thursday that they had shipped more than 1.5 million discs since launch. The HD DVD Promotion Group also touted the number of titles available, now 110, with at least another three dozen more expected before the end of the year.

The HD DVD external dive add-on for the Xbox 360 began shipping last week, initially getting positive reviews. Additionally, work continues on the second-generation players from Toshiba, with some retailers marking down their first-generation players by as much as $120 to attract consumers. It's still unclear if the format is outselling Blu-ray, however, as neither side has provided concrete sales numbers. Link

Toshiba has announced that its second-generation HD DVD players will be introduced in Japan towards the end of the year. Compliance with the EU's RoHS directive suggests a European release will follow soon after.

The HD-XF2 and HD-XA2 players are smaller than the HD-XA1 that they will succeed, and provide both improved loading and response times. The HD-XA2 is the first HD DVD player to support high-definition 1080p resolution video. It also includes Deep Color technology, an optional add-on to the HDMI interface standard, which is designed to improve the representation of colour tones and give finer colour gradation. Both players also support 480i, 480p, 1080i and 72op resolutions.



As well as playing the limited if growing selection of HD DVD movie discs, the players can also up-convert standard DVDs to a resolution of 1080i or 720p, plus 1080p on the HD-XA2, through an HDCP-capable HDMI output. Although this does not, indeed cannot, improve the quality of the DVD content itself, it does aim to improve the quality of the playback of that content on HDTVs. Link

Toshiba just couldn't let Sony hog all the high-def DVD spotlight with its delays, so it has pushed back its second generation HD DVD players in the US and abroad. Despite the lack of an official statement from Toshiba US, a dealer on AVS Forum revealed that due to problems with a chip from a third party supplier, the lower-end HD-A2 HD DVD player originally due out right about... now has slipped into the second week of December.

The HDMI 1.3-equipped, 1080p displaying $999 HD-XA2 is now scheduled to just barely make a 2006 release in the last week of the year. In Europe Toshiba has officially announced the delay, now anticipating a "quantity of units" of the rebadged HD-E1 due in December and the HD-XE1 slated for 2007. Link

Samsung Electronics, a major maker of consumer electronics, said that it would not release its highly-anticipated player that can playback both next-generation DVD standards – Blu-ray and HD DVD. The company did not explain the reasons for the decision.

“Samsung is going all-out for Blu-ray. We were the first one to market the Blu-ray player,”David Steel, vice president of Samsung Electronics, is reported to have said in an interview with The Korea Times news-paper. He also added that Steel also said that Samsung had no plan to develop HD-DVD players or combo devices, which support both the Blu-ray and HD-DVD platforms.

For many months now Samsung Electronics has been talking about intention to produce a combo player that would support both formats. In fact, Samsung was the first company to start talking about universal players for next-gen DVD format. For example, in mid-2006 the company’s executives said they did not have plans to create HD DVD only devices, but the hybrid players would be launched in late 2006 or early 2007. Link

jWIN Electronics is offering a new portable multimedia tablet-style DVD player, the iLuv i1055, that features a 7-inch TFT LCD and an iPod dock on the back. So now when you’re on the go, not only can you watch movies from your iPod on a larger screen, but you’re also charging it at the same time. The player supports three different power sources:10-volt AC adapter, 12V cigarette lighter adapter, and built-in rechargeable battery. Comes in black or white, and is priced at $229.95. Link

Set-top DVD recorders have gone from being an exciting innovation to being one step less boring than VCRs, and even the addition of upscaling technology can't save them. But although it may not inspire rampant gear lust, Samsung's DVD-R135, with its ability to record to DVD coupled with the capacity to upscale DVDs to its HDMI output, promises to be a single do-it-all DVD unit. While the DVD-R135 mostly delivers on that goal, it's not quite up to the level we've seen from Panasonic recorders such as the DMR-ES25S, which offers better LP recording quality, DVD-RAM and dual-layer recording support, and a media card slot. That said, the stylish DVD-R135 will definitely look better in your A/V rack, and its superior playback compatibility might come in handy if you already have a lot of home-brew DVDs.

Design
Samsung has made another slick-looking player, taking styling cues from the Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray player. The top half of the DVD-R135's face is glossy black with an LED to the right of the disc tray. The bottom half is silver and inward sloping, with a few front-panel control buttons such as play, record, and handy chapter forward/backward for when the remote goes missing. There's also a flip-down panel that reveals an additional A/V input, a FireWire/IEEE-1394 DV input, and a progressive-scan button. The power button on the left has a blue light encircling it, although home theater enthusiasts might be disappointed that it can't be dimmed. However, we think most people will find the design a notch above the competition.

The remote is thoughtfully designed, with enough differentiation between the buttons to make it easy to navigate by feel. The recording functions are clearly labeled and offset so that you won't hit one by accident. The only function we felt was missing from the remote was a button to easily change the output resolution; you have to go into the menus to change that. On the other hand, most people will probably set it once and never need it again.

While the menus and interface aren't very fancy, we found them easy to use. While we preferred Panasonic's menu style from a visual standpoint, Samsung's menus move faster and provide more information at a glance.

Features
For DVD recording, the Samsung DVD-R135 offers four recording modes that all have trade-offs in recording quality vs. capacity. Only one hour of highest-quality XP-mode video fits onto one single-layer DVD; SP is two hours, LP is four, and EP is either six or eight. Unlike many other players, there is no support for dual-layer discs, which offer twice the recording capacity of standard recordable DVDs. That's a big missing feature in our book. While the unit accepts write-once DVD-R and rewriteable DVD-RW blank media, there's also no support for recording to DVD-RAM discs, which is a feature we've seen on Panasonic DVD recorders. On those recorders, DVD-RAM discs offer limited DVR-like functionality, such as the ability to pause the playback of a recording while the program continues to record.

There's no aspect-ratio control on the DVD-R135, which is a feature we really liked on Samsung's nonrecording DVD-HD960. The lack of aspect-ratio control is an issue with nonanamorphic wide-screen DVDs, which don't completely fill the screen. Because some HDTVs do not have aspect-ratio control on HD inputs, it's always nice to also have the control on the DVD player. That said, it's not a common feature on other DVD-recorders we've seen.

On the upside, the DVD-R135 has one of our favorite features: flexible recording. Selecting this option allows you to completely fill a DVD with your program, maximizing the video quality. Because the recorder needs to "know" how long the program will be to optimize the quality setting, flexible recording is available only for timer recordings--which is a standard shortcoming of DVD recorders without a hard drive. This isn't a problem for fixed-length programs such as movies, but you might want to pad it on something like a football game that can run long. Another feature we liked was commercial skip, which is conveniently adjustable to 15, 30, or 60 seconds so that you can blast through ads. Link

With 10 different resolutions to choose from, the H4000 upscales not only your standard DVD titles and HVDs, but also your "home-made" DVDs, not to mention SRT, SUB and all other MPEG4 formats such as DivX and XviD stored in your CDRs and DVDRs at up to 4500 kbit bit-rate.

VGA/RGB-HV outputs even give you the ability to upscale to 1080i on your projectors. And with 576i video output via HDMI, the H4000 is ideal for your external video scalers.

The H4000 supports both PAL and NTSC and is capable of playing back just about every popular format available. With a screen saver feature that prevents your plasma screen from burning out, the player also lets you adjust color and display, giving you complete control over image brightness, contrast, black lever and tint. To top it all off, the H4000?s Smart Play feature lets you skip all those annoying trailers and go straight your movie. Link

The missing consumer link in the move to HDTV is a universal DVD player that would accommodate both the new HD DVD and Blue-ray formats. Such a player could be coming soon, thanks to Broadcom Corp., which on Thursday unveiled a system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution that aims to be a foundation for companies looking to build dual-format player.

The Broadcom single-chip BCM7440 Blue-ray/HD DVD SoC features a software stack complaint with both of the warring DVD specifications.

Will there be a universal player, Doug Grearson, Broadcom senior marketing manager, was asked. "The short answer is, absolutely," Grearson said. "It helps that the two formats are fairly close to begin with. Once you can read the disks you have reduced it to reading bitstreams."

Grearson noted that the video and audio compression solutions used by each format are virtually the same. Link

Machines capable of playing both Blu-ray and HD-DVD disks will emerge next year to short-circuit the format war in next-generation DVD.

Leading chip vendors such as Broadcom, STMicroelectronics and NEC Electronics told EE Times they are developing ICs that allow high-definition optical drives and players to comply with the two competing specifications. These suppliers appear to have specific knowledge that their potential customers—whose names they declined to disclose—will roll out universal players as early as 2007.

Although confused consumers might welcome a box that resolved the incompatibility between HD-DVD (HD) and Blu-ray Disc (BD), its advent could also put a crimp in immediate sales. "Many consumers will hold off buying a next-generation DVD player until the universal player hits the market," said Richard Doherty, research director at the Envisioneering Group (Seaford, N.Y.).

Broadcom Corp. has already shipped the industry's first dual HD/BD decoder chip, designed into the first-generation Toshiba HD-DVD player and into Samsung's Blu-ray Disc player. Broadcom will also make its next-generation platform--a much more highly integrated system-on-chip that is scheduled for announcement soon—comply with both formats, while adding support for BD's latest profile. Link

Lite-On IT, the largest Taiwan-based maker of optical disc drives (ODDs), has lowered its OEM/ODM prices for half-height (H/H) 16x DVD burners to US$27-28, but some expected orders were shifted to Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology (TSST), the company's main competitor, because TSST offered prices as low as below US$25, according to industry sources in Taiwan. Link

If you love cooked-books math as much as we do, get ready for some fun with the forthcoming $200 Xbox 360 HD DVD drive bundle: as reader Edison points out, initial shipments are bundled with King Kong on HD DVD (MSRP $40) and the Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote (MSRP $30); if you apply for an Amazon card when pre-ordering the unit (did we mention it's now available for pre-order?) that drops it down another $30, making your unit "$100." We know, that's some pretty shady math to justify yet another $200 on the old credit card, so instead we'd recommend you just say you're treating yourself for being such a good girl/boy this year and not worry so much about what the thing's going to cost. C'mon, you're worth it. Link

The new DSW1812P form AOpen push up the speed to 18X DVD±R burning and 12X DVD-RAM read and writes.

Aside from 18X DVD±R, 12X DVD-RAM burning, the DSW1812P provides 8X DVD±R DL (Double/Dual Layer), 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-RW, 48X CD-R and 32X CD-RW. To ensure faster burning process, DSW1812P built in 2 MB memory for buffering.

DSW1812P features AOpen's Auto Balance System (ABS) for decreasing the vibration of disc cause by high speed burning and improving burning quality; Noise-control System (NCS) for dropping noise; and Running Optimum Power Control (ROPC) for high precession of LASER power control. Link

Fighting in the Blu corner was Samsung's £1000 BD-P1000 player (available now), which took on Toshiba's US version of the £400 HD-E1 (out later this month). To ensure that the half-hourly demo was of epic proportions, the What Hi Fi? staff rigged-up the players to an absurdly high-end system, which included a huge Screen Research screen, three subwoofers, a 1080p SIM2 projector, six surround channels and some award-winning QED cables.

And then it was time for battle, with lengthy demos of X-Men and Batman Begins showing off each format's audio and visual capabilities. The tussle was too close to call, with perhaps the Toshiba edging it because of the better value, although with additional demos of Uvem's Media Center PC and some Jools Holland footage from the BBC's high-def it's well worth witnessing it in person (see link below).

In related news, LG has also announced its BD100 Blu-Ray player (pictured) at the show. The smart unit is slated for a release in Spring 2007, although a price is yet to be confirmed. Link

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has announced that the 5 December release of Miami Vice will mark the first HD DVD release of a movie that was shot in full high-definition. With features like Microsoft's HDi technology and TrueHD lossless sound, Miami Vice will be one of the most technologically superior movies on the HD DVD format, says Universal.

The movie, which is a remake of the classic TV show of the same name, stars Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell as two undercover cops in the city of Miami. The film was shot entirely in high definition, meaning that when it is released on 5 December, it will actually provide a true HD output. Link

While Lite-On IT is expected to start shipping 18x DVD burners to Hewlett-Packard (HP) this month, the growing tension in competition between Lite-On IT, Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS) and Toshiba-Samsung Storage Technology (TSST) facilitated OEM prices to further drop, according to sources at Taiwan-based optical disk drive (ODD) makers. The sources detailed that this month, Lite-On IT starts shipping internal (940i) and external (model 940e) models of 18x DVD burners to HP. Link

HP are set to launch the dvd940i a 18x speed internal drive with DVD±R/±RW and DVD-RAM read/write, ±R double-layer capability, and LightScribe direct disc labeling. HP will also introduce an
external version of this drive: HPdvd940e.

HP's drive will offer high speeds and double-layer recording, and it's LightScribe Version 1.2 - ready for high-contrast labeling. It lets users, edit and share up to 8.5 GB of video, photos, and multimedia presentations on one double-layer disc - and quickly store back up and transport files on DVDs and Cds. The dvd940i/e records double-layer DVDs at up to 8X, recordable DVDs at up to 18X, rewritable DVDs at up to 8X and DVD-RAM at up to 12X. Link

Sony's new DRU-820A supersedes the excellent 810A and features 16x DVD-R/+R recording and playback in addition to all the usual bells and whistles. As you'd expect all the formats are covered including DVD-RW/+RW/RAM in single and dual-layer modes, not to mention full CD-ROM/R/RW support. Nero 6.6 is bundled, and if you're style concious, it comes with a black fascia to replace the default beige. A USB/Firewire external version is also available, though it's a tad pricier. Link

The DW1800 offers a fast DVD-RAM writing speed of up to 12x, currently the fastest available on the market and supports both DVD+R and DVD-R Double Layer recording at 8x.

Equipped with BenQ's exclusive SolidBurn technology, the DW1800 and DW1680 DVD Re-Writer offer superior optical writing with over-speed burning while maintaining at an excellent burning quality. Users can take advantage of the QSuite application package which includes a variety of convenient functions such as QScan function and Test Write function.

The BenQ SolidBurn technology uses a smart self-learning writing strategy that allows drives to burn unknown discs with solid burn quality. The BenQ SolidBurn technology addresses the age old dilemma of disc compatibility versus burn quality. While many drive manufacturers require users to frequent firmware updates in order to ensure compatibility with new discs, the BenQ SolidBurn Technology uses a sophisticated self-learning writing strategy algorithm that eliminates the need for frequent firmware downloads and the output of the algorithm is a writing strategy with optimal jitter value. Link

The DW1800 offers a fast DVD-RAM writing speed of up to 12x, currently the fastest available on the market and supports both DVD+R and DVD-R Double Layer recording at 8x.

Equipped with BenQ's exclusive SolidBurn technology, the DW1800 and DW1680 DVD Re-Writer offer superior optical writing with over-speed burning while maintaining at an excellent burning quality. Users can take advantage of the QSuite application package which includes a variety of convenient functions such as QScan function and Test Write function.

The BenQ SolidBurn technology uses a smart self-learning writing strategy that allows drives to burn unknown discs with solid burn quality. The BenQ SolidBurn technology addresses the age old dilemma of disc compatibility versus burn quality. While many drive manufacturers require users to frequent firmware updates in order to ensure compatibility with new discs, the BenQ SolidBurn Technology uses a sophisticated self-learning writing strategy algorithm that eliminates the need for frequent firmware downloads and the output of the algorithm is a writing strategy with optimal jitter value. Link

The new PX-755UF DVD/CD drive is the first Plextor external drive to feature 10X DVD+R Double-Layer recording speed. Users can quickly burn up to four hours of high-quality MPEG-2/DVD video on a single 8.5 GB disc using 10X DVD+R Double-Layer media (or 6X DVD-R on Dual Layer media). This makes the Plextor PX-755UF ideal for home users who want to record onto DVD disc digital movies purchased and downloaded from Internet sites such as Amazon, iTunes, and YouTube.

"The PX-755UF is a versatile device that boasts not only industry leading recording speeds, but also premium software features that enable users to fine-tune their recordings for maximum quality and speed," said Michael Arbisi, vice president of channel sales for Plextor. "The fact that the external drive has a dual FireWire-USB interface means that it can be easily shared around a small office or professional studio."

PX-755UF DVD+/-R/RW Drive

The PX-755UF drive delivers state-of-the-art DVD recording speeds of 16X DVD+/-R on single-layer media, 10X DVD+R on Double-Layer media, and 6X DVD-R on Dual-Layer media. The drive also supports 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-RW, 16X max DVD-ROM, 48X CD-R, 24X CD-RW, and 48X max CD-ROM.

The external PX-755UF features a dual interface with Hi-Speed USB and IEEE 1394 (FireWire), enabling users to share a single external high-performance DVD/CD burner among multiple Apple® Macintosh® and Microsoft Windows-based PCs. Burst data transfer rates of 480 Mbps (USB) or 400 Mbps (FireWire) allow a user to burn a 4.7 GB DVD+R disc in approximately six minutes. The PX-755UF drive features a 2 MB buffer and Buffer Underrun Proof Technology to prevent buffer underrun errors and allow multi-tasking. Link

Plextor today announced its new PX-755UF external DVD±RW/CD-RW burner. The new PX-755UF features FireWire and Hi-Speed USB interfaces for universal compatibility with systems running Mac OS X and Windows operating systems. New to the Plextor PX-755UF is a faster DVD + R dual-layer burning capability. The new PX-755UF is capable of burning DVD+R dual-layer media at 10X while DVD-R dual layer media is limited to 6x. Regular single-layer DVD±R media is burnt at 16x while CD-R media is burnt at 48x. Link

Some were a bit disheartened to learn about Lite-On stepping out, or at least stepping down from, the consumer optical drive market. Lite-On has recently come out to clarify their actions, due to some misinterpretation. They are not ceasing sales of all optical drives, and the changes will only result in them ceasing sales of standalone DVD recorders. Due to low profit, Lite-On is dropping their set-top recorders Link