Sony has released a new firmware update for their Sony DRU-500 A/U DVD burners. The firmware version is 2.0f and here is what's new: Improvement of entry and reading efficiency as well as better burns on crap (ie mass eccentric) media and better CD Audio compatability.

You can download the firmware here.

Accesstek announced a new DVD recorder supporting both DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW formats. The supported DVD-R/+R writing speed is the 4x, while the Sanyo HD-BURN feature is included to offer twice recording capacity on CD-R media.

We have just had an email from Datawrite with stats which show that their 4x Datawrite DVD-R disc is the best selling 4x DVD-R in Europe. The disc which has had some rave reviews is outselling everything added together!! on a 4:1 basis.

Related Stories:
Here is Flash's review of Datawrite's budget 4x DVD-R's.
Will Bulkpaq Catch Up On Datawrite's Lead?

Plextor has announced a new CD-RW drive that can squeeze 40 percent more data into standard blank discs. The Plextor Premium can pack in 980MB of data into a 700MB (80 minute) disc and 1.2GB into an 880MB (99 minute) disc, according to Plextor.

A DVD will debut this month in an unusual dual pack: Two discs will contain the same video, but one disc is for your PC, encoded in WM9 (Windows Media Player 9), and the other is a standard DVD for your living room player. Why view the WM9 version at all? It offers higher playback quality, say Microsoft representatives. They claim the quality is more than two times better than standard DVDs.

Seeing surging demand for DVD-R discs, Taiwan’s Nan Ya Plastics has made plans to boost its DVD-R disc production in the near future, according to company sources. According to the Chinese-language Commercial Times, Nan Ya plans to spend over NT$2 billion to build more than 30 DVD-R disc production lines. The paper also reported that the company expected to become the largest DVD-R disc supplier in Taiwan by mid-2003.

A prominent computer security researcher has proposed a technical solution aimed at forging a middle ground in the increasingly bitter battle by Hollywood and Silicon Valley over the best way to protect digital content from consumer piracy. Cryptography Research has begun circulating its proposal, which it calls Self-Protecting Digital Content, among entertainment companies. It plans to make it available publicly this week, in an effort to break the impasse over the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which Congress passed in 1998 with strong lobbying support from Hollywood and other creators of intellectual property.

A new Linux-based set-top box has been announced by Video Without Boundaries Inc. (Ft. Lauderdale, FL). The VWB-3000 "MediaReady Internet/DVD Player", which is roughly the size of a normal DVD player, combines the functions of DVD player and Intenet access. Consumers can use the new device to browse the web, play streaming media, access their email, watch DVDs, and "even sing karaoke from any television," the company said.

Sony Computer Entertainment, which makes the best-selling PlayStation 2 home game console, said on Monday it would add a rewritable DVD player to machines sold in Japan while nudging the retail price slightly higher. The new consoles, due to hit the market on May 15, will be able to read the DVD-R/-RW and DVD+R/+RW formats used by many home DVD recorders, although it will not be compatible with the rival DVD-RAM recording format.

Taiwanese IC ('Integrated Circuit' or 'chip') designer Sunplus Technology’s decision to partner with Samsung Electronics may be aimed at challenging Mediatek’s dominance of the IC design market, industry insiders said. The move could have a lasting effect upon the type of chips you will find in future DVD hardware.

While the DVD Forum continues quibbling over a new blue-laser based HD-DVD standard, it looks like Microsoft has been busy developing a new video compression method that can show high quality HD video at bitrates similar to current DVD's (between 5-8mbps).

Philips is adding broadband connectivity and streaming media capabilities to its reference design for DVD recorders, a sign of interest among consumer electronics makers in supporting the playback of digital media. They have announced that Philips has enhanced its Nexperia DVD+RW reference design to include a media chip that will aid in the processing of multiple media formats, such as MPEG-4 and DivX, as well as adding the ability to connect to the Internet.

Thanks to Flash we have a new review of the disc Bulkpaq hopes will corner the budget 4x DVD-R market.

Thanks to our regular contributor Flash we have a new review of a flash for the Pioneer A05 to allow DVD-Video Ripping at 12x.

Our sources in the industry tell us that the Bulkpaq 4x DVD-R disc will start shipping this week. Bulkpaq will however face stiff competition from Datawrites Budget 4x DVD-R disc which was released last week.

A quick trawl round the internet shows that Datawrites disc has received rave reviews from users: here are some of the comments we saw.

"So far I have burned 4 discs at 4x on the Pioneer 105. I have found playback on the to be pefect"

"Got to agree... I just bought 25 for £33.50 from a computer fair and it has to be said they are the nuts for the price"

"bought 600 of the babies and in my book I wont be using a Ritek DVD-R again as these where 40p cheaper. So far I havent had a bad burn. I Have burned over 60 using a 6 drive duplicater"

"they do live up to the standards of the 2 speed classics and being cheaper than the 4x ritek"

"These are exactly like the 2 speed Datwrite grey tops except they write at 4 speed. The quality of the discs is good with no probs whatsover with playback."

"Got quite a few of these dvdr the other day, burned them all and handed out and not one back so cant be bad….you want a budget 4x reliable DVDR then i think this is the dvdr to use... Update: Now burned over 200 of these and so far have not had a single coaster."

"I got my 50 of these discs today and so far they have been as good as any top of the range disc available, fast loading times in games, fast chapter skipping in movies, everything plays fine right to the edge of the disc. I also get perfect graphs with nero cd speed, and faster average read speeds than ANY 1/2x dvd-r i've ever used."

"Well i did take the plunge& buy some of these disc's at £1.30 each @ the local computer fair tonight nice price seeing as 2x were £1.25!!!!! .only burnt one so far it took 18 min on my sony 500a so i guess 4x. played all the way through with no problems."

We can only wait and see if the new Bulkpaq disc comes up to the standard of Datawrites 4x Disc.

Related stories:
Flash reviews the Datawrite 4x DVD-R.

Ulead Systems, a leading software developer of digital video, image editing, 3D animation, and DVD authoring applications, today announced StudioQuartet, a complete digital media production suite for video professionals and aficionados. StudioQuartet is a collection of Ulead's professional digital media software on one DVD at a cost-effective price point. It offers videographers comprehensive digital media tools for image editing; graphics creation; 3D text and object animation; and full-resolution, real-time video editing, including rotoscoping and powerful CG tools. It also includes advanced DVD authoring and support for a wide range of traditional and emerging format types, including MicroMV and DVD-VR. StudioQuartet is expected to ship June 1st, 2003, for $795 for the first 90 days and $895 thereafter.

Globalstor, an experienced provider of digital video solutions for the broadcast and video industries, introduced the DVD TransPro mobile digital dailies solution today at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention. Designed to give video professionals the ability to produce dailies in the field, DVD TransPro can be connected directly to the camera for convenient, instant dailies encoding. Importing both time code and chapter points with scene and take information of any associated dailies video, DVD TransPort can then copy the video directly to tape or DVD-R using a simple, one-step burn process.

A new anti-piracy technique embeds copy-protection or other data inside audio files, even if they are compressed or recorded through an analogue connection. SunnComm Technologies, one of several companies developing anti-CD copying products, has licensed a new technique that can hide data, video, software or an identifying watermark inside music files.

In a survey released today by 321 Studios, makers of the premier DVD authoring software, 45 percent consumers named Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Collectors Box Set as the top limited edition DVD. Motion picture studios issue limited edition DVDs, available to the public for one time only and full of exclusive features. DVD collectors race to acquire these valuable releases before time runs out. The survey also revealed that consumers value their irreplaceable entertainment investments.

Krauss-Maffei will show a new mould temperature control technology at MediaTech 2003 next month that it claims will enable DVD discs to be produced on cycle times of less than three seconds.