March 6th, 2008

Panasonic released a new firmware for its LF-PB271JD Blu-ray drive, adding support for the new LTH Blu-ray disc.

The Japanese company is the first ODD manufacturer to offer such an update. The firmware Ver1.01 adds 4x reading/writing support for LTH BD-R discs to Panasonic’s LF-PB271JD internal Blu-ray burner. Panasonic will also release a firmware upgrade for its 2x BD burner, the LF-MB121JD, later this year.

The LTH write-once BD-R media feature an organic dye recording layer, making them different that the currently available BD-R discs that use inorganic materials. In LTH BD-R media, the reflectivity of the organic dye recording layer increases (High) after recording.

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February 19th, 2008

The battle is officially over, and Blu-ray beat HD DVD by TKO. HD DVD died a very quick death today as many news outlets are reporting so far. The most concise and unbiased information I could find is offered below.

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

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February 11th, 2008

Aleratec Inc. announced its innovative new 1:3 Copy Cruiser Blu LS(tm), a LightScribe-enabled disc publisher supporting Blu-ray recording. The 1:3 Copy Cruiser Blu LS incorporates three, 6x, SATA Blu-ray drives that can simultaneously produce up to 3 silkscreen quality, direct to disc DVD or CD LightScribe labels or up to 3 Blu-ray, DVD or CD disc copies in record time. The 1:3 Copy Cruiser Blu LS has an eSATA connection to your computer for the most stable labeling and duplicating processes.

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January 1st, 2008

We thought we’d take a second to wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2008. Happy New Year!

We have many new features planned for the site as well as the addition of several guest authors, so stay tuned for more CD and DVD media news!

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December 1st, 2007

PC Magazine’s article about the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray was something that I somehow overlooked and didn’t comment on here. Let me get caught up right now. From the article:

The two technologies don’t work together, and it is very unlikely that both formats will survive. Both kinds of players will work with “old-fashioned” DVDs, but if you want a high-definition video experience on a disc, right now you will have to choose one or the other. The next PC you buy may come with the option to include either an HD DVD drive or a Blu-ray drive. And with standalone players selling for $500 to $1,000, guessing wrong could be expensive.

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October 28th, 2007

Pioneer Corporation (Head Office: Meguro-ku, Tokyo; President: Tamihiko Sudo) and Mitsubishi Kagaku media Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Shigenori Otsuka) have together succeeded in commercialization of recordable Blu-ray Discs (BD-R) with organic dye in the recording layer, and also in developing technology for multiple layered, high speed recording for BD-R with metal nitride in the recording layer.

BD-R with Organic Dye Recording Film
Both companies had been collaborating to develop BD-R with dye since 2004. With this development, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media was responsible for improving organic dye recording materials and producing sample discs, while Pioneer was responsible for evaluating the samples, as well as disc structure design based on verification and simulations for compatibility with disc drives. The synergy of these two areas of expertise has led to a successful development of the 2X organic dye BD-R.

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October 18th, 2007

Sony NEC Optiarc Europe GmbH has launched its first Blu-ray Disc Combo (BD Combo) for notebooks.

The Optiarc BC-5500A supports BD playback at double speed as well as read and write of conventional DVD and CD media, giving even mid-range notebooks the BD capability that is currently a privilege of the top-of-line notebooks.

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September 26th, 2007

Research company Forrester predicts that the format war will continue for at least 18 months, but says that Blu-ray will lose it in the end if they don’t change their tactics.

Blu-ray failed to win when they had the chance and ultimately will end up losing if they don’t lower their hardware prices down to the HD DVD level, the report concludes.

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August 28th, 2007

Alienware’s Area-51 7500, Aurora 7500, Area-51 ALX and Aurora ALX desktops are the industry’s first and only systems to offer 4x Blu-ray Disc drives.

“Two of the core principles that allow Alienware to eclipse other PC manufacturers are speed and innovation; the introduction of 4x Blu-ray Disc drives into our award-winning desktops further propels those ideals,” said Bryan de Zayas, Associate Director of Product Marketing for Alienware. “By being first to market with 4x Blu-ray Disc drives, we are giving entertainment fans an exclusive first chance to take advantage of dramatically faster read/write performance, in addition to massive disc storage capacity and stunning high definition viewing.”

All I can say is that it’s about freakin’ time someone started including advanced drives in desktop systems.

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August 12th, 2007

High-def has notched up another milestone, with combined Blu-ray and HD DVD disc sales overtaking VHS during the first half of 2007.

That’s according to a new research report from Video Business, which found that during the first six months of the year, consumers bought more Blu-ray and HD DVD discs than half inch videotapes for the first time in history.

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