Tesco yesterday began piloting the use of controversial electronic radio tags in DVD packaging, at a supermarket in Sandhurst. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, which are used to track the movement of every individual product on the shelves, have been criticized by human rights campaigners as the first step towards a 'Big Brother' style surveillance system.

Electronics manufacturers are working together to let consumers play movie and music content from any device in their homes. Intel, Sony and a host of Japanese electronics manufacturers plan to propose a standard for allowing consumers to freely swap movies and music downloaded from the Internet between all the devices in their homes.

DivXNetworks the company that created the revolutionary DivX video compression technology, and Ulead, a leading developer of DVD authoring software, have announced a comprehensive software licensing and product integration partnership. Under the terms of the agreement, Ulead has licensed DivX video compression technology to distribute to its OEM partners along with VideoStudio and MediaStudio Pro video editing software.

Sonic Solutions have announced the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) that it is shipping Sonic Scenarist 3, the latest version of its industry-standard professional DVD authoring system for feature film and commercial DVD title production. Scenarist 3 is available through Sonic's distribution and reseller partners, with systems ranging in price from $4,999 to $35,000. So now you know what to ask for for Christmas.

Disposable DVDs may have a short shelf life in more ways than one. With major US retailers such as Wal-Mart already selling more cut-price DVDs, industry experts say it is far from certain whether consumers would be eager to shell out the $7 (£4.38) that Disposable DVDs are currently marketed at for a DVD movie they can't keep or watch beyond a 48-hour deadline.

Thanks to increased shipments of recordable DVD drives, Taiwanese optical storage drive makers in general enjoyed growth in August revenues. In addition to shipment volumes, the relatively high average selling prices (ASPs) of the DVD drivers also contributed to the growth.

Microsoft's surprise decision to submit Windows Media Series 9 as a standards candidate to Hollywood underscores the software giant's ambitions to take its multimedia technology beyond the Net, as well as the considerable barriers it faces.

A Datawrite spokesman confirmed today that the company planned to re-launch the Datawrite Red DVD-R. The company cited the fact that their market research shows there is a demand for a budget no frills disc and they reel the reincarnated 4x disc will fill this void. As of yet there is no confirmation as to the manufacturer of the discs but our sources in the industry claim the disc will either be manufactured by Infodisc or Leadata.

It is envisaged the disc will be priced at a similar level to the Bulkpaq 4x which is currently Europe’s biggest selling 4x DVD-R disc.

Editors Note:
Even though the disc isn't released for a few days we have decided to include the new Datawrite Red v2 in our Best Budget 4x DVD-R poll: Vote now for the best Budget 4x disc.

Sony lifted its skirt an inch this week to reveal the beginnings of a game plan on music, which is could potentially copy on film too, with its US head of Sony's entertainment operations telling journalists that Sony would launch its own online music services.

Tired of listening to the same old sound coming from your overplayed Britany and Celine Dion CDs? Well a new discovery is bringing a new lease of life to these soon-to-be coasters. Here's what to do: Smear yoghurt on CD. Let it dry. Slide the disc into the player. Crank up the volume. And hear that music in a completely fresh, possibly spine-chilling way.

Philips will launch the JackRabbit 4 in November of 2003. This new model in the portable storage JackRabbit series will be the first to also support DVD burning. The drive supports 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW recording. The drive will write CD-Rs at 16x and CD-RWs at 10x and will have different recording speeds when used through the USB1.1 interface.

An industry group representing Grokster, Limewire and other peer-to-peer companies is offering to cover the costs for a 12-year-old New York girl who agreed to pay record labels $2,000 (£1,280) to settle a file-swapping lawsuit.

A far-reaching project for stopping copyrighted song-swapping could raise serious privacy objections, not least from the ISPs who will be expected to implement it. The ambitious project is nearing completion though technical problems have forced its developers to limit their plans.

Big Brother technology that already allows people to be tracked through their mobile phones could soon be installed in household objects, tipping off police if they are stolen. Televisions, DVD players and computers could be fitted with microchips identifying their location and their normal proximity to each other, automatically alerting police if they change unexpectedly, according to an industry boffin.

Maxell has announced that it will increase prices on all of its CD-R media products effective immediately. The company added that the amount of the increase was still under consideration, but expects it to be from 10% to 15%.

Have you noticed the strange markings that have started to appear during some recent movie screenings? The dots, which may appear in a 'T' shape on only one or two frames are barely visible to the naked eye but are most likely used by MPAA to track the source of illegal movie copies spread on the internet.

News Corp chairman and media mogul Rupert Murdoch says the satellite television industry is likely to offer personal video recorders for free or at very low costs within a year, as it fights to retain subscribers and win customers from the cable industry.

Sharp has announced the introduction into the Japanese market of two new combination hard disk/DVD recorders, the DV-HR350 and DV-HR300, which are set to be the industry's thinnest recorders at just 59 mm thick.

About a quarter of men in Britain would rather spend the evening alone with a new gadget than with their wife or partner, a new survey claims.
The Stuff magazine-commissioned survey of 952 people, conducted by NOP, showed that one in four men have avoided the marital bed in favour of playing computer games, Web surfing or late-night DVD watching. "The revelation... confirms many wives are now widowed by a gadget rather than by a love rival," the men's magazine concluded.

Verbatim have announced the industry's first 32x Ultra Speed + CD-RW discs. With the ability to write and rewrite at speeds of up to 4.8MB/sec -- the industry's highest rewriting speed -- users can burn a 10MB file in about 2 seconds.