Following on from our story on the Fujitsu notebook with the integrated DVD Writer we just recieved this press release from Toshiba about their DVD-RW notebook solution: Satellite(TM) 5200-P0E.

The Satellite 5200 offers the ultimate in high-performance gaming andoutstanding graphic-display capabilities. It comes with a Lifestyle Bay for
additional flexibility and multimedia capabilities and can accept a second hard disk drive, second battery pack bridge, media adapter or second optical media drive for added performance and customized flexibility. Through an additional battery pack bridge, the Satellite 5200 can provide more than five extra hours of battery life and power supply to enable faster performance especially for the system's DVD-R/RW multi-function drive.

The Satellite 5200 features multimedia capabilities including an Intel(R)Pentium(R) 4 2.0GHz-M processor, NVIDIA(R) GeForce4(TM) 460 Go graphics processing unit and 64MB of DDR memory, and up to 100GB hard disk drive (HDD).This model also includes an infrared remote control, multi-functional C-Pad with calculator, calendar, and signature functions, blue backlight LCD CD display and powerful sound system featuring Harman Kardon(R) speakers with a built-in subwoofer.

Datasafe Media today announced the launch of their new premium range: "Datawrite". Datasafe say that the new brand is the vehicle for quality products which are being targeted primarily at retail outlets for the benefit of discerning customers who demand quality as well as value for money. The first product to be launched is the Datawrite Classic DVD-R which many of you would recognise as the old Datasafe Classic - because it's exactly the same!

A spokesman said that Datawrite products will be more expensive, in line with the quality of the brand, and that only a few of the highest quality Datasafe products would be re-branded as Datawrite. "We expect to eat into the market share of premium brands such as TDK and Verbatim, and convince the customers that premium quality does not have to go with the high prices associated with this end of the market. The balance of the new range will be made up of new premium quality products like the Datawrite DVD+R which have been specially commissioned to be of superior quality, but at a lower price than other top brands names."

When asked if the high quality of the Datawrite products would mean that prices would go up, the spokesman responded, "To be honest we always felt that we were selling Datasafe Classic DVD-R for too low a price." However our sources in the industry tell us that street prices are unlikely to change as resellers will absorb any small price increase on this popular disc in order to compete for market share.

Click for an independant review of the Datawrite Classic DVD-R.

Japan's major personal computer makers will be unveiling new notebook computers at this week's World PC Expo show, which begins on Wednesday in Tokyo. Among the several computers announced by Fujitsu was the FMV-Biblo NB18, which is a multimedia computer that includes a built-in TV tuner and DVD-R/RW drive. Based on an Intel Pentium 4-M processor running at 1.8 GHz, its features include a 15-inch TFT LCD with XGA resolution, 256MB of memory, 60GB hard disk drive, four USB 2.0 ports, and slots for both SD and MemoryStick memory cards. It will cost around $2320. (Approx UK price £1499.99.)

Although the Pioneer A05 wont be available for 5 to 6 weeks due to software issues Pioneer have issued this press release.

Pioneer, the market leader and chief innovator in the field of DVD technology, today launches its latest and fastest DVD-R/RW writer, the DVR-A05. Benefiting from the enhancements of previous generations, the DVR-A05 takes DVD writing to a new level by burning at twice the speed of the DVR-A04 to meet the new industry media standard² of a 4x write speed to DVD-R and 2x to DVD-RW, ahead of competing brands. The writer is also capable of writing CD-R media with a 16x write speed and CD-RW at 8x, combined with a higher read speed of 32x CD-ROM and 6x DVD-ROM.

MEGAN Media Holdings Bhd, the largest manufacturer of compact disc recordables (CD-R) and digital versatile disc recordables (DVD-R) in Malaysia, intends to penetrate third world markets like India, South America and South-East Asia, according to its executive chairman Datuk Dr Mohd Adam Che Harun.

Steps are being taken to curtail the bootleg DVD market that has sprung up on the strength of the Market being flooded with cheap DVD-R by manufacturers such as Bulkpaq and Datasafe.

One of the main way that “pirates“ get new releases is to go into a cinema with a handheld camcorder and record a movie from the big screen.
New releases are available on DVD-R within hours of them being released. There is an interesting article on News.com, which looks at ways of curtailing this practice.

Datasafe Media have have certainly been busy this week. They have launched their highly rated Classic 2x DVD-R.

Yesterday they provided us with samples of a yellow 1x DVD-R and today we received samples of the first ever Ritek manufactured Datasafe DVD-R released in the UK. The disc which has exactly the same characteristics as the Traxdata DVD-R is according to our sources is going to be a fraction of the price of the current Traxdata DVD-R disc.

Initial comparisons of the disc show no differances between the Traxdata and the "new" Datasafe DVD-R.

An update to our story regarding pre-release versions of the Pioneer 105 being in circulation: Our regular contributer Flash has managed to get his hands on a manual from a company that has one of these Pioneer 105.

If you want a look at a manual for the Pioneer 105 in PDF format click here.

An update to our story regarding Datasafe selling 2x discs as 1x speed discs.

Bulkpaq have reacted fiercely to this practise and will next week be launching a highly compatible 2 speed disc at a bargain basement price. The disc, which is already for sale in mainland Europe, has received rave reviews.

Our sources tell us that bulkpaq are planning to annihilate the 2x DVD-R market in the UK with the pricing of these new discs. Check out your local disc retailer next week :)

Click here for a picture of the New Bulkpaq Disc.

Pre release versions of the Pioneer 105 are now being touted around the market. One midlands internet retailer has one for sale on his website for £4999.99 another well known internet retailer is offering customers the chance to win one in a raffle. So if you cant wait for 6 weeks for the official product you know what to do :)

Datasafe Media Ltd have introduced a budget DVD-R disc which will be available for sale from Monday from all retailers. As of yet we have no indication of street price.

Click here for a picture of the New Disc.

Mitsubishi published a press release today notifying of a problem with their DVD-R disks unable to burn successfully on the new Sony 4 speed DVD writers. They have initiated a DVD-R media exchange program in Japan.

Pioneer have just released version 1.33 of their firmware for the Pioneer A04/104. This firmware allows 2x burning on CMC manufactured media but not on Ritek manufactured media. Click Here For New Firmware.

Vnunet.com has an article about Hauppauge Computer Works who have launched a product that brings digital broadcasts to any TV or PC.
The DEC2000-t is not the first digital device to provide free-to-air digital terrestrial broadcasts to TVs, but claims to be the first that links to a PC for added functionality.
When hooked up via the USB port, the bundled software allows the PC to replay recorded programmes. Programmes can be recorded to disk and played back, or recorded onto a DVD-R drive for saving and playback on any DVD player.
Click Here For The Full Article.

"The Tag Company, a leading provider of electronic security tagging solutions, has launched the Red Tag(R) DVD and Game Security System to home entertainment retailers throughout the UK and Europe.

Znet has an update on the Microsoft about turn on DVD copying in their new operating system.
Take me to the Znet Website.

The DVD forum is in the middle of deciding the fate of "DRT-DM" (Distributed Read Time Defect Management) for DVD-RW format. The DVD+RW format already has announced plans for adopting Mt. Rainier with the 3rd generation DVD+R/+RW recorders, while so far, the DVD Forum didn't announced anything similar. Now DVD Forum considers to adopt similar technology to Mt. Rainier for the DVD-RW format!
The following article comes from original Japanese text so there might be errors:

"...The main difference between DRT-DM and the Mt.Rainier, is that DRT-DM refers not only for data record, but also for real time uses (like DVD-Video recording format). The DRT-DM format will adopt the "UDF v2.0" as the file system. There will be 5 stages of protection, two levels for real time record and three levels where high reliability is required The three levels are "Light Weight Defect", "Heavy Weight Defect" and "Media Hard Defect". At the first level (Light Weight Defect) the error can be restored using the error collection, but it won't protect against future serious errors. At the second level (Heavy Weight Defect), errors are recovered with the retry and error collection, but also there is the possibility that future errors will not be recovered causing seeking error. The two levels cannot be used with AV record since there would be a decrease of performance.

When the new DRT-DM format adopted, it would need Microsoft's support for WinXP and future operating systems..."

Microsoft has made a dramatic about-turn in its attempt to prevent end users from recording TV shows onto their hard drives and then burning them onto DVD Media and distributing them to friends.HP is the exclusive US Distributor for the new Windows XP “Media Centre” edition of Microsoft’s flagship operating system Windows XP.
One of the key features of the computers running this operating system is that it allowed consumers to record TV shows to the hard drive, this would allow consumers to stop live action TV for instant replays or schedules recording of future shows. Microsoft had initially integrated into the operating system a copy protection system that meant TV recordings could only be viewed on a single pc. Last Tuesday a spokesman for Microsoft confirmed this copy protection system had been removed from their latest operating system.
This decision has now put HP on a level playing field with Sony, who sell Vaio pcs and laptop than can record shows to CD or DVD and also be distributed across a home network.
This good news has left HP with a rather embarrassing situation of having to do software fixes on its entire range of “Media Centre” Computers.
The HP “Media Centre” range has integrated DVD rewriters as standard will be available in Europe within the next four weeks.
Calum Lind.

The shortage of key components could put off ongoing and planned shipments of DVD-RW and DVD+RW drives in the current quarter, with the delay likely to extend into next year, Taiwan’s computer drive makers said.

Click here for more details.