NEWS IN BRIEF
PANASONIC is the latest company pushing Blu-ray’s technological envelope towards 3D. The Japanese manufacturer announced it will showcase 3D technology based on the Blu-ray format at the upcoming CEATEC show in Japan. The method requires the viewer to wear synchronized shuttered glasses that will differentiate between the two simultaneous 1080p images sent to the display. The Blu-ray disc stores both video encodes on the same disc, and decodes both images at the same time. The result is a surprisingly life-like 3D experience. Philips demonstrate 3D on Blu-ray at IBC 2008 earlier this month.

THOMAS Casey, CFO of Blockbuster said at a recent investor conference in New York that he doesn’t think Blu-ray’s replacement of DVD is “going to be nearly like DVD replacing VHS” and that consumers will be slow at swapping their DVD libraries over to Blu-ray, reports Home Media magazine. Although he didn’t give any timeframe for consumer adoption of the HD format, he hinted that the wholesale and retail prices of Blu-ray films could be one of the problems slowing consumer uptake.

SONY is debuting its third generation internal Blu-ray Disc (BD) writer for the computer aftermarket, priced at around $400 to attract BD enthusiasts. The new BWU-300S model burns single and dual layer BD-R media at up to 8X speed, recording a full 25GB disc in about 15 minutes and a full 50GB disc in about 30 minutes. The 8X recording speed is achieved using 6X compatible BD-R media. The drive also records DVDs at up to 16X, CDs up to 48X, and supports DVD-RAM recording. The BWU-300S drive will be available through retailers, resellers and directly at sonystyle.com from October.

DIVX, a digital media company, announced the DivX certification of three new Blu-ray player models from Pioneer (BDP-LX71, BDP-LX08, BDP-51FD). DivX technology enables a high-quality experience for digital video and DivX certification of these new Blu-ray players allows consumers to play back DivX video saved on CDs or DVDs. Pioneer’s first DivX certified Blu-ray Disc players, featuring high-quality image and sound, will be available across Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand starting in October (BDP-LX08 to be released in Europe only).

WORLDWIDE subscriptions to IPTV platforms are on track to reach 19.6 million subscribers in 2008, a 64 percent increase, according to analysts at Gartner. Revenue from worldwide IPTV is forecast to reach $4.5 billion up 93.5 percent from a year earlier, with Western Europe boasting the largest number of IPTV subscribers and North America the largest market for IPTV revenue. It forecast that 1.1 percent of households worldwide would be using IPTV in 2008, and expects that to rise to 2.8 percent by 2012.

FRANCE's video-on-demand market may double in value this year, to reach €60 million according to a joint study published by research group GfK and French media consultants NPA Conseil. The survey found that there were around six million VOD downloads across all platforms in the first six months of this year, an increase of nearly 61 per cent over the same period of 2007. American films enjoyed the highest VOD growth rate during the first half of this year with an increase of 93 per cent, compared to around 20 per cent for French titles and 53 per cent of other foreign titles. Average download prices increased from $4.85 in the first half of 2007 to $5.60 in the same period of 2008.

ACCORDING to an ABI Research survey of online households in the US, the number of consumers watching video streamed through a browser has doubled over the past year, going from 32 per cent a year ago to 63 per cent today. When asked if they watched long-form content in the form of TV shows or movies online, nearly half of those under 25, and 53 per cent of those aged 25-29 indicate they do so once a month or more. Older viewers are much more likely to have experimented once with online shows; three quarters of those over 65 who watch video online responded that they have never watched TV shows or movies online.

DISPLAYSEARCH recently concluded that worldwide sales of Blu-ray players will hit 2.38 million this year. In 2007 a total of 700.000 Blu-ray players were sold, which means that compared to 2007 the amount tripled. The Sony Playstation 3 is also a Blu-ray player, but the console's sales were not included in the firm's study, meaning that if included, we can speak of several million players in 2008. DisplaySearch expects that the format's sales will double in 2009, with current estimates saying 5.31 million.

IMATION has announced the first 6x Blu-ray recordable (BD-R) and Blu-ray recordable double layer (BD-R DL) media for the U.S. retail market. The company is also launching a full line of 'TDK Life on Record' Blu-ray disc cleaning and storage accessories to protect and maintain high-definition content on this new media format. TDK Life on Record Blu-ray 6x discs have the fastest recording speeds currently available in the U.S. market with data transfer rates of up to 216 Mbps -- equivalent to approximately 20x recordable DVD media. Burning 25GB BD discs at 6x can be done in 17 minutes -- approximately six minutes faster than a 4x BD-R.

JVC has just released its NX-BD3, the first DLNA enabled Blu-ray system. Digital Living Network Alliance (DNLA) is known as the standard for creating wired and wireless interoperable networks. There music, photos, videos and other sorts of content can be shared through consumer electronics and PCs. The system does not support Profile 2.0. The NX-BD3 is 1080p/24fps capable and supports v1.3 HDMI. Next October the NX-BD3 will go on sale for £750 in the United Kingdom.

SPEAKING at IFA, Taka Miyama, Sony’s product strategy manager for home video marketing in Europe told Electricpig: “Blu-Ray is the final format for the optical disc. We don’t have a shorter laser. In the future, if we have a physical media format, it will change physically. It won’t look like an optical disc. [...] I don’t know what sort of technology we will have in the future, but while using lasers and optical discs, this is the final format.”

SAMSUNG has said that it sees the Blu-ray format only lasting a further five years before it is replaced by another format or technology. “I think it [Blu-ray] has 5 years left, I certainly wouldn't give it 10", Andy Griffiths, director of consumer electronics at Samsung UK told Pocket-lint in an interview. Citing online rental sites like LoveFilm's adoption of Blu-ray titles, the move to offer cheaper players and a now clear path to adoption following the Blu-ray HD DVD battle, Griffith says the format will be a winner, although not for long. Instead Samsung is putting its faith in its OLED technology.

THE total number of DVDs available by the end of the year is expected to pass 90,000 titles, according to the DVD Release Report. The tip sheet says a total of 90,440 titles are either in active release or are scheduled to be released by Dec. 31. Meanwhile, a total of 684 Blu-ray Disc titles are in release, with another 191 in the pipeline.

FRENCH independent optical disc manufacturer MPO has been awarded the Blu-ray Association certification for the manufacture of single-layer Blu-ray discs (BD25). MPO manufactured its first Blu-ray discs at the end of August for its European clients, with over 20 titles already released. MPO claims to be the only independent BD replicator in Europe offering the entire production chain at its French manufacturing site – Blu-ray mastering, replication, AACS protection and automated packing.

EURO 2008 and The Olympics have generated a surge in the penetration of High Definition technologies throughout Europe, according to DEG Europe. Based on GfK Retail tracking, it is predicted that by the end of summer 2008, one third of European households will own HDTV displays. In spite of adverse economic conditions, software sales show a decline of only 2.6% in units and 2.8% in value compared with the first half of 2007.

MEDIAPLANT, Sweden’s only manufacturer of Blu-ray, DVD and CDs has appointed Staffan Wallhem as its new Managing Director. Wallhem has a vast experience coming from the Nordic film industry as MD of the Nordic film distributor Sandrew Metronome. Resigning Managing Director Thomas Mohlkert will remain in the company as head of legal & finance. He will also take on the position as Chairman of the Board from Robert Dawid who will remain as vice MD with responsibility for the company’s R&D.

PROVIDING superfast broadband to all of Britain could cost as much as £29 billion, a new report says, although two-thirds of the country's population could be served at a cost of £5.1 billion. The report, issued by industry lobbyists the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), said that while leading broadband suppliers such as BT and Virgin Media could make a profit on serving the majority of homes via fibre optics, the cost would be far higher to serve everyone.

SO FAR about 15 million Blu-ray Discs have been sold, according to Home Media Magazine market research. Thus far in 2008, 8.8 million Blu-ray Discs have been sold, compared to 5.6 million in all of 2007. With Adams Media Research noting that about 60% of all software sales occur in the fourth quarter, optimism is high among studio executives that 2008 will end well for Blu-ray.

SONY is betting on the long term future of Blu-ray with the development of a "Mega" disc changer holding 400 Blu-ray discs, DVDs and CDs. Currently a prototype, the Blu-ray Mega Changer is expected to be released in 2009 and support BD-Live as well as feature a RS-232C port for custom installs. Details are scarce, but the Mega Changer offers double the capacity of the Blu-ray disc changer displayed at last year's CEDIA show, whilst significantly reducing the size.

MY Eye Media, a specialist in providing independent QC analysis and an entertainment industry leader in post-production technical services, announced it has joined the Blu-ray Disc Association as a general member. In February 2008, My Eye Media launched Blu-qual, a state-of-the-art BD testing solution.

FLEXPLAY, the 'Time-Limited DVD' is stepping up promotion after its initial splash nearly four years ago: North American Hudson Group will now be the exclusive retailer of Flexplay No-Return DVD Rental in airports and transportation terminals throughout the US and Canada, starting in September. The discs will be available in approximately 200 Hudson News newsstands and Hudson Booksellers bookstores in airports and terminals throughout North America.

PARAMOUNT is making up for lost time in terms of Blu-ray sales, with Variety reporting that the studio will be offering a $10 rebate for customers who want to upgrade to Blu-ray. Only certain titles are part of the deal, include The Godfather and Transformers. To get the upgrade, customers will need to mail in a rebate certificate that is included with certain titles, along with proof of purchase tabs for both the DVD and Blu-ray movies.

UNIVERSAL has officially announced the 21 October Blu-ray release of The Incredible Hulk, which will contain hours of exclusive features and BD-Live content. Promising to deliver options that will take advantage of the BD-Live connectivity, 'My Chat' will allow users to plug into their internet connection to chat with friends while watching the movie and conduct private screening discussions. In addition, 'My Scene Sharing' allows users to share favourite clips with friends. Other, as yet unannounced, features have been promised.

ACCORDING to news source Digitimes, a local court in Taiwan recently announced its judgment that Princo, a Taiwan-based maker of blank optical discs, must pay Royal Philips Electronics a total of 2.354 billion yen ($21.1 million) for CD-R licensing. The fees are due for the period from Q4 1997 to Q4 1999, plus interest for delayed payment, according to Princo's filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) on 18 August. Princo has decided to appeal, the company stressed.

RITEK maintained their position as the biggest producer of Blu-ray discs outside of Japan, rising to third in the list of manufacturers after Panasonic and Sony. Ritek surpassed TDK to become the third largest maker of blank BD discs last quarter, after Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) and Sony. In addition, Ritek was the largest maker of blank DVD+R/-R DL (single-sided double-layer) discs in the second quarter, occupying 30.53% of the global shipment volume, EDN noted.

INDUSTRY-leading companies (Sony, Singulus Mastering and Technologies, Sibert and technotrans) have announced the formation of a workgroup that has defined a 'de facto' standard for BD stamper properties, and released a technical paper entitled 'Blu-ray Disc stamper physical characteristics'. The paper includes information on a range of topics including thickness variation, flatness, diameter, burr, eccentricity, roughness, and visual appearance. The need for this type of standard was recognised in the days of DVD, and the same situation has arisen with BD.

FALCON Technologies International LLC (FTI) has announced the start of BD mass production and deliveries from its facilities located in the United Arab Emirates. This, says the company, is the result of a strategic alliance and a co-operation programme with "a leading Japanese pioneer in the blue laser recording technology". Production started last July and capacity is expected to double by the end of September.

VIDEO Entertainment 2008 home entertainment summit (22-23 October in Munich) has signed up John H. Marmaduke, President & CEO of Hastings Entertainment, as a keynote speaker, adding to a high calibre rostrum. Hastings Entertainment manages US-wide more than 150 superstores that sell DVDs, CDs, books, games and merchandising articles, as well as offering rental DVDs and games. Among other things, Marmaduke is on the board of the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA), formerly known as VSDA. He will be reporting on the market strategies of a large trade chain. Contact www.video-entertainment.de

MICROSOFT will soon be releasing the Windows Feature Package for Storage 1.0, loaded with a built in component that allows Windows users to perform master style burning on Blu-ray media. One of the new features is the Image Mastering API update for Blu-ray, which allows BD-R/RE burning without the need to install a 3rd party application.

ACCORDING to a report from Home Media Magazine, studios are not the only real players in BD games. This time last year, studios accounted for more than 90% of the year's BD releases; independents accounted for only 15 titles against 142. This year sees a different picture: so far, studios have accounted for less than 70% of titles - 187 releases as opposed to 82 from indies.

YAMAHA is reported to introduce its first Blu-ray player, the BD-S2900 model, expected to use BonusviewView, Profile v1.1, with 1080p/24fps-compatible HDMI video output, 12-bit deep color, on-screen display with fully enhanced GUI, and will support Blu-ray, DVDs, burned DVDs and CDs. There are unconfirmed release dates ranging from October 2008 to January 2009. The Yamaha BD-S2900 Blu-ray player comes with a hefty price tag, with industry insiders expecting it to retail for $1,199.95.

BLU-RAY Disc sales in the UK have now passed the 2 million sales mark, according to figures released from the British Video Association. In 2008 alone, the format has sold 1.2 million copies and volume sales are 458% up year to date on 2007. I Am Legend from Warner Home Video is this year's best-selling title with over 55,000 copies sold to date; however, Casino Royale from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has remained in the overall top spot since its release in March last year, selling almost 100,000 copies on Blu-ray alone.

MITSUBISHI Chemical Corporation has announced that, in view of global short supply of Blu-ray Disc pick-up heads, it is planning to step into production of high-power laser diodes, the key component of PUHs for BD burners. Currently, there are only a few producers of high-power LDs, including Sony, Nichia and Sharp, the sources indicated. Sony's production of high-power LDs is mostly for in-house use, and the output of Nichia and Sharp is mainly for supply to Japan-based BD drive makers, resulting in tight supply for non-Japanese makers.

LONDON’s optical disc authoring and duplication facility 24-7dvd has invested €250,000 in a Tapematic 2Print digital DVD/Blu-ray disc printer capable of printing 1,500 discs an hour. It is the first 6-colour digital print machine in the UK and prints directly on to the disc with no need for plates, screens, film or a pre-print process. The new machine brigs in-house disc print capacity from 3,000 a day to 35,000.

THE BDA European Promotions Committee received Hollywood-style red carpet treatment at the recent Home Entertainment Week Awards in London. One of Europe’s premier home entertainment industry publications, the magazine presented the BDA with its Special Recognition Award. According to Andy Clough, publisher of HEW, the award reflects the BDA’s efforts in securing Blu-ray Disc as the single HD format moving forwards. By successfully avoiding a prolonged format war, HEW recognizes the BDA’s marketing effort – in particular moving the focus onto the format’s new and unique capabilities such as BD-Live.

BLOCKBUSTER said it will test 50 automated kiosks. If successful, the video-rental giant may be rolling out 10,000 kiosks in the next 18 months. Industry analysts expect that the DVD kiosk industry will grow substantially from $197 million last year to $760 million in 2010. Market leaderRedbox already operates 6,000 kiosks, each containing more than 500 DVDs representing as many as 150 new-release titles. Redbox rents the DVDs for $1 a night, and rentals can be returned at any kiosk. The company splits the revenue with the venues that house the kiosks.

FOLLOWING recent claims that it had discovered the means to burn 400GB of data onto a single optical disc with 16 layers, Pioneer has now announced that it is feasible to produce a Blu-ray-compatible disc with 20 layers – which at 25GB per layer, amounts to a 500GB disc. The company said that it was able to achieve more layers by stacking alternating layers of two different thicknesses. The disc is still in the research phase, but Pioneer says its goal is to produce an actual product between 2010 and 2012.

PRODISC has announced that it will continue to produce and sell optical media, contrary to earlier reports, which stated that Prodisc would be exiting the market due to financial troubles.Prodisc has invested more than NT$10 billion ($300 million) in production equipment of blank CD-R, DVD+/-R discs and has maintained a steady client base consisting of international vendors and overseas retail channels, the reason for not quitting production, the company says.

RITEK, due to increasing demand from existing clients, is in the process of doubling its monthly production capacity for Blu-ray recordable discs. Existing DVD production lines will be upgraded to Blu-ray manufacturing in order to support the expansion. At the end of 2008, Ritek also plans to add yet another Blu-ray line, tripling their current monthly manufacturing capacity to 750,000 units, for BD-R and BD-RE discs combined.

BUFFALO has announced an external USB 2.0 upscaling Super-Multi DVD Drive. The model which goes by the name DSM-SL20U2 is able to upscale DVD movies (480p) to High Definition (HD) at 1080p. Besides playback of DVD movies it has LabelFlash support and is also able to write to recordable discs: it can burn DVD-R/+R discs at 20x, DVD-RW at 6x, DVD+RW at 8x and DVD-RAM at 12x. The DSM-SL20U2 will be available at the end of August for about 85€ in Japan.

PRICES of Blu-ray players are dropping in the US now Sony, Sharp, Pioneer, Samsung and LG have reduced the retail prices for their entry-level Blu-ray players in the United States. The average price has dropped about 25% to less than $300. Amazon, Wal-mart, Best Buy and other large electronic chains have lowered the price of the Samsung BD-P1400 to $298. The lower prices are, according to industry sources in Taiwan, to clear inventories, which could mean a new line up of Blu-ray players is waiting to enter the market.

WITH the aim of making Blu-ray accessible for smaller studios, Sony Creative Software has released the professional BAE-VX1000 encoder for disc authoring. At a price of $55,000 the system is capable of analyzing a film automatically and offering multiple bit rate versions to be compared later, or frame by frame encoding. The finished product comes out in either h.264 or MPEG-2 form (but apparently not VC-1) and it works on varying setups from one to many PCs or servers depending on what a studio can afford.

INFODISC, German independent replicator and Europe’s Blu-ray pioneer, received the official approval from the Blu-ray Disc Association for the Blu-ray Dual Layer production (BD50). “We continuously work on meeting and exceeding our customer’s expectations, especially in regards to their Blu-ray requirements!” says Michael Gutowski, CEO Infodisc Group. “We have achieved the BDA approval completely in-house using real order assets.” The group also offer SD and BD authoring services through its Infomedia subsidiary.

THE once familiar cry of peddlers selling pirate DVDs on the streets of Beijing is disappearing as the government finally acts on pledges to end the practice – at least until after the Olympics. The authorities have just ordered a "100-day drive against pirate copies", with officials on call 24 hours to act on reports of illegal CDs and DVDs going on sale."Strike hard against all kinds of pirate copies violating rights and against illegal publishing activities," their notice said. "Go all out to create a healthy cultural market environment for the Beijing Olympic Games."

MEADWESTVACO’s AGI Media packaging plant in Slough, Berkshire, recently earned its fourth International Safety Award from the British Safety Council in recognition of its outstanding safety procedures and working practices. In addition to winning the 2007 International Safety Award, AGI Slough received the award in 2003, 2004 and 2005. AGI Media Slough is a 30,000 sq. ft. facility producing a wide range of cartons and specialty packaging for the entertainment industry, including Digipak® and Digistak® disc packages, rigid boxes and slipcases.

BT has confirmed it plans to spend £1.5 billion (E1.83bn) building a super-fast broadband network across the UK over the next four years. The plan would connect 10 million homes, around 40 per cent of the UK, to a new fibre-optic based network. The upgrade will provide speeds up to 60MB an those on a fibre-to-the-premises network will see speeds of up to 100 MB.

FRENCH independent optical disc manufacturer MPO received its first Blu-ray pressing line late last month. Loïc de Poix, the company president, says MPO is Europe’s only independent replicator to offer the complete BD production chain including mastering, replication, AACS protection and fulfillment. Singulus is supplying its CrystalLine mastering system with the BLU-LINE II. MPO already managed the production of 50 BD titles.

UK MUSIC andd video chain HMV is planning to put kiosks into some of its stores to allow customers to order out-of-stock CDs and DVDs which will be fulfilled VAT-free from the Channel Islands. Many online and mail order music services including Tesco and Amazon.co.uk already have warehouses in Jersey and Guernsey because EU law allows items with a value of less than £18 to be imported to the UK mainland without paying VAT. The European Union debated changing VAT regulations to make them more suitable for the age of the internet in 2006 but no agreement was reached.

SHIPMENTS of Blu-ray recorders have increased in Japan to 122,000 units in June, up from 82,000 units shipped in May. The jump in units is attributed to the rush to buy the machine before the just-imposed royalty fees start applying, the anticipated payout of Japanese mid-year bonuses and increased demand due to the Olympic games occurring in August. Prices start at $420. Blu-ray recorders are the only option for Japanese consumers that are looking for a standalone unit, as read-only Blu-ray players are not generally available.

AUDIODEV has selected Lastek Pty as its agent in Australia and New Zealand, thus strengthening the Swedish test equipment maker’s international presence. Lastek supplies and supports advanced laser and optical equipment, design and manufacture optical instruments, as well as provides custom design and optical project management for a wide range of customers and applications. Lastek is also the long-standing agent of Toptica Photonics in the region. Toptica Photonics develops and manufactures the optical drive used in AudioDev's electrical signal testers for Blu-ray Disc and high-speed DVD.

THE EUROPEAN Union announced plans to extend the copyright terms on musical recordings for another 45 years. Currently musicians can only collect royalties on recordings they made 50 years ago. That was probably OK when popular beat combo artists were not expected to live beyond 30 years, but these days they are living well into their 70s. It will not mean an increase in music prices as few fifty-year-old recordings sell in any real volume, and most of these performers' pay comes from radio performance payments now. It looks like the change will only net an average old timer €150 to €2,000 per year.

SAMSUNG has announced it will be unveiling a line of Blu-ray equipped HTiB (Home Theater in a Box) systems this August, with the debut of the HT-BD2E. At a suggested retail price of $799 it is the lowest-cost Blu-ray HTiB system available on the market. The HT-BD2E will feature a 5.1 channel surround sound system and a BD profile 1.0 Blu-ray player. Samsung also offers the HT-BD2S ($999) and HD-BD2T ($1499) Blu-ray HTiB systems at a suggested retail price of and respectively, both featuring 7.1 channel surround sound.

LAST year, India’s consumer electronics market grew by more than 30% to reach US$3.8bn and will continue to skyrocket. According to a newly released India CE Market report from Futuresource Consulting, the market value is on track to quadruple in the space of five years, to reach nearly US$16bn by 2012. On the TV market (more than 80% of the total CE market value) CRT accounted for 97% of colour TVs shipped in 2007. India’s price sensitivity can be a barrier to growth for flat screen and flat panel products. However, by 2012, LCD and plasma will account for 55% of shipments – up from less than 3% last year - and this equates to a staggering US$10Bn+ of trade value.

WARNER Home Video is to cut the prices it charges retailers to order its Blu-ray titles in the holiday quarter, which should result in significant savings for consumers. With the discounts, prices would likely fall to between $14 and $17, which is generally only slightly above the cost of standard DVDs.

ACCORDING to data from Home Media Research, in the first six months of this year, consumer purchasing of DVD and Blu-ray discs generated $10.8 billion in sales combined, compared with $10.6 billion in the first six months of 2007. Spending on disc purchases rose 1.1%, from $6.8 billion to $6.87 billion. Unit sales were up 1.1% as well, with consumers buying an estimated 412.3 million discs in the first six months of this year, up from 407.9 million discs in the first half of 2007, according to studio reports. In the first six months of 2008, consumers spent an estimated $194 million on Blu-ray purchases, according to studio estimates - a gain of nearly 350% from the $43 million that came from high-definition disc sales the first six months of 2007.

A MEXICAN police taskforce executed a raid on the notorious pirate market known as 'La Cuchilla' in the state of Puebla earlier this month. The raid was part of an overall campaign that is targeting major distribution centres. This is the third action against the same market this year. As part of the raid, authorities seized 183 DVD/CD-R burners, 454,528 music CD-Rs, 76,920 film DVD-Rs, 300,000 music and movie in-lays and 100,000 jewel boxes, along with several hundred televisions and speakers that were being used to market the illegal products.

PORTUGUESE authorities have created a K-9 pirate unit following a successful demonstration by Lucky and Flo – the world's first DVD-sniffing dogs. In March 2008, the Malaysian government launched the first ever canine unit to fight piracy with two sniffer dogs donated by the Motion Picture Association of America (one died in unexplained circumstances). Portuguese law enforcement authorities have now trained Ruca, a five-year-old black labrador, to sniff out DVDs. Ruca's training was initiated by the Portuguese National Guard and will be used to assist in inspections at flea markets and public fairs where illegal discs are often traded.

SINGAPORE-based Axiom has announced that it will be the first to bring a full range of Blu-ray Disc (BD) solutions to Asia-Pacific, including hi-def content production, preparation and BD authoring; packaged media manufacturing; and content delivery and distribution - all completely in-house. To celebrate the occasion, George Yeo, Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs, will be the guest of honour at Axiom's inaugural Blu-ray Disc south-east Asia disc launch on Friday, 18 July. The event also commemorates the first BD replication line in south-east Asia and continental Australia, and only the second of its kind in the Asia-Pacific outside of Japan.

GERMANY's BND foreign intelligence service described in February how it bought data on trusts managed by the Liechtenstein Bank LTG on behalf of wealthy tax-shy Europeans. The BND reportedly paid about €4 million for one DVD with the data. Since then, German prosecutors have recovered €110 million in arrears from repentant taxpayers hoping to ward off trials, according to a prosecutor, Eduard Gueroff, quoted by the newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.

CHINA has now an official BDA approved Blu-ray Disc Test center. The Blu-ray Disc Association recently certified CESI Technology Co Ltd to perform verification of Blu-ray Disc products. Due to this development, Blu-ray Disc technology production is expected to increase in China, particularly with Blu-ray Disc players. Local Chinese manufacturers will now be able to verify their Blu-ray product functionality inside their own country rather than shipping out internationally. This should lead to more Chinese technology companies developing and producing Blu-ray products.

ARVATO digital services has been granted official certification by the Blu-ray Disc Association. The certificate of the Blu-ray Disc Association provides documented proof that the new technology has been successfully implemented and that the processes for BD25 and BD50 are running smoothly, while maintaining the highest standards of quality. Following the installation of the company's first Blu-ray Disc production lines in Weaverville, North Carolina as well as Gütersloh, Germany, arvato has consistently expanded production.

SONY Picture Entertainment is planning to make the Will Smith action film Hancock, available online to owners of the Web-connected Sony Bravia TV before the movie goes out on DVD. By doing so, the studio is changing the typical distribution path of movies which, after their initial run in cinemas, are released on pay-per-view television services, then via DVD, Internet downloads or streams, and finally on free broadcast TV.

PIONEER has announced that it will begin offering Blu-ray disc recorders in Japan beginning in the Q1 2009. A Pioneer spokesperson added that there were no plans for Europe or North America launches and that the decision to enter the market "anticipated burgeoning Japanese demand for products in the next-generation video format." The company will develop the recorders with its partner Sharp but will sell the "high-end" recorders under the Pioneer brand.

THE Chinese government has put the final piece of the puzzle in their adoption of HD DVD for their domestic market: they have formally proposed to the DVD Forum to graft their home-grown A/V codec (AVS, AKA Audio Video Coding Standard) to HD DVD’s physical and logical format. The move will save Chinese manufacturers an estimated $1,000,000,000 in MPEG-2/AVC HP/VC-1 royalties over 10 years. China Blue High Definition (CBHD), as it is now called, made mandatory use of AACS.

DUTCH financial magazine, Het Financieele Dagblad, announced that Philips will no longer put any money in the development of DVD-recorders after the 1st of September. For now it's still unclear what will happen with the company's DVR line, since a hard drive and DVD burner are both included with these DVRs. A spokesman of Philips isn't giving any extra info on this, besides saying that the Blu-ray and DVD players will continue to be sold under the 'Philips' brand.

OPTICAL disc replication machine makers M2 Engineering AB and Leybold Optics GmbH are entering into a strategic alliance that encompasses both the solar and optical disc activities of both companies. Leybold Optics is a major European manufacturing company that, for more than 150 years has been a world leader in the field of high vacuum thin film industrial coatings on both solid and flexible substrates.

FORMER HD DVD player manufacturer Onkyo is getting on board with Blu-ray Disc, with plans for a player later this year, the company announced recently. Specifically tailored to the company’s second-generation high-definition receivers, the company aims to do better with its Blu-ray player than it did with its HD DVD player, which reportedly only sold a few thousand units. Onkyo did not release any further details, including price or other player details.

MEMBER companies of the Motion Picture Association of America have filed breach of contract lawsuits in U.S. District Court against China-based DVD player manufacturers Gowell Electronics Limited and Nanjing Wanlida Technology Co., Ltd. The lawsuits assert that Gowell and Wanlida, manufacture and sell DVD players that lack appropriate security features used to prohibit the unlawful reproduction and distribution of motion pictures in breach of the Content Scramble System (CSS) license.

BLOCKBUSTER's adoption of Blu-ray, and studios need to speed up the mass-market product or face losing out to digital downloads. With all studios now on-board and full profile stand-alone players shortly available, Keyes believes Blu-ray can help extend the packaged media model another five to ten years, and that the rental model can help. However, to make it work the studios need to get serious and make more copies of Blu-ray films.

SONY’S 2008 FY report will show that their strategy of pricing the PlayStation 3 below its production cost has generated losses of 232.3 billion yen ($2.16 billion) in 2007 and 124.5 billion yen ($1.16 billion) in 2008. Sony is arguing that developing and providing products that maintain competitiveness over an extended life-cycle requires large-scale investment relating to research and development, particularly during the development and introductory period of a new platform, and this may never be recouped.

SINGULUS Technologies AG, said it received a order of 15 DVD lines for machines of the SPACELINE II type from a well-known European replicator for its European sites. Unconfirmed industry speculations point to Cinram. With the new order, Singulus claims a 65% global market share for pre-recorded DVD replication lines. Singulus received orders for 31 Blu-ray lines in the first half, the Kahl Am Main, Germany-based company said in a statement. Singulus is aiming for more than 65 percent of the market for Blu-Ray machines, it said.

QOL, France's leading independent replicator, is extending its range of services to Blu-ray customers with the addition of an automatic packaging line for Blu-ray Discs. The new line provides a high quality cellophane-folding in X – with a tear tape option. QOL has now two BD lines with a monthly capacity of more than
1 million BD25 GB and BD50 units.

SALES of Blu-ray Disc players in Western Europe, including Sony's PlayStation 3, should reach 10 million units by the end of the year, according to a new report by Futuresource Consulting, the London-based research company derived through the recent merger of Understanding & Solutions and Decision Tree Consulting. The, report said the unit sales — three years after the launch of Blu-ray — surpassed standard DVD, which recorded 1.5 million unit sales during the same time period. The findings mirror separate data from Media Control GfK International, a German-based media market research firm that said global Blu-ray sales would reach $1.5 billion this year, $4.1 billion in 2009 and $8 billion in 2010.

BLU-RAY Disc Association (BDA) has provided some positive statistics on BD take-up. In a survey conducted by Sony Computer Entertainment America, results for the first half of May 2008 indicate that 52% of almost 3,000 PlayStation 3 (PS3) owners plan to purchase six or more BD titles in the next 12 months. Approximately 50% prefer to exclusively purchase or rent movies in BD format, even if they have to wait longer for the title release, and over 40% report increased movie viewing since the purchase of a PS3.

LG ELECTRONICS has launched its new line of optical disc drives, which feature reading and writing speeds of 6x. The latest models are the BE06, GBC-H20L and GBW-H20L. Unique to LG, the line offers SecurDisc capabilities, which provide data protection and content access control on all current optical formats, and LightScribe technology, which enables consumers to easily create direct-to-disc labels right from their drive.

OPTICAL disc equipment manufacturer, Singulus has reported receiving orders for 21 Blu-ray dual-layer machines in Q1 2008 and claims this figure shows the new technology is being adopted faster than its predecessor, DVD, 11 years ago. The German company has also received additional orders for Blu-ray dual-layer machines this quarter including a key U.S. customer accepting a machine for the first time.

NEC ELECTRONICS has started shipping samples of SCOMBO/UM2A, an SoC chip designed for use in Blu-ray Disc (BD) systems that support 8x recording and playback, in Japan. The chip is targeted for use in personal computers and audio-visual equipment. NEC Electronics employed a wideband analog signal processing circuit in order to support Blu-ray 8x recording and playback. The circuit was originally developed for use in 20x DVD systems. Furthermore, the company adopted the CMOS technology to produce the analog circuit, instead of using the BiCMOS technology. Compared with the company's existing product, the footprint of the latest chip is 20% smaller, and the power consumption was reduced by 33% to 1.8W.

FORTY-FIVE percent of HDTV owners in the US now claim to be familiar with Blu-ray Disc, up from 35% in June 2007, according to the NPD Group. While only 6% of all consumers surveyed said they plan to purchase a BD device in the next six months, NPD found purchase intent to be higher among the growing population of HDTV owners, boding well for the future of the format. NPD's 2008 Blu-ray Disc Report reveals that 9% of HDTV owners plan to buy a BD-capable player in the next six months. "With HDTVs now in approximately 40 million US households, that percentage translates to a pool of almost 4 million potential BD player buyers," according to Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD.

FOR the financial year ending 31 March 2008, Sony reported PS3 sales of 9.24 million units, up 5.63 million from FY2006 and bringing the total sold so far to 12.81 million units. The PS2 still outsold the PS3 by a far margin, checking in with 13.73 million units for FY2007 (down 0.98 million units) and a cumulative total of 172.95 million units so far. The PSP has become the most popular Sony game console during the year, selling 13.89 million devices. Sony has sold about 40.69 million PSPs to date. Total console shipments for FY2007 were 36.86 million.

ROME Fiscal Police have arrested 12 members of an organised criminal gang involved in the distribution of pirate CDs and DVDs, according to the IFPI. The arrests, which took place in Naples and Milan, followed several months of investigation by the police. A series of raids uncovered six illegal pirate factories, five in Naples and one in Milan, which contained 350 burners. More than 70,000 CDs and DVDs were seized during the raids, alongside more than 100,000 counterfeit inlay cards. The gang members have been charged with conspiracy and copyright infringement and face jail sentences of up to six years. The Italian authors' society, SIAE, provided technical assistance to the Fiscal Police.

PROACTION Media is debuting a new type of disc that it claims is not only eco-friendly, but also cost-effective. The new Flex-Lite Disc is made using 50% less plastic than regular DVDs, which reduces the carbon footprint for manufacturing by more than 70% and is 100% recyclable. The disc has the same capacity of a DVD-5 DVD disc, but it is very light and flexible and is a more durable data storage solution than the traditional DVD media.

TOSHIBA is releasing its new SD-590J" DVD player in Japan at the end of this month for ¥13,800 ($130). Toshiba claims that the new player, which features an HDMI interface, upscales standard DVD video to 1080p, and offers quality comparable to native high definition video. The supported disc formats include DVD-R/RW (VR mode), DVD video, MP3/WMA, JPEG stored on CD-R/RW as well as DivX. The available outputs include RCA, S-video, composite and HDMI

IN the two years since the Blu-ray high definition disc format launched, it has sold over 11 million film discs, according to recent research from the Redhill Group.

BLU-RAY makes its first appearance in the Middle East with the arrival of Panasonic's new DMP-BD30 Blu-ray Disc Player. While Blu-ray players have been available to UAE consumers in one form or another since as early as December 2006, the DMP-BD30 represents Panasonic's most up-to-date technology and is its first foray into the Middle East's Blu-ray market.

US chain Staples will begin carrying Flexplay Entertainment's self-destructing DVD movies this month. The discs, manufactured with Flexplay's time-limited technology, can be viewed for only 48 hours after removal from a special sealed pouch. After two days the DVDs become unplayable and can then be discarded or
recycled. Flexplay has partnered with environmentally friendly recyclers, plastics suppliers and selected retailers to implement several closed-loop recycling options including consumer mail-in, prepaid postage options and collection points through local environmental organizations.

SPEAKING at the recent All Things D conference. Howard Stringer, CEO at Sony, believes that Blu-ray will last for 10 years or more despite the rise in digital distribution as their is a "long lead time before downloads can reach the quality of Blu-ray." He went on to comment further that the PlayStation 3 was on life support for a while but that the console is moving its way towards profitability and a long lifespan. However based on the company's recent failures of a digital music player and interactive television ventures, he added that Sony was only now running 5 percent profit margins. "If we have any more success, we'll be bankrupt," he added.

PANASONIC has announced that is has developed a single chip Blu-ray chip which combines both reading the disc and decoding the content. Previously these functions were performed by seperate chips and required seven extra memory chips on the mainboard of the Blu-ray player. By combining the functionality into one chip, 50% less space is required and 25% energy is saved. The chipset supports BD Profile 2.0, MPEG-4 H.264 and VC-1 codecs, 7.1 audio, and will make it possible to manufacturer smaller BD players, cheaper, more energy efficient Panasonic expects to start shipping the chips to manufacturers in June 2008.

FROM a sample of 26 Japanese PC and home electronics volume retailers, research analysts BCN found that Blu-ray recorder sales had surpassed 50% of the Japanese DVD/HDD recorder market in April 2008, while Blu-ray recorders account for 30% of overall recorder unit sales so far. Matsushita electric Industrial (Panasonic) has the largest share (45.8%) of the total Blu-ray and HD DVD recorders sold in April, followed by Sony (37.8%) and Sharp (16.4%). Last January, Sony had sold the 59.7% of the total high-definition recorders in Japan, but Panasonic greatly boosted sales by releasing its new DMR-BR500 model with retail price below ¥100,000 ($970) in March. While now out of the HD DVD business, Toshiba continues promotion of its DVD/HDD recorders in Japan.

AUDIODEV, the world-leading supplier of test equipment for quality control of optical media, has already won several orders for Blu-ray Disc testers worth a total of SEK24 million (€2.6 million). The testers will be delivered in the second and third quarter. The blu-ray disc testers from AudioDev focus on high precision and measurement accuracy and include replica and stamper testers for prerecorded and recordable media.“It’s gratifying that AudioDev has received these first major orders for testers for mass production of BD-discs,” says Christer Sjöström, CEO of AudioDev. As per the agreement, customers could not be named.

ACCORDING to analysis by Understanding & Solutions, global sales of consumer electronics equipment rose 15% in 2007 to reach $480 billion, and those numbers are set to rise 7.6% to $516 billion in 2008. While these figures look promising, the competition for disposable income is fierce with three broadly different usage and consumer interest profiles. Audio visual-centric product (TV, video, audio) accounted for 33% of consumer electronic sales in 2007. Flat panel televisions have driven the value of the global TV market at least 15% per year. However, strong growth has also occurred in handheld MP3 devices.

EARTH Cinema Circle (ECC) is a different kind of DVD subscriber club. Owned by Gaiam, this company offers a subscription service that delivers a compilation of environmental films to members on a bi-monthly basis. These films, which are mailed in 100% post consumer mailers, are also packaged in 100% recycled and recyclable packaging developed by NAPCO. ECC is also looking at making its products as carbon neutral as possible with its "Go Zero" carbon-sequestering programme, develop in partnership with The Conservation Fund.

SONY Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) will launch its first BD-Live-enabled Blu-ray title outside the US market, with the release of Men In Black in selected international territories, beginning 16 June 2008. This release coincides with the recent Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0 software update for PlayStation 3, making it the first Profile 2.0 Blu-ray player available on the market. Men In Black will bring network-connected features in international territories for the first time. These features include a BD-Live multi-player interactive trivia game, as well as exclusive downloadable theatrical, home entertainment previews and an FAQ about BD-Live functionality.

NETFLIX CEO, Reed Hastings, told investors at a recent presentation he expects the company to have 10 million subscribers by next year, but the DVD-by-mail business will peak in as soon as five years. He cited as risks the growing popularity of stand-alone DVD rental kiosks, improving video-on-demand services from cable and satellite companies and more competition in streaming from Web giants like Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc and the potential of renewed promotional spending by Blockbuster Inc in the by-mail sector.

RESEARCH from Scripps Networks has shown that US viewers with access to high-definition (HD) television channels watch more television than do non-HD households. However, HD-enabled homes still tune to standard-definition (SD) channels in large numbers, even when HD versions are available. The study suggests that the cable industry practice of segregating HD channels into tiers far removed from their SD counterparts may discourage the viewing of high-definition programming. In contrast, satellite operator DirecTV assigns HD and SD feeds the same channel number and their interactive program guide can be programmed to enable automatic HD tuning. The study is based on actual set-top box tuning data gathered by research firm TNS from approximately 300,000 households in Charter's Los Angeles cable system, one of the largest in the nation.

TOSHIBA will be releasing its flagship VARDIA RD-X7 DVD Recorder model in Japan in the middle of June, looking to impress consumers with its advanced DVD recording capabilities. The company has removed the HD DVD functions and is promoting the unit as a high-end DVD recorder with a price to be set around ¥160,000 (€990). The RD-X7 has ground/digital tuners for the recording of TV broadcasts, offers an 1TB hard disk storage capacity and can record content on DVD-R/RW/RAM and DVD-R DL media. It does not support recording/reproduction of HD DVD discs. The device also supports the "Dubbing 10" function, which will allow Japanese consumers to make up to 9 copies of a recorded digital TV broadcast. Copies require both a recorder that supports the new feature as well as usage of CPRM DVD-RW/-R disk (VR mode).

APPLE has announced that new movie releases from major film studios and premier independent studios are available for purchase from the iTunes Store on the same day as their DVD release. Movies purchased from iTunes can be viewed on an iPod with video, iPhone, Mac or PC, or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV.

DVD burners will continue to be the leading volume product until 2012, forecasts a recent IDC study, despite the ramp up of Blu-ray drives. "DVD burners will remain the bread-and-butter business for ODD vendors," said Wolfgang Schlichting, research director, Removable Storage at IDC. "Despite Blu-ray's win over HD-DVD in the format war, Blu-ray drive adoption will be limited in 2008 because of their high price and only moderate consumer interest." More than 100 million Blu-ray drives will ship worldwide in 2011, IDC forecasts. Until then DVD burners will continue their race to become a commodity market, with aggressive volume manufacturers driving down prices and pushing technology leaders out of the mainstream optical disc drive (ODD) market.

SAMSUNG and LG Electronics have both decided to end their production of combo HD DVD/Blu-ray players in an aim to cut costs to expand their market of next-generation storage. A Samsung Electronics' move cost the company 10 billion won ($9.5 million) as it had been increasing its budget for the combo player over the past two years. It has yet to calculate its full losses attributed to the withdrawal from HD DVD. LG Electronics will stop manufacturing the Super Blu series in the second half of this year. LG introduced its BH-100 Super Blu player during CES 2007 and more recently introduced its successor, the BH-200 Super Blu with full HD DVD compliance to carry the HD DVD logo. LG has been reported to have invested 11 billion won ($10.5 million) into its combo player business over the past three years.

DISC manufacturing equipment Singulus Technologies said it has already received orders for 21 Blu-ray lines from Europe and Asia in the 1st quarter 2008. A first major order for Blu-ray was also received from the US. Since the settlement of the format dispute at the beginning of January 2008 and with the strategic acquisition of the Blu-ray Disc equipment operations from OERLIKON on 31 January SINGULUS has lifted its order forecast from 20 Blu-ray machines to about 30 machines for 2008. For the Blu-ray segment a market share of more than 65 % is targeted.

A RECENTLY released earnings report from Viacom, the parent company of Paramount, has confirmed that the studio’s brief shift from format neutrality to HD DVD exclusivity last August was the result of a direct payoff, according to a report in Variety. The amount, which came from HD DVD backer Toshiba, is said to be $29 million, a sum that helped the company post a 22 percent increase in home entertainment revenue for that quarter. The payoff, long-rumoured, had never before been officially confirmed.

LITE-ON announced the successor of the LH-2B1S Blu-ray drive. The DH-4B1S is a Blu-ray disc writer that writes BD-R media at 4x writing speed, which makes the device a time-saving and fast writer compared to its predecessor. To make its writing speed constant and stable, Lite-On added Constant Linear Velocity (CLV), which keeps the data transfer rate at 18MB per second during the whole session.
At the end of May the DH-4B1S will be available across Europe and adds a new product to the company's Blu-ray portfolio.

AACS LA has told magazine One to One that work on a set of final specifications and licences, including Managed Copy, is "continuing just as it has since the beginning". The comment comes in response to a Consumer Electronics Daily report that content licensing problems were stopping AACS from including Managed Copy, which had been considered mandatory for both HD DVD and Blu-ray, in the final specifications. AACS said: "Reports that Managed Copy has been dropped are in error."

TOSHIBA is offering a new firmware update for customers who bought a HD DVD player. Version 3.0 should improve the network connectivity for supporting downloads of web-enabled network content on some HD DVD movies.

THE pay-TV market in Western Europe is generally considered to be mature, but the increasing deployment of IPTV services will see the market enjoy a modest rate of growth in the number of households subscribing to pay-TV services, according to the research published by Analysys Mason. According to the report, ‘Pay TV in Western Europe: market sizings and forecasts 2005-2013’, the number of households subscribing to pay-TV services will increase at a CAGR of 3.2 per cent from 90.6 million in 2007 to 109.2 million by the end of 2013.

SONY and BenQ are planning to launch 22x DVD burners in July and the third quarter of 2008, respectively, according to industry sources in Taiwan, to compete with similar products from Samsung and LG. BenQ will have Lite-On IT, undertake ODM production of its 22x DVD burners, while Sony's will be produced by either Sony NEC Optiarc, a joint venture of Sony and NEC, or an ODM/OEM maker in Taiwan or South Korea, the sources indicated. Sony and BenQ were originally uninterested in offering 22x DVD burners because 22x models are more expensive than 18x or 20x models while blank 22x DVD+R/-R discs are not readily available, the sources pointed out, but have now decided to follow suit due to competition pressure.

BLU-RAY sales IN THE UShave shot up by 351 per cent in the first three months of 2008, according to newly published research from Home Media Magazine. The trebling in Blu-ray sales saw consumer spend on home entertainment lifted by one per cent compared to the same period last year – an increase worth over $5.5 billion. According to the study, this marks the first rise in two years, with 2007 and 2006 experiencing a 0.5 and 0.4 percent decrease, respectively. Meanwhile, video sales rose by 2.3 per cent, although rental spending took a knock, ending the period down 1.6 per cent.

BERNSTEIN Research predicts that a quarter of US households will own a Blu-ray player by 2011. However, the analyst’s research revealed that the rate of Blu-ray adoption is lagging behind that of DVD when that format first came onto the market.

RELATED Content Database Inc (RCDb) has announced the availability of advanced services and technology for BD Live. The RCDb BD Live Platform provides Blu-ray studios, developers and consumers with specialised online services needed to support the creation and consumer delivery of new BD Live features, sources say.

MICROSOFT has flatly denied reports of a Blu-ray drive for its Xbox 360 gaming console. A company official in an email response to techtree.com said, "We have no plans to introduce a Blu-ray drive for Xbox 360. Games are what drive consumers to purchase gaming consoles, and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster games available." Reports have been doing the rounds ever since Microsoft withdrew HD DVD support that the company would eventually go with Blu-ray for its Xbox 360 console.

IRELAND would appear to be one of the fastest growing markets in Europe for the Blu-ray format. Sony announced that it aims to capture 20% of Ireland's home video electronic sales this year, backing its intentions by cutting the price of the BDP-S300 Blu-ray player from €499 to €399. "Overwhelming support from all the relevant industries, including Hollywood studios, consumer electronics and IT companies, retailers and video rental stores is clear proof that consumers have chosen Blu-ray as the next generation optical disc format. said Sushil Teji, General Manager from Sony Consumer Electronics, Ireland.

RUMORS of an Xbox game console with built-in Blu-ray drive refuses to die. According to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News newspaper we can expect Blu-ray fitted consoles from Microsoft by this year's third quarter. The newspaper said that Pegatron Technology, an OEM subsidiary of Asustek Computer, has already secured orders from Microsoft. The Chinese paper said that Pegatron is hired to assemble these Blu-ray equipped Xbox 360s. Microsoft has been denying such rumors in the past.

APPLE announced that new movie releases from major film studios and premier independent studios are available for purchase on the iTunes Store on the same day as their DVD release. The iTunes Store has a catalogue of over six million songs, 600 TV shows and over 1,500 films including 200 in high definition video. iTunes Movies are available in the US only and are $9.99 (US) for library title purchases and $14.99 (US) for new release purchases and $2.99 (US) for library title rentals and $3.99 (US) for new release rentals, and high definition rental versions are priced just one dollar more with library title rentals at $3.99 (US) and new release rentals at $4.99 (US).

EROS Group, one of the leading players in consumer electronics, telecom and allied multi-products in the Middle East region, has introduced the world's first Blu-ray Hybrid camcorder in the UAE. The DZ-BD7HSW is Hitachi's flagship Blu-ray Hard Disk Drive Hybrid model which incorporates Blu-ray disc recording capability and a 30 gigabyte HDD. The integrated 30GB HDD can record approximately four hours of Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 video (HX mode) or up to eight hours of HD 1,440 x 1,080 video (HS mode).

SONY Pictures Home Entertainment will become the first major US studio to release DVDs in Vietnam. The studio has partnered with Vietnamese company Galaxy Studio for distribution in the country. Releases begin 9 May 2008, with a group of 15 titles, including Casino Royale, Surf’s Up and the ‘Spider-Man’ franchise. Future plans call for the release of approximately five to 10 DVD titles per month and the eventual launch of Blu-ray Disc releases.

TOSHIBA has said it will continue selling HD DVD-R media, made by Ritek and Mitsubishi Chemicals, directly through its Shop1048 web site. The available media include MC's "VR75NP10-DAV" HD DVD-R SL; the "VR150TP10-DAV" HD DVD-R DL; and Ritek's "70H30HTSB0001" HD DVD-R SL. The HD DVD-R (recordable) media are for owners of Toshiba's HD DVD recorders such as the RD-A301, RD-A1/A600/A300 models, which are sold in Japan.

MPEG LA has filed an enforcement action in a New York Federal District Court against retail chain Target Corporation and Doe Corporations 1-10 for infringing patents essential to the MPEG-2 digital video compression standard. According to the complaint, Target offers in its retail stores a variety of products under its Trutech house brand name, such as digital televisions and DVD players, that use patent protected MPEG-2 methods without having entered into licences with the individual patent holders or a portfolio licence that includes these patents offered by MPEG LA.

SAMSUNG Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced its latest additions to the product lineup: a fourth-generation Blu-ray player and a second-generation Blu-ray home theater. Samsung introduced the world's first Blu-ray player in June 2006. Last December it unveiled the first-ever home theater-in-a-box that includes a Blu-ray player. Dongsoo Jun, chief of Digital AV Business Division at Samsung Electronics, said he expects the overall Blu-ray market to achieve average annual growth of at least 80% through 2012, with 51 million units sold a year by that time. A conservative estimate for 2008 would be 5 million units sold, or three times the number for last year, he added.

BLU-RAY disc sales jumped 351 percent in the first three months of this year, according to Home Media Magazine research. Home Media reports that the rise in Blu-ray sales led to the first increase in consumer spending on home video in two years. In 2007, total sales fell 0.5 percent and they decreased 0.4 percent in 2006. But the publication writes that consumer spending was up one percent in the first three months of 2008, totaling $5.51 billion, compared to the first three months of 2007. Sales rose 2.3 percent while rental spending fell 1.6 percent.

BY 2012, digital music sales will represent 40% of all music purchased worldwide, according to In-Stat. In-Stat agrees with NPD that digital sales of music represented 10% of the total worldwide music market in 2007, which was up 4% from 2006. In-Stat says that factors contributing to this growth include the global expansion of broadband, continued demand for single-track downloads, and expanding music catalogues.

FRANCE’s Carrefour Group, the world’s No. 2 retailer behind Wal-Mart, is to enter the movie download business, launching a new service in its four key European territories of France, Spain, Belgium and Italy. Announcing the initiative at the recent PEVE Conference, Carrefour’s international non-food chief Christophe Geoffroy said the site would offer both download-to-own and download-to-rent movies and television programs.

SAMSUNG is to introduce a Blu-ray/HD DVD combo drive in September and the burner will be available in the first quarter of 2009. With earlier versions not being a success Samsung now hopes to introduce a best seller. Samsung is a Blu-ray supporter and HD DVD patent owner. No word on the drive's price, but other Samsung drives started at $500, so this one is expected to be cheaper.

MOVIE titles 6th Day and Walk Hard are the first Blu-ray titles that feature BD-Live, now available from Amazon.com. With BD-Live (Blu-ray Profile 2.0) users get additional online content from within the Blu-ray disc menu. Though they also get PIP, the online connection bears the most potential to enhance the experience of Blu-ray movie discs over DVDs.

NOTWITHSTANDING, the termination of the HD DVD format, Microsoft has enhanced its HD DVD code in the Xbox 360. Daily Tech reports that, as part of its ongoing HD-DVD support the engineers at Microsoft have released updated HD-DVD code for the game console. For Xbox Live users the update downloading is prompted by the box playing an HD-DVD movie. Others will be able to download it from Microsift later this week. The update resolves playback problems with certain titles and increases support for network features. This depends upon movie studios supporting an infrastructure for web-enabled titles such as Transformers from Paramount.

AGI Polymatrix, part of Meadwestvaco, announced that its plastic DVD packaging facilities received a certificate of compliance from the Content Delivery and Storage Association (CDSA). The CDSA’s voluntary certification, called the Plastic DVD Standard Packaging Program, requires manufacturers to submit finished plastic DVD packaging samples from their facilities for independent testing of hazardous materials. Compliance with the program ensures that the products comply with the limits for hazardous materials as set forth in the CDSA Standard.

DTS-HD Master Audio is now available for the PlayStation 3 games console. The technology is capable of delivering audio that is bit-for-bit identical to the studio master at super high variable bit rates (up to 24.5 Mbps on Blu-ray Discs). Thie transfer rate can deliver 7.1 audio channel, 96k/24-bit sound identical to the original studio master. DTS’ single-bit-stream codec design enables highly efficient content programming and consumer playback. PS3 can be upgradable to decode DTS-HD Master Audio by downloading the upcoming firmware upgrade on 15 April 2008.

AVID Technology announced the next generation of its Pinnacle PCTV HD Stick, and Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick. The last product already is the best selling TV tuner for PCs in the United States, according to NDP research. With the size of a flash drive the new Pinnacle PCTV HD sticks provide users with resolutions of up to 1080i. At only $99 the new PCTV HD Pro stick can provide you with HD-quality TV and can be used as a Personal Video Recorder (PVR).

MICROSOFT has officially denied that it is working with Taiwanese manufacturer Lite-On to develop a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360. Register Hardware reported the drives would be integrated into a smaller and less power-hungry Xbox 360s. But a Microsoft spokeswoman has denied any such rumours. In a statement, Microsoft said: “No. Lite-On is not manufacturing Blu-ray drives for Xbox 360.” The company added that Xbox 360 sales are driven by games and that the Redmond-based firm “remains focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster games available."

OPTICAL disk drive manufacturers, Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions (PLDS) USA, are teaming up to position themselves as the industry’s leading manufacturer of Blu-Ray writers and readers (BD-ROM). In 2006, Lite-On IT assumed ownership of a joint venture between BenQ and Royal Philips Electronics and renamed the company Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions. As Philips is a charter member of the BD Association, the new partnership gave Lite-On access and ownership to numerous patents which allowed the company to begin R&D and ultimately production of its current line of BD products.

TOSHIBA original equipment manufacturer and EMS Group's Dongguang subsidiary Electrical Mechaset Systems ceased production of HD DVD modules on 26 March, reports Southern Metropolitan News. According to an unnamed insider, the company handed out a total of RMB7 million ($1m) in compensation, about RMB5,000 ($712) per employee, due to the closure. Electrical Mechaset Systems will shut down permanently on 30 June if it fails to secure orders.

BLU-RAY Region Coding reminder. Region A (North America, Central America, South America, Korea, Japan, South East Asia); Region B (Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia, New Zealand); Region C (Russia, India, China, Rest of World). Use of region codes is at the publisher’s discretion. For those titles which do incorporate region coding, it would appear there is a requirement that any re-replication of a title more than twelve months after its initial replication has to remove region coding (unless the content is updated).

THE Hollywood Reporter writes today that Lionsgate Entertainment is now making $15 in profit for every sale of an older Blu-ray disc title – and $21 for new releases like War. Blu-ray discs are priced higher than standard-def DVDs, enabling the studios to generate more in profits. Some new titles cost around $30 at retail, compared to half that for the standard-def DVD release.

HITACHI Maxell is to stop selling its recently-announced series of 2x HD DVD-R/RW media, according to a recent company announcement. Hitachi Maxell's HD DVD-R and HD DVD-RW support the 2x burning speed and were initially scheduled to be available in Japan last February in both variations for data and video. However, Toshiba's decision to stop the development and promotion of HD DVD changed Hitachi Maxell' s plans.

ACER recently announced the "Gemstone Blue" series of Aspire laptops featuring Blu-ray drives. Acer Taiwan President Scott Lin now reveals that the company is planning to ship 22 million laptops in the year 2008. No less than 10% of these would have a Blu-ray drive inside it. Acer expects to ship 40,000 18.4-inch BD notebooks and 70,000 16-inch BD notebooks this month.

SALES on Amazon.com for Samsung's Blu-ray and Blu-ray/HD DVD combo players increased last week on format growth and price cuts on high-definition players. Both sales of the company’s BD-UP5000 HD DVD/Blu-ray disc combo player and the BD-P1400 1080p Blu-ray disc player increased nearly 120%. The price of the dual-format combo player was cut to $449.99 from a $599.99 MSRP. The BD-P1400 was reduced to $399.99 from $499.99.

CONSUMER electronics chain Best Buy announced it will offer a $50 gift card to customers who purchased an HD DVD player from any Best Buy store. The gift card, which can be spent on any item in the store, is part of a growing industry effort to appease HD DVD owners. The New York Times reports that the Best Buy gift cards will be mailed automatically to customers who purchased HD DVD players by February 23 through rewards programs, the company's web site or those who purchased extended warranties. All others must show proof of purchase to get the card. The card will not include an expiration date.

INTEREST from consumers in next-generation packaged media format Blu-ray rose slightly last month following the end of the format war with rival HD DVD, according to a study by The NPD Group. Interest among standard DVD consumers likely to buy HD packaged media increased to 10.8% for the week that ended 20 February, compared to 9.4% for the previous week and 8.9% for the week of 6 February. HD DVD interest, not surprisingly, dropped to 8.8%, from 10.6% (13 February) the week before and 10.9% the prior week. HD DVD continues to generate sales, with select consumer electronics retailers selling the Toshiba HD-A30 player for $129.

BECOMING the first major studio to issue an extensive next-gen price cut, Fox has announced it is discounting 22 of its top Blu-ray catalog releases. Effective immediately, the studio will reduce the list price of 22 Blu-ray titles by $10, from $39.98 to $29.98. Fox is reported to say the price reduction does not represent an across-the-board change in the studio's standard Blu-ray MSRP of $39.98.

RELEASE of The Hitman BD title from Fox includes a standard edition Digital Copy and will be available day and date, making it the first such BD title. "Digital Copy was an obvious choice for Fox given the increased consumer interest in portable media over the past couple of years,"says Sven Davison, vice president, worldwide product development and production, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

CUBA’s new president, Raul Castro has shown he is moving to improve Cubans' access to consumer goods by allowing the unrestricted sale of computers and DVD players according to a report from Reuters. Only foreigners and companies can buy computers in Cuba at present, while DVD players were seized at the airport until last year, when customs rules were eased. Now Cubans will be able to buy them freely, paying for them in hard currency. "Based on the improved availability of electricity, the government at the highest level has approved the sale of some equipment which was prohibited," the report said.

AARON Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360, squashed rumors that Microsoft is in talks with Sony, and plan to integrate Blu-ray into the console. Microsoft stopped with making an HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360, but now focuses on the console's online service. Xbox Live allows users to rent hundreds of movies, including ones in high-definition. "We're the only console offering digital distribution of entertainment content," Greenberg said.

SONY DADC has announced plans to invest more than $100 million in its Terre Haute, Indiana plant. The facility is used for Blu-ray disc production, and Sony is budgeting for at least 65 more workers, $101 million in new equipment and $7.4 million in property improvements. The plant is mostly staffed by hourly workers, but Sony plans on 15 of those 65 positions to be salaried.

NET profit of Bertelsmann, the fifth largest media group in the world and parent of Arvato, fell to $640 million from $1.56 billion. It is the results of a write-down of $654 million on Direct Group, which is having problems with book, record and DVD clubs in the United States. Bertelsmann finance director Thomas Rabe said the unit's future was under consideration. CD sales would be terminated and the rest of Direct Group North America would be sold, a process due to begin "in the coming weeks." For 2008, Bertelsmann, a private company held by the family of its founder, forecast net profit of at least double the 2007 level and sales growth of between one and two percent, Rabe said.

DREAMWORKS has announced that they will not release any more HD DVD titles. That announcement was long in coming, as the company had previously said it was Toshiba's call to stop releasing titles and they were standing by their agreement. This announcement does not mean, however, that they are going to immediately start releasing Blu-ray titles. Industry sources report they will not be releasing any titles until the summer.

AS CNET.co.uk put it “the dead [HD DVD] format has managed to rise from the grave and muster enough energy to raise a pair of rotting fingers to Blu-ray.” Nielsen VideoScan’s results for the week of 24 February showed that the HD DVD release of American Gangster was the number one selling high-definition release. The other titles in the top ten were Blu-ray.

MICROSOFT Xbox 360 may soon be equipped with an internal Blu-ray drive, according to Sony Electronics President and COO Stan Glasgow. The revelation comes just two weeks after Microsoft stopped manufacturing its Xbox 360 HD-DVD player add-on and began offering deep discounts on the HD-DVD peripheral. Talking with the Financial Times, Glasgow said his company is talking with both Microsoft and Apple to add Blu-ray drives to their hardware. Such a move would earn Sony royalties on every Xbox 360 sold, a first for the game industry. But not so fast, says Microsoft.

POLICE in Manitoba, Canada, have shut down what they call a sophisticated CD and DVD pirating operation that has long been a thorn in the side of the Canadian music industry. One man was arrested after the raid at the Winnipeg production shop for Audiomaxxx.com, which the RCMP allege ships thousands of illegal discs around the world every month. Officers hauled away more than 200,000 CDs and DVDs along with other equipment, including disc burners that could, according to police estimates, produce 11,500 discs a day. A 31-year-old man from Winnipeg has been charged, and police are investigating three others.

WHILE insisting that flat panel displays remain central to its business, Pioneer’s decision to stop making its own screens has been attributed to the financial burden of competing with some of its competitors' huge production plants. “We have judged that maintaining the cost competitiveness of plasma display panels at projected sales volumes will be difficult going forward. Accordingly, we have decided to terminate in-house plasma display panel production, procuring them outside. Ithe company will switch focus to in-car electronics and Blu-ray players.

SAMSUNG will halt its plans to release the combination HD DVD/Blu-ray player, the BD-UP5500, introduced in January at the Consumer Electronics Show. Samsung issued a statement last week saying that though the product "remains a practical solution...the window of opportunity is smaller than it was before. In light of recent announcements, Samsung will not introduce the BD-UP5500 Duo HD Player."

MULTIMEDIA Intelligence research outfit predicts that Blu-ray DVD players and recorders will represent the largest segment of Internet Protocol (IP) enabled consumer electronics. The connected DVD equipment segment will reach nearly 50 million units by 2012. These BD device volumes are in addition to Sony’s BD-enabled PS3 videogame consoles. Adoption of IP interfaces is progressing across a variety of consumer electronics devices, including video game consoles, TVs, DVD equipment, audio equipment, as well as cable, telco, and satellite set-top boxes. Total annual shipments of IP-enabled consumer electronics devices reached 64 million units in 2007. Currently video game consoles represent the largest segment. However, next generation Blu-Ray DVD equipment is already integrating Internet connectivity to enhance interactivity and online applications.

BROADCOM has acquired Sunext Design Incorporated, the US arm of Taiwanese company Sunext Technology which specialises in the manufacture of chips and architecture for optical drives, for $48 million. Sunext's single chip front-end technology will complement Broadcom’s already strong back-end offering, and the company is expected to begin marketing a total Blu-ray chipset solution at a price which should ultimately bring down the total cost of players. Currently, Broadcom chips are employed in the majority of Samsung's Blu-Ray players, as well as in LG and Philips players. Philips also has had dealings with Sunext for optical drive semiconductors. It will be one of the first companies likely to see the benefit of this acquisition.

THE United Kingdom is the video-on-demand leader in Europe with revenue of $677 million forecast for 2012 as the VOD business moves to top $10 billion in that year. A new report by Informa Telecoms & Media says that 909 million homes – about 78% of the globe's TV households – will be able to access VOD or something similar by 2012. VOD is on the minds of the US studios and television stations around the world with VOD windows being built into contracts as a means of combating illegal downloads. Informa says that North America will take about half of the VOD revenue by 2012 because while the Asia Pacific market will have 50% of VOD homes by then it will account for less than 12% of revenue.

DESPITE the fact that the HD DVD standard exits the market, there are several hundred movies available on such discs, many of them are exclusive to HD DVD. As of mid-February, over 380 HD DVD titles have been released in the USA, over 210 Japanese HD DVD titles have been released and there are hundreds of HD DVD titles available in Europe with tens more incoming. HD DVD fans have at least one more high profile release to look forward to, as German distributor Kinowelt is prepared to release Terminator 2: Ultimate HD-Edition on 20 March. Produced by HDi (and Blu-ray) pioneers Imagion AG this release includes the director's cut of the film, with DTS-HD 7.1 audio and more than four hours of bonus material in a high quality SteelBook case. This is expected to be the triumphant example of HD DVD's advanced features and capabilities.

GIGASTORAGE, a second-tier Taiwan-based maker of blank optical discs, has been fully utilizing its production capacity for DVD+R/-R discs during the first quarter of 2008, according to industry sources in Taiwan. Optodisc Technology, another second-tier maker, on the other hand, is set for a corporate restructuring to deal with tough times. Gigastorage has been successful in tapping emerging markets in Southeast Asia and Latin America, with orders received already booking up production capacity for blank DVD+R/-R discs at its plants in Taiwan and Thailand for the first quarter. In contrast, Optodisc has obtained a court approval for its application for corporate restructuring. Optodisc used to be among the global top-five makers of DVD+R/-R discs, according to industry sources.

ACER will "push" Blu-ray notebooks this year. Acer, who was signed up to both next-generation formats, has predicted that the sales boost of Blu-ray drives will first be seen in notebooks rather than standalone players. Scott Lin, president of Acer, has revealed the company is planning to launch BD-capable notebooks in the second quarter of this year. The reasoning behind the notebook push is since most homes do not yet have Full HD (1080p) ready TVs, a notebook with a Blu-ray disc drive and full HD panel will have more advantages over a stand-alone player, said Lin. One of the two new notebooks will apparently boast an 18.4-inch screen and the other will be a 16-inch offering, both will support HD quality images.

VINPOWER Digital Announces the World's First 6X Speed Blu-Ray Manual Tower Standalone Duplicator
Vinpower Digital announced the latest innovation in the Blu-ray duplication market with the world’s first 6X speed manual tower standalone duplicator as part of the SharkBlu series. Using the LG model #GGWH20L 6X Blu-ray writer drive(s) combined with the exceptional performance of the SharkBlu duplicator series provides reliable high quality copies of Blu-ray master disc(s) with a faster turnaround time.

TAIYO Yuden, Mitsubishi and Maxell have all announced new Blu-ray discs that use an organic dye for recording, according to three Japanese news sources. The discs announced are all 25GB BD-R single layer, with 1x to 2x write speed. The advantages of using organic dye include a simpler manufacturing process and the ability to replicate using existing CD and DVD coating facilities, thus doing away with high cost of building new production lines specifically for Blu-ray disc. Instead, existing CD-R and DVD-R coating facilities just need minor adjustments, thus making it possible to mass produce Blu-ray discs at low cost.

SHARP will start mass production of new blue-violet laser diodes on April, which will be powerful enough to burn dual layer Blu-ray Discs at the 6x speed. There will be two variations of the new diode: the GH04P25A4G features a proprietary facet structure and its compact dimensions (3.3mm diameter) make it suitable for use in notebook BD drives. The other model (GH04P25A2G) features a diameter of 5.6mm and can be installed in desktop BD drives. The supported power output of 240 mW makes possible high-speed 6X recording on dual-layer Blu-ray Discs (BD). The diodes are priced at ¥50,000.

IN the first two years following their introduction in the US market, high-definition DVD players are selling at the same rate as standard DVD players did over the same period, but high-def software sales are lagging behind by about 50%, Adams Media Research says in a new report. Introduced in 2006, high-def discs moved 8.3 million units up to the end of last year compared to 16.3 million standard units in the equivalent period up to the end of 1998, according to the analyst.

NEW Medium Enterprises believes that with its low production costs and movie prices -- about the same as a standard DVD -- it can move 500,000 of the red laser format HD VMD 1080p standalone players worldwide in 2008. The company has had some success dealing with international distributors, resulting in high profile movies like Apocalypto available on the format in Australia. In the U.S., the only studio noted is Anthem Pictures, which plans to release three titles a month.

FRENCH independent replicator QOL becomes a member of the Blu-ray Partners, France, since obtaining all of the necessary licenses and certifications granted by the BDA Association for the production of BD discs. QOL says it will "commit its considerable experience and expertise to assist the Blu-ray Association and Partners France and plans to help significantly in the development and the success of the Blu-ray Format." Members of the group include Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment, Gaumont Columbia Tristar Home Vidéo, Fox Pathé Europa, Walt Disney Studio Home Entertainment, Warner Home Vidéo and Mastery International Pictures.

MALAYSIA has stepped up raids on movie pirates, having seized 487 DVD burners this year compared to 23 in 2007, says the the U.S.-based Motion Picture Association. In the latest raid, officials confiscated 150 burners and tens of thousands of discs from a lab outside Kuala Lumpur. The 150 burners seized could have churned out 8.1 million pirated discs a year, generating $14.2 million in revenue, the association said. Association members, including Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Universal, lost about $1.2 billion in 2005 because of movie piracy.

MICROSOFT has cut another $50 off the MSRP for its Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on, emulating a series of price drops on HD DVD players from Toshiba. This brings the new suggested retail price on the Xbox 360 HD DVD player in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to $129.99. Purchases of the Xbox 360 add-on include a free HD DVD copy of 'King Kong' inside the box, and qualify for an additional five free discs by mail as part of the HD DVD camp's "Perfect Offer" programme.

CYBERLINK announced it is participating in the formation of MPEG LA’s joint HD DVD patent license based on its ownership of a patent determined to be essential to the HD DVD standard. CyberLink's patent relates to the specifications for interactive content over a network for prerecorded HD DVD Discs, for playback according to the DVD Specifications for High Definition VIDEO (HD DVD-Video).

LOVEFiLM International will acquire Amazon Europe's online rental business in the United Kingdom and Germany. As part of the transaction, Amazon Europe will become the largest shareholder in LOVEFiLM. If the deal is approved by regulators, LOVEFiLM will have more than 900,000 subscribers in the U.K., Germany and Scandinavia.

GERMANY'S Sony has teamed up with Saturn, a major electronics retailer in that market, to help owners of HD DVD players make the switch to Blu-ray by offering a credit of €150 on the purchase of Sony BDP-S300. This player normally retails for €499 so the exchange would lower it to €349. This player can already be purchased for €380 on German Internet shops, but Saturn also bundles eight Blu-ray movies. The Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drives and PC HD DVD drives are excluded from the offer.

MICROSOFT spokesman, Jeff Bell has admitted his company has been in discussions with Blu-ray developer, Sony, for some time - recently being quoted as saying the company has "been talking to Blu-ray all along." However it has not been talking about putting Blu-ray drives into Xbox 360s, but rather it has been trying to convince the Blu-ray camp to use Microsoft's HDi software – the technology that added all the extra features to HD DVD. Blu-ray uses the Java-based system to power its interactive menus and features, which is still under development. HD DVD’s HDi technology had proved more popular with disc creators.

IN the course of 2008, Sony DADC will expand its Blu-ray Disc (BD) production and achieve a yearly production capacity of 200m units worldwide. Since April 2006, Sony DADC has already produced more than 110m Blu-ray discs worldwide, of which more than 20m are dual-layer BD50. In Salzburg alone, over 40m BD disc have been produced. For its Austrian sites, Sony DADC will be recruiting at least 100 additional employees. The investments are fuelled by Warner Bros. Entertainment’s decision to release High Definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray Disc format.

SOME call it Toshiba's last effort to save its high-definition format. A $2.7 million costing ad during the Super Bowl to promote HD DVD. The ad highlights Toshiba's HD-A3, HD-A30 and HD-A35 players. Toshiba's marketing department confirmed that the Japanese giant will run a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl. Its main goal is to reinvigorate HD DVD. Known as the most expensive domestic marketing day in the United States this action shows that Toshiba wants to pull out all registers. With Blu-ray not reacting and not broadcasting during the Super Bowl, HD DVD will have 30 seconds of fame without any 'blu-commerce' before or after the ad.

IN recent developments regarding the insolvency procedure of ODS’s manufacturing plants, eight new HD DVD-ready Singulus Spaceline II lines installed in the company’s Polish plant from December 2006 to March 2007 are offered for sale by the finance company who owns them through second-hand equipment broker Switzerland-based Add-Y-Pac. The asking price is €450,000 the line.

820-STORE UK retailer chain Woolworths announced it will drop HD DVD titles from its stores in March, although they will still be available online. It said it decided on the move after Sony’s Blu-ray outsold Toshiba’s HD DVD by 10-1 in its outlets over Christmas. The main reason is the success of Sony’s PlayStation 3 machine. Since launching high definition DVD last October, Woolworths claims to be the biggest retailer of the new DVD format in the UK, with sales typically rising by more than 40% a month.

SCIENTISTS of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits in Germany – developers of MP3 and MPEG-4 formats – have designed a new audio format – HD-AAC – that offers better sound than CDs and the file sizes are small enough to put online. The codec is based on MPEG-4 SLS, a scalable lossless format. HD-AAC delivers high-quality 24-bit/96KHz files. They can be played on a home media server, and after that use the base version (AAC-LC layer) to play back on an iPod.

THE Blu-ray Disc Association has announced that a new company, BluFocus, has been formed to help assist Blu-ray studios in "quality control checks" of their upcoming Blu-ray releases. Many have hoped for such a group as titles on Blu-ray and its rival HD DVD are very sophisticated systems of interactivity and many make it to retail shelves with flaws that need later patches or even recalls. The new group will test all titles to ensure they operate on all players before release. The company has an expertise in the Blu-ray authoring language BD-Java and is "able to run the discs through a variety of tests in order to ensure compatibility with the set standards."

IN conjunction with the Nichia corporation of Japan, Sony has succeeded in developing smaller and cheaper blue laser modules for use in Blu-ray drives. The new laser units measure just 3-mm thick, and are less costly to produce than previous incarnations of the product. The advance will also allow Blu-ray drives to arrive in 9.5-mm laptop drives later in 2008.

US consumer spending on DVD sales and rentals fell 2.9% in 2007, according to the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG). That means rentals were flat at $7.5 billion, and sell-through declined 3.6% to $16 billion. Overall, consumer spending on all formats including DVD, VHS and high-def discs, was $23.7 billion, down 2%, even though unit shipments were up 2%, to 1.7 billio