DVD meister Flash has recently updated his 'Battle of the Burners' pages to reflect our new way of presenting his findings in the same format as the reviews - with pop-up windows for the the wide range of drives he uses in his bleeding-edge laboratory. You'll find the Battle of the Burners here.

Sony is to bring Blu-ray the high capacity optical disc system to the UK as early as March, but only as part of a desktop PC package. The VGC-RC204, which also breaks with Sony PC tradition in that it is the first desktop from the company to run using Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system, features a Blu-ray recorder that can archive up to 25GB of data on one disc.

Philips new licensing system for CD-R discs, Veeza, will lower royalty charges by 44.4% for those participating in the program. Taiwanese makers - who account for 53% of global CD-R disc production - will benefit significantly from Veeza, industry sources indicated.

The update to the 802.11g wireless standard has been approved by an industry group, and the first 802.11n applications are expected next year.

Imation and Memorex have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Imation will acquire Memorex in an all cash transaction for $330 million (£190m).

Inside West Virginia's gold-domed Capitol, somebody has transformed a tucked-away basement office into a makeshift, taxpayer-funded studio to create pirate DVD videos and music CDs.

Lite-On IT is cooperating with Japanese clients to develop DVD camcorders using 8cm DVD+R/-R discs and expects to begin OEM production in small volumes next quarter and shipments in large volume in the second half of this year, according to the company.

Philips have introduced a new way of licensing its CD-R disc patents. Called Veeza, the dutch giants hope to combat unfair competition from trade in unlicensed CD-R discs.

Microsoft has crushed all rumours of development of Blu-ray disc drives for their Xbox 360 gaming system when they announced they were fully committed to HD DVD and has no plans to support other formats.

Malaysian authorities have crippled two DVD and video CD (VCD) piracy rings in Malaysia, arresting 30 people and seizing nine duplicating machines worth 36m ringgit (£5.4m), a local newspaper reported today.

Memorex is shipping 24-karat gold CDs and DVDs. The benefit, of course, is that gold breaks down far more slowly than other media from exposure to dust, dirt, and chemicals.

A faulty TV digital box sparked a rescue mission from RAF Kinloss by sending out a signal identical to those transmitted by vessels in distress.

The latest version of Apple's popular iTunes software scans a computer's digital music collection and recommends new songs to buy — a feature blasted by privacy advocates as electronic snooping.

Microsoft will not release any update for the Media Player version for Macs.

A 9-year-old boy in California who suffered from uncontrollable head jerking movements after long hours of video game playing stopped the twitching after his doctor banned him from playing his Playstation.

Jeans giant Levi's is hoping to woo fashionistas and music aficionados alike with its new iPod-compatible RedWire DLX jeans, due out this autumn.

A workington man was ordered to repay over £59,000 after he was found guilty of faking CDs and DVDs.

Following the release of the BDR-101A writer, the second Blu-Ray DVD burner from the Japanese company will support recording of BD-R/RE, DVD recordable/rewritable and also "legacy" CD-Rs. The drive will retail later this year.

Neuros is to update its MPEG-4 Video Recorder with a new industrial design and an integrated hard-disk drive. It is also preparing to revive its Digital Audio Computer (DAC) line of MP3 players, basing both systems on both a common hardware platform and open-source firmware.

Steven Spielberg's Munich has effectively been knocked out of the running for next month's Bafta awards after a batch of DVDs sent to voters eligible to judge the UK award were coded incorrectly for European viewing. Copies of the film were earlier held up for a month in UK Customs.