DVD players produced by China-based makers unwilling to pay royalties to Philips Electronics, have found their way into the Taiwan market as “white box” (unbranded) units after having been blocked from export to the EU and US, according to the local retail channels. The illicit units are currently being sold at extremely low retail prices of around NT$1,499-1,699 (£25-£28), according to local retail channels.

Sony missed out on potential sales from MP3 players and other gadgets because it was overly proprietary about music and entertainment content, the head of Sony Corp.'s video-game unit has acknowledged.

As we predicted a couple of weeks ago, Plextor have announced a firmware upgrade for their PX-716 series of burners. The new software boosts recording speeds to state-of-the-art 6X DVD+R Double-Layer (DL) and 6X DVD-R Dual-Layer (DL).

Press Release: Next Generation Home Products have announced the newest version of their award-winning Remote "Long Ranger" Xtender.

Sony have presented a new model of their succesfull Memory Stick Pro series, capable of storing up to 4GB of data.

Peripherals vendor LaCie will next month ship a DVD writer that can label disks after recording data on them. The drive can burn text and graphics onto the top surface of the media using the same laser employed to write data, thus eliminating the need for a separate label printer, according to LaCie.

Sony has filed a patent application which describes several methods for using wireless connections in portable game machines. The methods described could very well be used with the PlayStation Portable (PSP) gaming device in the future.

According to the Taipei times. Ritek the second largest optical disc maker in the world has just funded the purchasing of Raw materials by selling bonds convertible to shares.

CMC Magnetics and Ritek, the top two producers of optical discs in Taiwan, may observe a reduction in total value of assets as a result of the enforcement of new accounting and financial reporting criteria on January 1, 2005, according to local stock market analysts in Taiwan.

Reflecting its strategy to leverage its digital television (DTV) IP, Paris-based Thomson said today it would work with Japanese television and electronic goods manufacturer Funai to develop DTVs.

Moser Baer has joined hands with the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) to work jointly in the frontier areas of thin film sputtering technology suitable for optical data storage devices.

Sony has taken the first step toward opening up the proprietary UMD (Universal Media Disc) optical disc system used in its PlayStation Portable (PSP) so that other companies can build products based on the discs, a senior executive said Thursday.

Sony has released a profits warning, citing, amongst other factors, falling DVD Recorder prices. The electronics giant reports that DVD Recorder prices are falling at 40% per year.

Telewest has inked a deal with technology firm Scientific-Atlanta to offer personal video recorder (PVR) set-top boxes to its cable TV customers later this year. The move follows similar offerings from rivals such as TiVo and Sky.

Handal & Associates, a law firm based in San Diego, USA, indicated that its national class action lawsuit against the 3C DVD Patent Group, consisting of Philips Electronics, Sony, Pioneer and LG Electronics, may eventually be successful, according to lead attorney Anton Handal at a conference on anti-monopoly of DVD patents, held in Hong Kong on January 19, as reported by Xinhua Online.

With DVD-R now reaching an upper writing limit of 16x, manufacturers are having to rely on features other than writing speeds to bring new products to market. Datawrite recently had a coup with their Titanium brand which, as well as having a highly compatible writing surface, boasts an ultra tough protective surface.

The UK's two cablcecos have unveiled their video-on-demand services today as they look to bring greater flexibility to digital TV viewers.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has selected Lite-On IT and BenQ to be OEMs for its 16x DVD Dual burners equipped with LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling technology, with Lite-On IT responsible for external models for retail sale and BenQ for internal models for installation in PCs.

More than 200m songs were downloaded from legal online music stores around the world last year - a 900 per cent increase over 2003's total, the music industry organisation IFPI said today.

Lite-On, one of the biggest makers of DVD drives, are now the biggest after inking a deal with HP to make drives.