While games publisher Vivendi Universal was touting its support for the Blu-ray Disc format yesterday, the movie business in which it owns a 20 per cent stake, Universal Studios, was announcing plans to release 16 HD-DVD titles in the US.

Philips has been focusing its attention on DVD makers in China, working to get all DVD players made there banned in the European and US markets on royalty issues, according to Taiwan-based makers. Philips has shifted all of its OEM orders to makers in Taiwan and South Korea, running many China makers out of business.

When it comes to high-definition video discs, movie fans finally have something more to look forward to than a format battle. Three major Hollywood studios and hardware makers backing the HD-DVD format committed on Thursday to releasing players and high-definition movies in the by the end of this year.

For some website's the latest Hollywood blockbusters are the subject of intense discussion and evaluation. But unlike typical movie fan sites, computer users dish out praise or criticism about the caliber of video and sound achieved by online groups whose sole mission is to make available unauthorized copies of Hollywood films within a day or two of a movie’s debut, if not before.

The Blu-ray Disc Association strengthened its ranks at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas after Electronic Arts, Vivendi Universal Games, Sun Microsystems and Texas Instruments pledged their allegiance to the recordable DVD standard. The move turns up the heat in the bitter war against the rival HD DVD group over which will become the de facto standard for next-generation DVDs.

According to sources, from the middle of March Plextor will support DVD-R DL burning with the fastest available speed of 6X (not so sure about either P-CAV/Z-CLV) in there firmware 1.05 verion release. According to already posted specs, the DVD-R DL writing was expected at 4X, but as it seems Plextor boosted the writing speed to 6X.

DVD recorders will supersede standalone DVD players within the next four years, newly published market research has predicted.

Confused? You won't be, well not after you read DVD legend Flash's review of these varying optical writing techniques. Click to find out What are CAV, CLV, PCAV, ZCLV & OPC.

DVD Guru Flash has managed to get some more detailed specs on the Pioneer 109 DVD Burner. Have a look <a href="http://www.dvd-recordable.org/Reviews+index-req-showcontent-id-133.phtml"_blank">here for his findings.

Verbatim/MKM today announced plans to support the development of both Blu-ray and High-Definition DVD (HD-DVD) recordable and rewritable media.

At the upcoming CES show in Las Vegas, Ritek is expected to show off new products including Photo Printable discs, MP3 products, a DataPlay Photocopier, DataPlay miniWriter, and high capacity memory cards with unique packaging. The 15GB Blue Laser Disc HD DVD-R, 20GB HD DVD-RW, and High-Speed Recording DVD series, such as 16X DVD+R/16X DVD-R, 4X DVD+R DL, 4X DVD+RW/4X DVD-RW, and 3X DVD-RAM are also RITEK's main products for the show.

Pioneer are about to launch at CES this week the company's ninth-generation high-speed, dual format DVD burner and are demonstrating for the first time new Blu-ray Disc prototypes for home and computer high-definition video recording.

TiVo have launched a new initiative that lets customers transfer shows from its DVRs to a Windows-based desktop, media player, laptop or other portable device.

The Munich District Court has ordered Fujitsu Siemens to pay a royalty collecting outfit €12 for each new machine it sells. The judges were convinced that because the machine could be bought by pirates, the computer company should pay the same tax that the makers of blank audio and video cassettes have to shell out.

Competition in the optical-disc drive (ODD) market is heating up, with HLDS (Hitachi-LG Data Storage), TSST (Toshiba-Samsung Storage Technology), NEC and Philips planning to offer additional ODD lines next year. Market competition is expected to become more intense than in 2004.

Philips will be revealing its prototype all-in-one PC writer that reads and writes CD, DVD and Blu-ray Discs. The demonstration will be held on the Philips booth #9004 at the CES 2005 exhibition. The introduction of this unique all-in-one PC writer is scheduled for the second half of 2005.

DVD guru Flash has received an unexpected Christmas present from Datawrite and CMC. He managed to talk them into giving him some 16 speed DVD-R to test. You can read Flash's review of the disc which will be branded the new 16x Datawrite Titanium and the Datawrite press release on The Titanium 8X DVD-R. There is also our full review on the Datawrite Titanium.

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd. (MKM), announced commercial production of Japan's first UDOTM (Ultra Density Optical) disc with 30GB capacity. This new exiting product have been available in Japan starting in December 28.

Press Release: Gigabyte have unveiled its latest model of internal DVD Dual Drives - the GO-W1616C. It supports both 16X DVD+/-R writing, and 4X DVD+R Double Layer writing technology.

Ultima Electronics, a Taiwan-based manufacturer of optical disc drives (ODDs), on announced on December 27th a downward adjustment of its 2004 financial forecast for a second time, anticipating a net loss per share of NT$3.33.