Sony have showed a smaller, book-sized PlayStation 2 that will go on sale worldwide next month and help the Japanese electronics giant cut costs as video-game consoles continue to drop in price.

Sony will announce next month that it has developed an 8-layer version of the Blu-ray disc that is capable of storing 200GB of data, according to a company spokesman.

Although OEM quotations for 16x DVD burners have fallen to US$60-70 (£33-£39), the prices will remain stable till the end of the year, according to Taiwan makers of optical disc drives (ODDs).

Retail prices of 12x DVD Dual burners dropped below NT$3,000 (£49) last week as Sony and Lite-On IT are trying to clear out their stock, according to sources in the channel.

Davie Lu, who started Infodisc with just NT$250,000 (£4,000), has stepped down recently amid insider trading charges and losses at the optical disk firm.

Not only is the CD format alive and well, but it's emerging from the "online" revolution looking healthier than ever. 92 per cent of DRM-store downloaders surveyed by Entertainment Media Research prefer the plastic platters to their MP3 downloads, Revolution magazine reports.

China’s domestic market response to EVD players has not been as positive as originally expected, but the platform appears to be struggling to gain acceptance as it competes with various alternative formats, according to Taiwan optical disc drive (ODD) makers.

Apple's iTunes music download service has been accused by the UK Consumers' Association of overcharging users. The group accused the service of charging UK-based customers nearly 20% more than those with addresses and payment details in France or Germany.

Press Release: Epson's newest inkjet, the Stylus Photo R320 printer supports PC-free printing, 13 memory card types, a built-in color monitor for viewing and selecting images before printing them and it will generate a variety of popular borderless print sizes. It also prints directly onto ink-jet printable CD-R and DVD-R recordable media.

Although there is uncertainty about when the current oversupply of optical discs will ease, the market for discs involving more advanced technology should recover first, according to Gordon Yieh, CEO of disc maker Ritek.

Following up on last week's reports that Japanese discount stores were drastically discounting the PSX, Sony itself has now lowered the price of the PS2-DVD-recorder hybrid. However, the company made no official announcement regarding the price drop.

Grouper - a temporarily stealth software project - has gone up for download and instantly created a confusing divide between the old world and the new. Unlike most P2P software that shares music and other files with world+dog, Grouper focuses on sharing files between friends. Users can set up mini-P2P networks and open up their photos, music, movies and documents. This approach seems much more similar to old-style content swapping where friends handed each other a mixed CD or recording, just with a techie twist.

Press Release: Advanced Media, a subsidiary of Ritek, have announced the addition of ultra fast, new 16x DVD+R discs to its Radata brand lineup. The new discs will be available through selected retailers, Ridata distributors and at various online outlets this month.

A suspended LAPD police captain was placed on probation and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service for selling pirated and counterfeit DVDs.

CMC Magnetics, Taiwan's largest manufacturer of optical discs, is increasing production of 16x DVD+R discs, with shipments expected to rise from 10% of the total sales volume of DVD+R discs currently, to 30-40% in the fourth quarter of this year, according to company vice president and spokesperson Andria Wong.

OEM quotations for 16x DVD burners have dropped from US$90-100 (£50-£56)in the second quarter of this year to US$60-70 (£37-£39) in late August due to competition among manufacturers in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, according to Taiwan optical disc drive (ODD) makers.

Fraunhofer has announced its latest MPEG-4 AV solutions – now available as free evaluation software. At IBC 2004, Fraunhofer IIS will present “DSL-TV”, a combination of MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding and the most advanced low bit-rate multi-channel audio coding scheme.

Press Release: Ahead Software will exhibit a formidable line-up of Nero Digital technologies. Centred around MPEG-4, Digital offers a complete codec solution embracing MPEG-4 video, and AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), LC and HE (High Efficiency) with Parametric Stereo extensions.

Our friends at Bulkpaq seem to be right up to their necks in it. Apparently, the media trade newspaper CTO has refused to run their latest advert claiming it’s "too raunchy" and "indecent". Here’s a sneak preview of part of the campaign.

Bulkpaq have offered readers of DVD-Recordable the chance to be famous in a stunning competition they are running as part of their "Save Your Favourite Home Video Moments to DVD" campaign, which is going to be running in various enduser and trade magazines throughout Europe and the Middle East. They are offering a prize of £1000 worth of Bulkpaq products.

Press release: Samsung has announced the newest entry in its optical disc drive family, the Writemaster TS-H552B 16X DVD ReWritable drive. The double layer-capable TS-H552B supports all the popular DVD recordable/rewritable formats. The TS-H552B provides double-layer data storage up to 8.5GB in one disc with supported DL media. To reduce noise when recording or reading at high speeds, the TS-H552B features Samsung's Silent Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM) technology and an Automatic Ball Balancing System (ABS).