The Blu-ray Disc Founders (BDF), comprised of 10 leading consumer electronics companies, formalized the next steps in establishing Blu-ray Disc as the next generation optical disc format.

Newly-promoted Sony Europe boss Chris Deering has revealed that the company is planning to roll out the PlayStation Portable worldwide by the end of the year, with a global launch aimed in November 2004.

RealNetworks plans to announce a major release of its media player that has a digital music store built into it, beating perennial rival Microsoft to the punch.

Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD), the industry pioneer in small form factor storage, today announced the development of a 0.85-inch hard disk drive (HDD), the first drive to deliver multi-gigabyte storage in a sub-one-inch form factor. Expected to be available in 2GB and 4GB capacities, Toshiba will start sampling the new drive in summer 2004, with mass production to begin in late 2004.

Sony have unveiled a revamped mini-disc Walkman that doubles the recording capacity of current discs and a new 1-gigabyte mini disc that records up to 45 hours of music, up from the current 80 minutes.

Press Release: Sony have announced the introduction of its first 8x DVD-R and DVD+R media for the consumer market, providing end-users with high-quality audio and video combined with a 30 percent increase in the recording and accessing speed of its previous high-speed offerings.

Verbatim has announced that "it is on schedule to deliver industry's first Double-Layer DVD+R (DVD+R DL) discs". The first 8.5 GB DVD+R9 media should ship this spring and will be 2.4x speed discs according to Verbatim.

Toshiba have announced that it will display a HD-DVD (AOD) player that is backwards compatible with today?s DVD-ROM. HD-DVD (High Definition DVD)was approved by the DVD forum in November and the format is backed by Toshiba and NEC.

Sony President, Ken Kutaragi, has told Reuters that the PSX sold 100,000 units in the first week of sale, and has subsequently sold out.

CD-DVDs have updated their test comparing the Pioneer A07 vs NEC ND-2500A. You can read the review in English here.

CD-DVDs.net have just done some preview tests on the new 8x DVD writers from Pioneer and NEC. From the specs you can see both drives write to DVD-R & DVD+R disks at 8 speed and re-write -RW & +RW at 4 speed. The Pioneer 107 also reads DVD-RAM disks.

Following on the heels of the EVD (enhanced versatile disc) movement, the Opto-electronics & Systems Laboratories (OES) under the Taiwan government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is developing a new DVD standard, tentatively called FVD (finalized versatile disc), according to OES deputy director Huang Der-ray.

Norwegian police have said they will not appeal a landmark DVD piracy case for a second time, marking a final victory for a 20-year-old hacker and a defeat for Hollywood.

Chinese optical drive makers have delayed the release of EVD (enhanced versatile disc) players, China's self-developed DVD format, for one month, according to the Chinese newspaper Nanfang Metropolitan Daily. The companies planned to offer EVD players at the end of November, but none has done so yet. One manufacturer may offer products in early 2004 with others following in the middle of the year.

SACD and DVD-Audio discs were far from the rage this holiday season, as consumers focused their spending on digital cameras, videogames, DTV and DVD-Video. The reasons for the stunning audio formats not taking off are many, but one of the most noteworthy is the fact the discs are marketed to 50-plus-year-old baby boomers.

Computer makers are placing big bets on consumer electronics in Las Vegas this week, banking on new products to boost sales and make inroads in what is already a highly competitive sector. They are hoping the gamble will pay off big at the giant Consumer Electronics Show in glitzy Las Vegas, where they will display their widest offering yet of products targeting that market: televisions, music players and handheld devices.

Sneaking a camcorder into a movie theater will soon be a crime in California under a new law designed to protect the copyrights of rthe film industry.

The competition between recordable DVD formats will only increase when the first 'plus' dual-layer disc is released, say industry observers. One side of the ongoing recordable DVD format battle is expected to be first with products that nearly double the amount of data held on one disc. But that victory looks unlikely to end the feud.

Prices for DVD recorder-use chipsets, including a servo IC and an integrated MPEG-2 single chip, have fallen to about US$35 (£20), compared to about US$40-45 (£23-£25) in the late third quarter of this year, sources at major international DVD chip suppliers said.

Philips, a long-time advocate of the DVD+RW standard, expects to start providing DVD recorder-use chipsets supporting the DVD-Dual format in early 2004 at the earliest, according to sources.