Toshiba Corporation announced today that on May 14, 2009, Toshiba filed suit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin against Imation Corp. ("Imation"), several manufacturers and several distributors of recordable DVD media, as a means to prohibit infringement of Toshiba's DVD patents. Toshiba's complaint seeks damages for past infringement and requests that the court enjoin the sale, manufacture, and importation into the United States of recordable DVD media by the defendant companies named in the complaint. The infringing recordable DVD media is sold in the United States under at least the Imation and Memorex brand names.

Buffalo today presented the DVSM-PN58U2V DVD writer primarily designed to be used with netbooks. The optical drive is installed in a super slim body with 137x20x142 mm dimensions and weighs only 340 g. Available in black or white, the new recorder can write DVD-R/+R SL and DVD+RW at 8x, DVD-R/+R DL at 6x, DVD-RAM at 5x, and CD-R, CD-RW at 24x. It uses one or two USB ports for connection, depending on the write speed. The Buffalo DVSM-PN58U2V is set to ship in mid-March, and sell for about $85.5.

Sony-Optiarc, a subsidiary of Sony, is preparing the new AD-7240S DVD-Writer drive that is built to write DVDs at 24X. The drive rivals Lite-On, which is already out with a drive that burns DVDs this fast. The drive has a standard-sized internal form factor, and uses the SATA interface. It features adaptive self-tuning and burns media at the following speeds: Up to 24X for single-layer DVD-R/+R; 12X for dual-layer DVD-R/+R, DVD-RAM, and DVD-R9; 48X and 32X for CD writing and re-writing respectively. The drive will reach retail by next month.

LaCie announced that it has doubled the speed at which its high-performance, large-capacity LaCie d2 Blu-ray Drive burns discs to eight times (8x) standard data writing rates. The increased speed to burn files applies to both single and dual-layer discs. LaCie also has upgraded the authoring and backup software that ships standard with the product.

The LaCie d2 Blu-ray Drive packs up to 50 GB of data, or four hours of high-definition video, on a single Blu-ray disc - making it an ideal tool for video professionals and anyone who wants to backup and store significant amounts of data on reliable removable media. It sports both FireWire and USB 2.0 interfaces for high-speed throughput between the drive and a PC or Mac.

As a globally renowned manufacturer of computer peripherals and optical drives, ASUS is constantly at the forefront of cutting edge technologies, providing users with innovative solutions for everyday computing. In pursuing this philosophy, the new ASUS External Slim SDRW-08D1S-U utilizes user-centric design in the Scenario-Based Design model to better address the needs of the user. By integrating these needs into its development and creation, the ASUS External Slim SDRW-08D1S-U combines both aesthetics and practicality.

Specialists with external data storage, I-O Data has come up with a new ultra-slim external DVD-burner it claims to be netbook friendly, given that most netbooks rely on external optical drives. The new drive (model: DVRP-U8XLE2) is 21mm thick and comes with a square profile. The drive roughly measures up to be the size of a portable CD player. It burns dual-layer DVDs at 6X speeds, DVD-R, DVD+R at 8X speeds. It sports a standard USB 2.0 interface. Interestingly, its makers claim this drive to perform identically, an in at its full operational write speeds on any netbook.

Japanese manufacturer Logitec (≠ Logitech) announced the production of two models of external DVD burners under the LDR-PMD8U2L BR/RD (black/red) model series. The drives are simply slim form-factor optical drives in a stylish brushed metal chassis. They measure 133.6 (W) x 160 (D) x 17.7 (H) mm, and weigh 415 g. The drives use the standard USB 2.0 interface for connectivity. They support write speeds of 8x for for DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RW media; 6x for dual-layer DVD+R, DVD-R media and 5x for DVD-RAM. CDs are written at speeds of up to 24x. The drives cost US $92 excl. taxes. The black model will hit stores later this month, while the red one follows in early January.

Plextor, a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, announces new products as a part of its new 2008 lineup. Featured in the new offering are 6x Blu-Ray Combo drives, 22x Super Multi DVD±RW drives, and an 8x Slim External USB DVD±RW for PC and Mac.
"Plextor continues to strengthen its position in the optical storage market with the addition of these new drives to its already robust line of products," said Bob Gronski, vice president of sales and marketing for Plextor. "Now more than ever, people are going out less and taking advantage of home entertainment more, so it's a perfect time for us to introduce such an extensive line of products."

Plextor is reinforcing its product line-up of Qflix recording devices by introducing the two new PX-806SA and PX-Q840U internal and external optical drives. Both drives feature Qflix recording technology from Sonic Solutions, enabling consumers to download and burn movie and TV titles on a DVD media for immediate viewing. The PX-806SA internal SATA super multi drive supports blazing fast 20x burns on single layer DVD±R media (4.7 GB), 8x burn speed on double/dual layer DVD media (8.5 GB) and 12x on DVD-RAM media. As for the old CDs, it is capable of 48x CD-ROM and 32x CD-RW burn speeds. The drive's bundle features Roxio Venue, which connects directly to CinemaNow for media download, Roxio Creator 10 CE burning software and two recordable Qflix DVDs by Ridata. At last, both drives have 2MB of buffer memory, the standard for today's burners. The PX-Q840U model is essentially the same drive, but designed for external usage. Like most Plextors, the PX-Q840U external retails for $149.99 and the PX-806SA internal retails for $89.99, a lot above you'd expect to pay for a DVD burner. Both drives are available for purchase now through distributors and retailers in North and South America.

In yet another PR posted yesterday Sony debuted its third generation internal Blu-ray Disc (BD) writer for the computer aftermarket, which at about $400 achieves a new level of affordability for BD enthusiasts. The new BWU-300S model burns single and dual layer BD-R media at up to 8X speed, recording a full 25GB disc in about 15 minutes and a full 50GB disc in about 30 minutes. The 8X recording speed is achieved using 6X compatible BD-R media. The drive also records DVDs at up to 16X, CDs up to 48X, and supports DVD-RAM recording. The internal BWU-300S features a Serial ATA (SATA) interface and standard 5.25-inch form-factor for easy installation inside a desktop PC with Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista operating systems. It comes bundled with a "Men in Black" Blu-ray Disc from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Also included with the drive is CyberLink's software suite for capturing, authoring, editing, burning and viewing high-definition personal content. The BWU-300S drive will be available through select retailers, resellers and directly at Sony Style starting next month. Pre-orders are now being accepted by Sony on the website.

That's right, a new 22" widescreen monitor by AOC, the 2230Fm is a PC monitor. It supports DVI-D and D-Sub VGA and HDMI inputs and sports a native resolution of 1680 x 1050 px. Stylish looks aside it adds a nifty feature that makes it a media-center in itself, the feature is called HD3.

Says AOC: "HD3 defines a new category in high definition displays with its built-in media player, allowing consumers, for the first time, to view movies without the use of an external DVD player or PC. With the 2230Fm, simply load a film onto a memory device, plug it into the display and use AOC's proprietary, user-friendly menu and remote control to enjoy a movie PC-free. AOC's first HD3 Display is the 2230Fm, a combination of multi-functional high-definition video capabilities and stylish, 360° design that provides a stunning array of features all developed to cater to the digital needs of today's consumers."

Simply put, the monitor has a 4-in-1 digital media reader and has three USB 2.0 ports. You can connect a USB flash-drive. You do have flash-drives with really high capacities these days capable of carrying Hi-resolution videos, also that in some European countries a new video-download facility has come up where you download movies onto a flash drive in public shacks a-la ATMs. Apart from videos, this device can view images up to 8000 x 8000 px, and play audio files from its integrated stereo speakers. It remains to be seen if the USB 2.0 hub could connect to external hard drives or external optical drives. That would make it a full-on media center. It lacks a TV-tuner though. The embedded media software looks pretty intutive, The 2230Fm supports MPEG-1, 2, and 4 video formats. the supported audio format are too numerous to list, but they include MP3, WMA, WAVE, OGG-Vorbis, FLAC, and M4A. Supported photo formats include JPG, TIFF, PNG, BMP, and GIF images with resolutions up to 8000x8000 pixels.

The monitor has a 2ms response time making it ideal for gaming consoles and gaming PCs, it has a respectable 20,000:1 contrast ratio. It is priced at a US $399 and will be available next month onwards. Talk about convenience.

MCE Technologies released MCE Drive, which allows Mac users to read, write and print labels on optical discs.

The drive can read and write up to dual-layer Blu-ray discs at 2X speeds for BD-RE, 4X for BD-R. It can read BD-R at 6X and BD-RE at 2X speeds. The drive can read HD-DVD at 6X speeds. All DVD and CD reading and writing formats are supported. The drive comes with Toast 9 Titanium as an option for $100 extra.

This drive comes in two major variants, the external drive which connects using Firewire or USB 2.0 for use by all Mac users, or the internal drive version for Mac Pro and Power Mac users. The external drive sells for US $750, and the internal drive for $500.

The Entertainment Merchants' Association (EMA) in its recent Annual Report for 2007, concluded that in the year 2007, Hi-Definition video sales amounted to a mere 1.6 per cent of all video sales.

It is still estimated that high-definition has a long way to go before it could replace DVD as a standard movie format. The EMA said that sales of Blu-ray discs are expected to surpass those of standard DVDs by 2012 and could generate sales of $9.5 billion. By that time, total home video spending will be up to $25.6 billion, believes EMA.

Following the format's victory over HD DVD earlier this year, Blu-ray disks have seen their sales soar to 351% of those during the same period last year. When combined with standard DVD sales, the first quarter of this year offered the first year-on-year sales increase since DVD sales peaked three years ago. Steek Beeks, President of Lionsgate, said:

Blu-ray had its second-best week ever in the seven days ending March 23, and we anticipate Blu-ray sales of $800 million to $1billion-plus for all of 2008, up dramatically from approximately $300 million last year.

An Israeli firm known as Mempile is currently working on a new form of DVD called TeraDisc DVDs, which will offer 1TB of permanent storage on a single disk. The company has already managed to develop a disk capable of storing half a terabyte, and expects the 1TB disks to become available within the next few years. The disks, which are made of a polymer similar to Plexiglas, use powerful red laser technology to read and write, with a second laser which tracks data. The technology works by writing bits at the molecular level, which changes the color of florescent molecules in the disks. The main advantage of this method over current technologies such as HD DVD are that it has far less background noise, allowing it to read and write to hundreds of layers without any deterioration. The company plans to launch a 700GB version in 2011, with an expected price of around $30 per disk - although the DVD drives required to play them could set you back between $3,000 and $4,000.