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HD DVD player sales in the US during a week from Jan 6 to 12, 2008, declined 88% to 1,758 units compared with the previous week, Tech-On! is reporting citing research company NPD Group.

Tech-On! further reports, “The period measured was immediately after US movie studio Warner Bros Entertainment had announced that it had shifted its support from HD DVD to Blu-ray Disc Jan 4, 2008.

Meanwhile, BD player sales grew 42% compared with the preceding week to 21,770 units, NPD said. An NPD analyst said Warner’s announcement might have impacted HD DVD player sales.

HD DVD supporter Toshiba Corp announced price reductions for its HD DVD players targeting the North American market following Warner’s announcement.” More at Tech-On!

Related:

HD DVD is ‘Missing the Boat’ in Australia

In the Battle of Formats Blu-ray Outsells HD-DVD in Europe

LAKE SUCCESS, NY — Jan 07, `08 — Canon today announced the VIXIA family – a new lineup of consumer High-Definition camcorders embracing Canon optical and imaging technologies for superior image quality and flexibility – at the CES 2008 in Las Vegas.

VIXIA Core TechnologiesAll VIXIA camcorders feature Canon core technologies to create HD video that possesses the highest level of image quality – a Genuine Canon HD Video Lens; a Canon designed and manufactured HD CMOS Image Sensor for Full HD (1920 x 1080) image capture; the Canon-developed DIGIC DV II Image Processor; Instant AutoFocus, crucial for HD; and SuperRange Optical Image Stabilization.

VIXIA HF10 Dual Flash Memory and VIXIA HF100 Flash Memory Camcorders:
The VIXIA HF10 Dual Flash Memory camcorder offers the flexibility of recording up to 6 hours of High-Definition video to a 16GB internal Flash drive, as well as the option of recording to an SDHC memory card. The HF100 Flash Memory camcorder features an SDHC memory card slot only. The SDHC slot provides future storage expandability with both models. These camcorders also offer other sophisticated new features, including a newly designed Genuine Canon 12x HD Video Lens, a robust Canon 3.3 Megapixel Full HD CMOS Image Sensor, and Full HD Lens-to-Screen (1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution to capture, record and output).

In addition to 24p Cinema Mode, which allows users to mimic the look of Hollywood-style movies, the VIXIA HF10 Dual Flash Memory and HF100 Flash Memory camcorders offer a new feature called 30p Progressive Mode. Canon’s 30p Progressive Mode, once exclusive to pro-level camcorders, delivers clarity for fast action events, such as sports or news, and is the perfect frame rate for clips intended to be posted on the Web. A 2.7″ Widescreen Multi-Angle Vivid LCD offers a wide viewing angle, making it visible from any direction.

VIXIA HV30 HD Camcorder:
As the successor to the Canon HV20 HD Camcorder, the VIXIA HV30 HD camcorder provides consumers with the ability to record HD quality video to MiniDV cassettes. Wrapped in a sophisticated black exterior, the VIXIA HV30 camcorder features a Genuine Canon 10X HD Video Lens, Canon 2.96 Megapixel Full HD CMOS Image Sensor, DIGIC DV II Image Processor, a 30p Progressive Mode (and 24p Cinema Mode), and a 2.7″ Widescreen Multi-Angle Vivid LCD. In addition, the VIXIA HV30 camcorder is compatible with Canon’s high capacity BP-2L24H Lithium-ion battery.

DW-100 DVD Burner:
The Canon DW-100 DVD Burner allows to burn all, part or previously recorded video from a compatible Canon camcorder to a DVD. In addition to burning Standard Definition DVDs, the DW-100 can also burn AVCHD DVDs which can be played in compatible Blu-Ray players. The DW-100 DVD Burner has only three buttons: power, record and eject, making operation fast and easy. Unlike other similar yet daunting devices, the DW-100 DVD Burner is designed for one-touch operation: connect via USB, set and burn.

Available in late April, the VIXIA HF10 Dual Flash Memory and VIXIA HF100 Flash Memory camcorders will have an estimated retail price of $1,099 and $899, respectively. The Canon VIXIA HV30 is scheduled to be available in late February for the estimated retail price of $999. The Canon DW-100 DVD Burner is scheduled to be available in late April for the estimated retail price of $269.More at Canon.

Little Rock, AR — The world’s biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, has closed its video downloading service less than a year after it started selling films online.

The retreat for Wal-Mart, which accounts for about 40 percent of all DVD sales, follows the company’s 2005 decision to abandoned efforts to build an online DVD rental service. The world’s largest retailer instead turned its rental service over to Netflix.

It stopped the service on Dec 21, according to a message on the discount chain’s video download website. Wal-Mart said the decision had been forced by Hewlett-Packard withdrawing the software running the site.

The move ends a challenge to Apple’s iTunes store, Amazon and Netflix to win customers who rent films over the web.

The market for online video downloads has become very competitive with video rental chain Blockbuster buying Movielink over the summer to expand into this area.

DENVER –BUSINESS WIRE– On Thursday, Dec 20, MPEG LA announced that it has commenced an action against Audiovox for breach of contractual obligations as a Licensee to MPEG LA’s MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License and 1394 Patent Portfolio License.

According to the complaint filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Audiovox has breached its contractual obligations by failing to report fully its manufacture or sale of products such as DVD players and digital TVs that use the MPEG-2 digital video compression standard or employ the high-speed transfer digital interface provided for in the IEEE 1394 standard, failing to make full payments for its manufacture or sale of such products, and refusing to allow an audit as permitted by the MPEG-2 Contract and 1394 Contract.

MPEG LA seeks, among other things, monetary damages, an order requiring Audiovox to allow the contractually required audit, an accounting of all products manufactured or sold by Audiovox subject to the Contracts, as well as injunctive relief prohibiting Audiovox from the manufacture or sale of MPEG-2 and 1394 products. More at MPEG LA (in pdf).

MILPITAS, Calif –BUSINESS WIRE– Sigma Designs, a leading provider of highly integrated  solutions, today announced that its highly integrated SMP8634 media processor was selected by Sharp Corporation to power its new line of AQUOS Blu-ray disc players and recorders.

Sharp’s new products include the BD-AV1 and AV10 Series for the Japanese market and the recently introduced slim-profile AQUOS BD player, model BD-HP20U, the company’s first offering in the US market.

Sharp’s new series of AQUOS Blu-ray disc recorders BD-AV1 and AV10 enable recording and playback of digital broadcasts of HDTV programs that capture the same high-resolution image quality of broadcast TV that VCR users are accustomed to experiencing.

AQUOS also offers full compatibility with 24 movie frames per second playback, matching the native filming format for most movies as well as HDMI output support of 1080/24p video and Dolby TrueHD, and an i.LINK (IEEE1394) input for connecting to a Sharp AQUOS High-Vision recorder. More here.

Dec 05, ‘07 — Video Ezy and Blockbuster have thrown their support behind Blu-ray, saying HD DVD was “missing the boat” and not taking the Australian market seriously enough, Sydney Morning Herald reports.

SMH further writes, “Paul Uniacke, managing director of the Franchise Entertainment Group, which owns Video Ezy and Blockbuster in Australia, said the local roll-out of HD DVD had been too slow as its supporters did not see Australia as an important market compared with the US and Europe.

According to market-watcher GfK, 2241 stand-alone Blu-ray players have been sold in Australia to date, compared with 609 HD DVD players.

But Sony has moved more than 100,000 units of the PS3, which has a built-in Blu-ray player. Only 2461 add-on HD DVD players for the Xbox 360, which cost $249.95, have been sold so far.

The trend in player sales is consistent with sales of HD movies. More than 102,000 Blu-ray movies have been sold to date, as against just under 18,000 HD DVD movies.

Blockbuster in the US has supported Blu-ray exclusively for months and, locally, its head of product, John McKay, said Blockbuster would buy only Blu-ray titles “for the foreseeable future”.” More at SMH.

LONDON — Nov 27, ‘07 — In the battle of formats, High definition movie DVDs in the Blu-ray format have outsold the rival HD DVD standard in Europe this year, breaking the 1 million barrier and constituting 73 percent of all HD movie discs sold, says Reuters.

“Citing industry sales data by Media Control Gfk International, the Blu-ray disc association said in a statement on Tuesday Blu-ray movie disc sales had topped 1 million units and when counting Blu-ray gaming discs the total number produced for sale in Europe exceeded 21 million units.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 game console includes a Blu-ray Disc drive.

Hollywood and electronics manufacturers are hoping that new high-definition DVDs, with better picture quality and more capacity, will revive the slowing home DVD market. But the launch of the next-generation DVD players has been complicated by the fact that there are two competing technologies available, Blu-ray and HD DVD.

HD DVD was developed by Toshiba while Sony backs the Blu-ray standard”. More at Reuters.

CHARLOTTE, NC –BUSINESS WIRE– On Nov 06, ‘07 Verbatim Corporation announced the world’s first Color-background LightScribe 16x DVD-R and DVD+R media.

The new 4.7GB LightScribe DVDRs are available in vibrant shades of red, orange, yellow, blue and green in addition to the original gold color. Verbatim has begun shipping them in the US market in 25-packs which include five discs of each color.

The richly colored DVDRs are produced using LightScribe Media Version 1.2 coating technology on the label side for enhanced image contrast and faster label printing.

With a rainbow of background colors to choose from, consumers and businesses can burn customized LightScribe labels for their videos and multimedia presentations that will give them a professional look.

Colored LightScribe DVDR discs are label-compatible with all LightScribe-enabled drives.

Verbatim LightScribe Color-background 16X DVD-R and DVD+R media in 25-packs will be available in the US through leading retailers, Internet resellers and distributors in Q4 2007.

Secaucus, NJ — Nov 20, ‘07 – Panasonic announced that its next generation Blu-ray Disc player, the DMP-BD30, is now shipping and is available prior to Black Friday in channel partner stores in many regions of the country. 

The BD30 is the first Blu-ray player to incorporate Final Standard Profile 1.1 — a supplementary interactive function added to the Blu-ray Disc standard which opens the door to a variety of new and unique functions such as Picture-in-Picture and audio mixing.

Panasonic worked closely with Hollywood film makers to develop High Definition technologies now available in the DMP-BD30 including “PHL Chroma Processing” for optimized Blu-ray and DVD playback and an SD Memory Card slot. The SD Card slot allows BD30 owners to network between their High Definition products including playback of digital still images and High Definition video recorded in the AVCHD High Definition Camcorder format.

With an SRP of $499.95, the DMP-BD30 also features a slimmer profile while offering a myriad of technological advances, including Deep Color Compatibility, and HDMI 1.3B, that enhances step gradation from 8-bit 256 all the way up to 12-bit, 4,096 step gradation. To further enhance the viewing experience, the DMP-BD30 also provides 1080/24p playback, so the consumer can enjoy the same 24-fps (frames per second) reproduction as the original movie. This eliminates the need to utilize 3.2 pull down, a process which converts 24-fps images to 60-fps, resulting in a smoother picture.

Panasonic also inroduced Sleek New KX-TG8231 DECT 6.0 Cordless Phone:

The KX-TG8231 features DECT 6.0 technology packaged in a glossy piano black finish echoing the sophistication of a grand piano. The phone’s sleek and compact design pairs a stylishly modern handset and base with DECT 6.0 technology that allows for minimized electrical interference with other home electronics. A display on the handset shows phone information in bright and clear full color, including caller ID so a user can see who’s calling even when away from the phone’s base. The caller ID also can be customized with individual ringtones.

Other handset features that enhance portability include speakerphone capability and battery life of up to 12 hours of talk time. The KX-TG8231 is also expandable up to 6 handsets, has a built-in clock with alarm and includes a 50-station phonebook and dialer that is transferable to all KX-TG8231/32 phones in a home.

The KX-TG8231 is available at Amazon for $46.73, while the two-handset KX-TG8232 is available for $99.76.

Nov 20, ‘07 — Speaking exclusively with High-Def Digest, Jim Noonan, SVP of Strategic Promotion and Communication for Warner Home Entertainment Group says its previously announced Blu-ray / HD DVD hybrid disc won’t be hitting stores anytime soon.

High-Def Digest further explains, “roughly six months after unveiling “Total HD” plans, Warner announced it was delaying its plans for Total HD until early 2008, but said it remained committed to the concept, promising ten to twenty launch titles upon the format’s eventual release.

Though the studio had since remained mum on the status of its plans for the hybrid format, a Warner exec has now confirmed to High-Def Digest that all current plans for Total HD have been shelved in response to a perceived shift in retailer needs following Paramount’s move to HD DVD exclusivity. “The short answer is, for the moment, it [Total HD] is on hold,” said Noonan citing reason that, they were the only studio producing content in both formats.

More at High-Def Digest.

BURBANK, Calif – Nov 19, ‘07 /PRNewswire/ — Disney/Pixar’s “Ratatouille,” the best reviewed movie of 2007, raced past the $600 million mark at the worldwide box office over the weekend, and now stands as the second biggest international release of all-time for a Disney/Pixar production, it was announced today by Mark Zoradi, president, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group.

The film’s worldwide cume climbed to $602.6 million over the latest three-day period (11/16-18/07). With its international gross-to-date of
$396.5 million, “Ratatouille” now stands as the fifth most popular film released this year and the top grossing non-sequel.

The film ranks as the #1 animated release in 17 international territories and is the #1 film of the year (including all categories) in France. The film is expected to pass the $400 million international plateau sometime during the week, making it the sixth release from Disney (live-action or animated) to achieve this milestone.

Amongst all animated titles ever released in industry history, “Ratatouille” is only the third non-sequel to cross this threshold. “Ratatouille” also becomes the ninth release from Disney to pass the $600 million global mark, an achievement unmatched by any other Studio. Domestically, “Ratatouille” has posted an impressive gross-to-date of $206.1 million.

SAN JOSE, Calif –BUSINESS WIRE– Nov 19, ‘07 — Samsung, introduces a powerful new optical disc drive, TruDirect SE-S204S, which allows consumers to create DVDs and burn digital content through a PC without the need for a hard drive. The TruDirect SE-S204S provides easy and fast real-time recording from nearly any digital device.

With camcorder and digital camera sales skyrocketing, predicted to be nearly 100 million units sold in 2008, consumers can now conveniently create DVDs in record time. Similar to VCR recording, users can connect a digital device such as a camcorder, digital camera or Web cam to their PC or notebook, and then connect the Samsung TruDirect SE-S204S to the computer to burn DVD movies directly.

Compared to using a hard disk drive, the TruDirect SE-S204S dramatically cuts down on the time it takes to create DVDs as no pre-mastering, multiplexing or hard-disk buffering is needed, enabling real-time, fast, and simple recording of personal videos, photos or data files onto DVD discs. Creating a DVD of a one-hour video stream only takes one hour and five minutes and to create a DVD from a one-hour hard disk drive camcorder file just takes 30 minutes.

In addition to DVD creation, the TruDirect SE-S204S features some of the fastest speeds of an optical disc drive on the market today. It features 20X DVD+R and DVD-R writing, 16X DVD+R Dual Layer writing, 12X DVD-R Dual Layer writing and 12X DVD-RAM writing.

The TruDirect SE-S204S is shipping nation wide with a street price of $159.99.

And since Samsung have THE WORST PR department on the face of this planet, there’s no picture to go with the story and as of the writing of this story the drive is nowhere to be found including Samsung US/UK, Amazon, Best Buy, Circuit City, Buy.com or at Frys.com and still Samsung press releases wants us to believe the drive is shipping nationwide. Gosh! I’ve never seen such a LOUSY, almost non-existent PR department of a multinational this big. Press release at BusinessWire.

American video stores have new-release sections. Chinese video stores have not-yet-released sections.

Beijing, China — Nov 12, ‘07 — Dawn C. Chmielewski of LA Times reporting on rampant video piracy in China. In his words, “On a recent weeknight here, four people entered a neighborhood shop, where a clerk escorted them through a back door to a closet-sized room.

Floor-to-ceiling shelves brimmed with some of the latest Hollywood movies, including “Ratatouille,” which had just reached Chinese theaters a week earlier and wasn’t due out on DVD until January. Also filling the shelves were entire seasons of such popular American TV shows as “Entourage” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” Each disc was bootlegged, selling for as little as $1.33.

Closed off from the rest of the store, the room looked hidden. But it’s secret to almost no one here — least of all this group that included two entertainment lawyers from Washington and Hong Kong as well as two representatives of the Motion Picture Assn., the film industry’s biggest trade group.

They were there to show a reporter the notorious black-market DVD store, Beijing Yongsheng Century International Cultural Co. It has been raided so often — 14 times since 2005 — that it’s acquired the nickname “Dan’s Shop,” after Dan Glickman, chief executive of the Motion Picture Assn. of America.

About 93% of the movies sold in China are counterfeit – black-market discs are sold in stores and by legions of roaming vendors who peddle them at subway stations and from their bicycles. Some make home deliveries.” More at LATimes.

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES — Nov 08, ‘07 — No. 1 U.S. movie rental chain Blockbuster said on Thursday it was testing pricing for its rental formats and will experiment with store layouts to add downloading stations, books or beverages in a bid to shore up its customer base.

Shares of Blockbuster slipped more than 7 percent after Chief Executive Jim Keyes said that while raising prices could boost results almost immediately, he preferred to take an approach that was mindful of customers.

“Are we raising prices? No, as of today,” Keyes told a company analyst day in New York. “What I don’t want to do is raise them three or four times.”

While Keyes said he expects the company’s new emphasis on its stores to turn around falling same-store sales and rental revenues, he warned that change would not come in the fourth quarter nor would the initiatives be “an overnight success.”

Keyes also said the company was looking at recapturing some of the revenue it lost when it abolished late fees and allowed some online customers to exchange DVDs for free at its stores.

Tightening the number of days that customers can keep films also will help boost in-store inventory and mend Blockbuster’s reputation for often being out of stock on first-run titles, Keyes said. More at Reuters.

New York, NY — Nov 08, ‘07 — The head of Sony Corp., Howard Stringer, said Thursday that the Blu-ray disc format the company has developed as the successor to the DVD is in a “stalemate” with the competing HD DVD format, chiefly backed by Toshiba and Microsoft.

“It’s a difficult fight,” said Stringer, speaking at the 92nd Street Y cultural center in Manhattan.

Toshiba has been selling its players for as low as $99 at Wal-Mart and Best Buy, heading into the holiday season, while Blu-ray players cost around $450. The HD DVD camp also scored a significant win in August, when it induced Paramount Pictures to drop most of its support for Blu-ray and put out high-definition movies exclusively on HD DVD.

“We were trying to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount changed sides,” Stringer said. At the same time, he played down the importance of the battle, saying it was mostly a matter of prestige whose format wins out in the end.

“It doesn’t mean as much as all that,” Stringer said. He added that he believed there was an opportunity of uniting the two camps under one format before he became CEO, and he wishes he could travel back in time to make that happen.

Nov 06, ‘07 — Tech-On! is reporting on Sony, on the heels of its increased capabilities to record Holographic Disc more densly, recording 7-layer Holographic disc and further aiming to record 500GB of data on 20-layer disc by 2010.

In their words, “Sony Corp wrote and read data on a medium equivalent to a seven-layer disc by using “Micro-Reflector method,” a multilayer recording technology using holographic recording.

The company calculated the error rates of reproduced signals after signal conditioning such as equalizing. Until now, the company wrote and read on discs of up to four layers and announced only the eye patterns of reproduced signals.

This time, the achievement was announced at ISOM’ 07, an international conference on optical memory, which took place Oct 21-25, 2007, in Singapore. At the conference, Sony made speeches about speeding up data transmission speed, improving memory density per layer and increasing the number of recording layers even more.

In the Micro-Reflector method, lights are shed on both sides of a holographic medium. The focus points of the lights meet and interact with each other in a recording layer to form interference fringes. An interference fringe has an information amount of one bit. To read the data, a light is shed on one side of the medium.” More at Tech-On!

Nov 05, ‘07 — Sony increased the surface recording density of coaxial holographic recording to 270 Gbits/inch². This is 1.5 times the density of the company’s existing holographic recording technology, which is 180 Gbits/inch².

A card type holographic medium called coupon medium was used as the recording medium. The achievement was presented at ISOM’07, an international conference on optical memories, which ran from Oct 21-25, 2007 in Singapore, as well as other events.

The company made two improvements to enhance the recording density. First, the NA of the objective lens was increased form 0.64 to 0.85. The improvement of NA was obtained by changing the design of lens group, etc. The enhancement of NA results in smaller interference fringes recorded on the medium, thereby increasing the recording density from 180 to 230 Gbits/inch².

Second, the recording capacity per page was increased from 95 to 135 Kbits. As a result, the recording density was improved from 230 to 270 Gbits/inch². More at Tech-On!

Statement from Jonathan Magasanik, Vice President and General Merchandise Manager, Home Electronics, Sears Holdings.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill., Nov. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — There have been numerous statements in the media today, attributed to Toshiba, indicating exclusive support for the HD-DVD format in Kmart stores.

These statements are false. Kmart intends to support both the HD-DVD and Blu-ray platforms, and has no plans to support either platform exclusively. More at PRNewsWire.

Los Angeles, CA–October 30, 2007–Panasonic announced today the introduction of the DMP-BD30, the next generation High Definition 1080p Blu-ray Disc player. The DMP-BD30 is the first Blu-ray player to be introduced with Final Standard Profile, which adds a variety of new and enhanced features to the Blu-ray arena and one that separates the Panasonic Blu-ray player from the rest of the field. Also unique to the DMP-BD30 is the inclusion of an SD Memory Card slot for playback of High Definition content recorded in the AVCHD format. The SD slot also allows for viewing of digital still images recorded to an SD Memory Card.

With an SRP of  $499.95, the DMP-BD30 also features a myriad of technology advances, including Deep Color Compatibility, and HDMI 1.3B, that bumps the step gradation from 8-bit 256 all the way up to 12-bit, 4,096 step gradation. To further enhance the viewing experience, the DMP-BD30 also provides 1080/24p playback, so the consumer can enjoy the same 24-fps (frames per second) reproduction as the original movie. This eliminates the need to utilize 3.2 pull down, a process to convert 24-fps images to 60-fps, resulting in a smoother picture. More at Panasonic

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Samsung, the worldwide digital consumer electronics and information technology leader, announces the world’s fastest DVD burner with 16X dual layer recording and LightScribe technology, the Super-WriteMaster SH-S203N. The SH-S203N is a 20X Serial ATA (SATA) DVD burner offering 16X dual layer recording, and support for all CD/DVD discs including DVD-RAM.

The SH-S203N can back up 8.4GB of data or video to a disc. The industry recording standard is 10- to 12X and Samsung’s new SH-S203N dual layer recording speed offers a 30-40 percent improvement recording time for dual layer drives. 

The versatile drive also features powerful LightScribe technology that lets users engrave labels, photos, and designs right onto the CD and DVD discs with no hassle at all. The result is a professional look with no worries about labels falling off or sloppy marker smudges. The drive’s label making software is pre-loaded with an array of designs and labels for users who choose not to create their own label. 

The SH-S203N features: 16X DVD+R Dual Layer recording, 20X DVD±R recording, 12X DVD-RAM recording, 12X DVD-R Dual Layer recording, 8X DVD+RW recording and 6X DVD-RW recording. Samsung’s first 20X DVD drive with LightScribe supports the SATA interface, with SATA PCs now dominating the PC market. With its SATA interface, the SH-S203N eliminates the need for Master/Slave jumper settings and provides thinner data cables, improving airflow and cable routing. 

At A Glance: 

- Interface: SATA- WriteMaster™ Technology- Power Speed Technology for 20X Writing- Powerful overspeed support- Low noise and vibration control system for high speed- Optimized algorithm for fastest speed- Format Supported: DVD-RAM, DVD±R DL, DVD±R, DVD±RW 

The SH-S203N is shipping nation wide with a street price of $79.99. More at Samsung.

Los Angeles–Oct 28, ‘07–Walgreen plans to put kiosks that can make DVDs of popular movies in drugstore photo departments next year, using a new system that would increase selection while avoiding piracy.

Recent change in copy-protection rules governing DVDs have freed Walgreen and other retailers to tap this new movie market by letting consumers burn digital copies onto blank discs at stores, industry watchers said.

Walgreen and CVS have tried to attract more customers in recent years by offering improved digital photo kiosks, in- store health clinics and exclusive merchandise. For studios, the kiosks add to revenue, particularly from older and more niche content selections, without having to manufacture, ship and store them.

“We hope to launch DVD-burning kiosks in the next few months. We think its a type of solution that will work very well in our stores, giving us the ability to provide a virtual inventory to a diverse customer base,” said Tiffani Bruce, a spokeswoman for Walgreen, the nation’s largest drugstore chain, with more than 6,000 stores.

Last month, the DVD Copy Control Association, a group of movie studios and hardware makers that oversees the copy protection system for DVDs known as Content Scramble System (CSS), moved to allow its technology to be licensed more broadly, opening the door for DVD-burning kiosks. Now Walgreen is working with Hollywood studios and consumers will be able to make DVDs in about 15 minutes. More here

Sony today announced its second generation internal Blu-ray Disc (BD) writer drive for the computer aftermarket, which boasts 4X BD-R and 16X DVD+R recording speeds. The new BWU-200S model cuts BD-R burning time by half compared to the first generation model, allowing for a full 50GB BD-R disc to be recorded in about 45 minutes. 

The drive comes with CyberLink BD Solution software that supports recording on DVDs and CDs, as well as playback of DVDs recorded in the AVCHD format. The BWU-200S drive can record up to 50GB of data for random access storage and backup on BD-R (write once) or BD-RE (rewritable) discs, or up to 230 minutes of high-definition HDV 1080i video on a BD-R/RE 50GB disc.  It also supports recording on standard single layer 4.7GB DVD+R/+RW/RAM discs, 8.5GB DVD+R double/dual layer discs, and CDs.

More at Sony

PCPro UK reports, “Hitachi has developed a prototype four layer Blu-Ray disc capable of holding 100GB of data. The company claims to have used a standard Blu-Ray drive optical head that’s only slightly modified to allow it to read and write data across the four 25GB layers. It’s believed this will only require a firmware update to make existing drives compatible.

The hardware manufacturer is also researching an eight layer disc that can hold 200GB of data but has encountered problems with reflections decreasing signal strength across the eight layers, which it is working to rectify. “

No word on commercial release yet. More at PCPro UK…