Philips to Unveil Multi-Standard Optical Media Burner
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Philips Electronics unveiled an  optical disk drive on Monday for use in computers that can burn  and play CDs and DVDs in three formats, including the new  Blu-ray standard.
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Four proponents of high-definition DVD technology will invite component manufacturers to join a group set up to help speed its commercialization, while Sony has confirmed that it will use blue lasers in its next Playstation console.
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A novel method of optical data storage could soon be used to hold a terabyte of data on a disk the size of a normal DVD, say researchers at Imperial College London, UK.
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Claims 18x burn speed The first fruit of Sony's optical drive partnership with NEC have arrived in Europe: a drive the company claims is the world's fastest DVDÂ±R writer, capable of burning single-layer discs at up to 18x speed.â¦
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Software giant plans to submit its HD Photo image format to a standards body as a higher-quality replacement for today's ubiquitous JPEG standard.
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(InfoWorld) - Koninklijke Philips ElectronicsÂ hopes to dominate the market for electronic healthcare products in much the same way that Apple conquered the ears of consumers with its successful iPod portable music player. With the entertainment segment of consumer electronics likely to remain a high-volume, low-margin business, Philips views healthcare gadgets, targeted largely at an aging baby-boom generation, as a market with great potential, said Rudy Provoost, chief executive officer of Philips' consumer electronics division, in a speech Saturday at the IFA electronics show in Berlin. "Globally, the population of people 60 and older is growing by 2 percent per year, faster than the population as a whole," Provoost said, citing a United Nations report. "The most developed nations already have a higher proportion of 60-plus citizens than children up to the age of 15." As part of its Connect Care product development project, Philips is working on a variety of "body-driven" consumer electronics products that could help improve people's health and well-being. Provoost showed a video of a woman with a small, white iPod-like device attached to her that was designed to monitor her health using a conductive skin response technology. The device, when placed near a special display, shows images of the woman's health status, making suggestions where corrections are needed and also sending alerts where emerging problems are detected. It can also be programmed to help the woman overcome sleeping problems. Even if Philips is looking to healthcare to lift its profits, the company also hopes to squeeze more money out of consumers' pockets with innovative entertainment products. Provoost pointed to the company's Ambilight technology for reducing eye strain on flat-panel TV screens as an example of how to entertain consumers in a more "relaxing and exciting way." At the IFA show Philips, which introduced the world's first flat-panel TV a decade ago, showed a prototype 100-inch flat-screen TV with Ambilight. As part of its Lifestyle Home project, the company is using consumer electronics as a platform to connect diverse technologies, such as electronic paper, gesture-sensitive smart skin surfaces, algorithms that create ambient mood lighting, remote controls and contactless purchase systems for secure in-home payment. A video showed a women pointing a remote control at a movie on the TV and dragging the image over to a flat-panel in another corner and then to picture frames. Provoost made a pitch for "open innovation," calling on companies, universities and research institutes to combine knowledge, efforts and money to develop new consumer electronic products. A go-it-alone strategy in the 21st century, the Dutch CEO said, would be "outright suicidal."
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Hard drive-based audio player will get a new look and a lower price.
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Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG) is covering all the bases in optical storage technology with a PC drive that that reads and writes CD, DVD and next-generation Blu-ray high-definition television disks.
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Device can improve the image quality of standard and high-definition images.
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(InfoWorld) - Electronics manufacturers in China may be gearing up for another attempt to establish a proprietary optical disc format, although some analysts said such a move is unlikely to succeed. The DVD player makers plan to switch to EVD (enhanced versatile disc) in an attempt to avoid paying patent royalties on the DVD format, according to published reports. The world's largest producers of DVD players, Chinese electronics companies would use the format instead of standards such as MPEG-4. Last week, 20 top manufacturers including Haier announced their plans to switch from DVD to EVD entirely by 2008, according to a report in China Economic News. Getting foreign entertainment companies to adopt the new standard would be an uphill battle, however. China has attempted to introduce its own standards before, including S-VCD (Super Video Compact Disc) in the mid-1990s, and its own advanced telecommunications standard, TD-SCDMA. Both faced foreign resistance and a lack of broad support even within China. The move is most likely an attempt at reducing the royalties, according to industry observers. Chinese DVD manufacturers first made a push with EVD in 2003, but months later no players had appeared on the market in China or abroad. Consumer acceptance of an entirely new format will be difficult in both China and overseas. "Unless Chinese DVD manufacturers are prepared to sacrifice the global market and the Chinese market to manufacturers in India and elsewhere, they cannot afford to make a wholesale shift to EVD production at this time," David Wolf, chief executive officer, Wolf Group Asia. "For that reason, it's unlikely to take place." Kristian Kender, editor of China Media Monitor, a Beijing-based industry publication, said: "It'll be pretty hard on a global scale, because the DVD format is so entrenched. On the other hand, they can make a good argument that it makes it much harder to pirate material." "It will be difficult for them to get international firms to come on board, but the Chinese DVD market is so huge on its own that even if this standard is not adopted outside of China, the home market is enough to support the rollout."
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Media giant Thomson announced today that it is supporting both next-generation DVD formats, and will manufacture both HD DVD and Blu-ray DVD disks through its Camarillo-based Technicolor business.
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(InfoWorld) - Sony announced Tuesday at the Ceatec show in Tokyo the addition of Blu-ray Disc to more PCs in its Vaio line. The Vaio Type-R master is an Intel Core 2 Duo-based machine loaded with high-definition editing and authoring software. With the new computers, Blu-ray Disc is now available in four of Sony's Vaio product lines. The systems will be available from Oct. 28 at prices between Â¥230,000 ($1,952) and Â¥550,000 ($4,664)depending on system configuration. A Blu-ray Disc drive will also be offered as a build-to-order option with Sony's Type-L computer. Sony also will launch a pair of Blu-ray Disc video recorders in Japan this December, the company said Tuesday. The machines both feature hard-disk drives for day-to-day recording and a Blu-ray Disc drive for longer term storage. The BDZ-V9 has a 500GB drive and the BDZ-V7 has a 250GB drive. There are two digital tuners in each recorder so that two high-definition programs can be recorded simultaneously. The recorders are designed to appeal to videophiles with demands for high specifications, including Linear PCM audio and 1080p (1,080 lines progressive scanning) output, which is the highest of several image levels judged to be high-definition. The recorders can also be connected to Sony's recently launched high-definition camcorders by a Firewire connection and can playback the AVCHD-format discs used in the cameras. The higher capacity BDZ-V9 will be launched on Dec. 8 and the BDZ-V7 will follow about a week later on Dec. 16. They will cost Â¥300,000 and Â¥250,000 ($2,541 and $2,118) respectively. The machines fill an important gap in Sony's high-definition strategy, which by now has HD-capable products in several parts of the consumer video market including televisions and video camcorders. These will be joined in November by the PlayStation 3 game console and then in December by the two new recorders announced Tuesday. Launching the recorders internationally is possible but nothing has been decided as of yet, Sony said.
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As part of digital shift, electronics maker is planning device that will record HD DVDs, DVDs and CDs.
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New disc could ease the transition to the next-gen DVD standard, company says.
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Device features two optical drives and a 160GB hard drive for storing content.
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Sony is poised to kick off the launch of its next-generation DVD technology, announcing the release of high-definition Blu-ray movies from a number of major film studios in conjunction with new hardware on which to play them.
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Company hopes to boost use of its Flash format for delivering streaming video with new development kit.