HLDS Executives Do Time for Optical Disc Drive Price Fixing

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that three executives from Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS) have agreed to plead guilty and serve prison time in the United States for their participation in a series of conspiracies to rig bids and fix prices for the sale of optical disc drives.

Pioneer Launches BDR-207JBK Blu-ray BDXL Writer

Pioneer Corporation announced that it will begin shipping its new BDR-207JBK Blu-ray Disc (BD) recorder in Japan early in the new year. No word yet on North American availability.

HLDS Busted for Optical Disc Drive Price Fixing

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS) has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $21.1 million criminal fine for its participation in a series of conspiracies to rig bids and fix prices for the sale of optical disc drives.

Rescuing the Golden Goose

The immediate question is, will Blu-ray Disc (BD) recorders, drives, and players read and write all types of CDs and DVDs? Will they clear the fog of application formats and content-protection measures? In last month’s column, I chastised BD device manufacturers for ducking clear answers to these questions. And surveying the broader situation, we see …

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Blu-ray Disc and the Meaning of Backwards Compatibility

Change is unsettling. But, like it or not, change is once again upon us—this time with the arrival of next generation Blu-ray Disc (BD). Naturally, consumers and even professionals are apprehensive about this new format but, even so, BD’s promoters are doing an embarrassingly poor job of understanding and answering concerns. For example, manufacturers and …

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Socrates, Pascal, and Multilayer Blu-ray Discs

Socrates tells us that the unexamined life isn’t worth living. The same can be said for business. With scores of product launches and decades of market experience behind it, the optical storage industry has had ample opportunity for introspection. But, sadly, I see little evidence that past experience has entered the minds of manufacturers who, …

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Enter the Backulator

Question: What do you get when you cross a data backup system with an automated optical disc duplicator? Answer: A “backulator!”

In DVD’s Own Image: DVD-Recordable Technology and Promise

This article was the first serious public look at the technical aspects of and market potential for DVD-Recordable (DVD-R). Some thirteen years later, it’s gratifying to see that DVD-R became, and indeed still remains, a beloved and universal means for enjoying, distributing, storing and archiving just about everything digital.