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31 May 2000 |
| CD/DVD Software Releases |
CD/DVD Software |
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| Audio/MP3 Software Releases |
Audio/MP3 Software |
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| Philips & HP Class Action Lawsuit |
| Over one year ago the preparations for a Class Action were started against Philips & HP because of failing CD-Writers (Philips CDD-2000/2600 & HP4020/6020). A faulty spring, which is used for aligning the laser-head, caused write failures after writing more than 500 MB of data.
Currently the people who were added to the complaint have received a notice that the battle will commence.
"According to Plaintiffs, when the consumer attempts to record and store data containing more than approximately 500MB, the 2000 Series Recorders respond with error messages on the user's computer screen preventing the completion of the recording and storing task (the 'Alleged Defect')."
The settlement hearing will start on August 17th, 2000 with a deadline for completion of the claim form for January 17th, 2001... More info here! - Thanks D. Hilly for the info!
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27 May 2000 |
| CD/DVD Software Releases |
CD/DVD Software |
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| CD/DVD/MP3 NewsWire |
NewsWire |
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| DVD Audio in July -- Who Wants to Crack It? |
Cryptome.org |
| Consumer electronics giant Matsushita plans to roll out DVD-Audio products in July, seven months after its original target date. At the request of major music companies, the company postponed the introduction of its DVD-Audio line in order to build in a new copyright protection scheme; the original one was cracked by a Norwegian hacker. Extra points for cracking it before the first public release, for publishing the first algorithm description in plain English and math, for defeating any "cancel access for cracked players" scheme, and for releasing source code simultaneously with binaries. -- Robin Gross and John Gilmore, May 24, 2000 |
| Ovonic Unified Memory Based On CD-RW Film |
| Ovonyx is developing a microelectronics memory technology called OUM that uses unique thin-film materials to store information economically and with excellent solid-state memory properties. The thin-film material is a phase-change chalcogenide alloy similar to the film used to store information on commercial CD-RW and DVD-RAM optical disks. |
| Ricoh Added MMC DAO RAW Mode Writing |
| Ricoh has released new firmwares for the MP9060A CD-RW/DVD Combo & MP7080A. Until now both drives where not supported by CloneCD as they could not do RAW mode writing. |
| CD/DVD Firmware Releases |
The Firmware Page |
| Product |
Version |
| Creative labs DVD8400E |
1X29 |
| Matshita SR-8585 |
| Matshita SR-8171 |
079G |
| Memorex TriMaxx200 |
1.50 |
| Mitsumi CR-4802TU |
2.1d |
| NEC DV-5700A |
1.06 |
| Mitsumi CR-4804TU |
2.6c |
| Pioneer DVD-U03/303S |
2.00 v2 |
| Pioneer DVD-A04SZ/104S |
2.02 |
| Pioneer DVD-114 |
2.03 |
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| Product |
Version |
| Ricoh MP7080A |
1.10 |
| Ricoh MP9060A |
1.60 |
| Samsung SD-608 |
BT01 |
| Samsung SD-612 |
0.6 |
| Sanyo CRD-RW2 |
1.21 |
| Sanyo CRD-BP2 |
2.21 |
| Teac R56S |
1.0P |
| Teac R58S |
1.0P |
| QPS PX-W8432 |
1.07 |
| Waitec WT3244EI |
1.4b |
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24 May 2000 |
| Hitachi DV-W1 DVD Player/CD-Recorder |
| Hitachi is the first to combine a DVD Player and CD-Recorder in a consumer DVD/CD player. The Hitachi DV-W1 utilizes SCMS (Serial Copy Management System) to make sure that it is only possible to copy from CD to CD and not from DVD to CD. |
Hitachi DV-W1 Specifications:
- Dolby Digital AC-3 & Dolby Prologic
- Dolby Digital Analog 5.1 Output
- Y/Cb/Cr Output
- PAL/NTSC
- SCMS
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| Traxdata MiniCDRW CD-ReWriter |
| Traxdata just released information on their portable CD-ReWriter: MiniCDRW. It supports both an USB and PCMCIA connection. In the near future it will also support a FireWire interface to directly connect to a Mac. |
Traxdata MiniCDRW Specifications:
- 4x Write, 4x ReWrite & 32x Read
- 2 MB Buffer
- USB, PCMCIA or FireWire interface
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| MPEGplus |
| MPEGplus is a new audio format which, according to this site, gives a better audio quality than all currently available formats (MP3, VQF, Liquid Audio, etc). The new format is created by Andree Buschmann and he currently has a MPEGplus Decoder, Encoder & Player [Win32] available. Currently there is also a WinAMP & Audiograbber plugin available! |
| CD/DVD/MP3 NewsWire |
NewsWire |
| CD News: |
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22 May 2000 |
| CD Media Info - New CD-R/CD-RW Media |
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| The Princo CD-R74 16x are the first certified 16x speed media we could get our hands on, the funny thing about this media that it has a (almost) silver bottom. They come in a plastic spindle, packed per 10 and have a Red, Green, Blue, Purple or Yellow top layer.
MMore has switched CD-R media again from RiTEK to Multi Media Masters & Machinery SA they now support 12x speed writing! |
| The Week in Review |
CD/DVD NewsWire |
| CD/DVD News: |
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| MP3/Audio News: |
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18 May 2000 |
| CD/DVD Software Releases |
CD/DVD Software |
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| Ricoh High-Speed CD-RW Media |
Ricoh has just released it's latest High-Speed CD-RW media which supports 4x upto 10x ReWrite speed!
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| High-Speed CD-RW Logo |
Previous CD-RW Logo |
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| Hitachi 8 cm DVD-RAM |
| Hitachi released the first 8 cm DVD-RAM media. Instead of the usual 4.7 GB for a 12 cm media, the 8 cm media can hold 1.46 GB data. The specifications are identical to the the 12 cm DVD-RAM media. |
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14 May 2000 |
| IsoBuster Update |
CD/DVD Utilities |
| Added IsoBuster 0.99.5 [Beta 1] to the CD/DVD Utilities page.
New Features:
- Deals better with certain incorrectly (mostly oriental) mastered CDs.
- Displays the track layout of the CD.
- Some speed optimalisation code is implemented.
- Debug-Code easily available for specially compiled versions to tackle problems should they occur.
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| DVD Utilities Update |
CD/DVD Utilities |
| Added a separate pages on DVD Ripper, DVD Region Selectors & DVD Utilities.
Also added all available DVD Rip software including the new Quintuplets 2000 1.0, DeMPAA 1.1 & VobDecGUI 1.3 |
| CD/DVD Software Releases |
CD/DVD Software |
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| The Week in Review |
CD/DVD NewsWire |
| CD/DVD News: |
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| MP3/Audio News: |
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11 May 2000 |
| MPTrip Discman Portable MP3/CD Player |
MP3 Players |
| The EasyBuy2000 MPTrip Discman is a regular portable CD Player which also playback MP3's from a CD-R/CD-RW. With it's 50 seconds anti-shock system is almost impossible to get it to skip.
The MPTrip Discman is currently available for only US$ 115 |
MPTrip Discman Specifications:
- Playback Audio & MP3's (ISO9660/Joliet)
- CD-R & CD-RW compatible
- 50 sec anti-shock
- Built-in recharge circuit (Ni-Cad batteries)
- DBBS Dynamic bass boost system
- Stereo Headphone Jack
- Line Out Jack (connects to a car player)
- Digital LCD Function Display
- 500 sec. Audio Recording Capacity
- Runs on 2 AA Batteries (6hours playtime)
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10 May 2000 |
| PlexWriter 12/4/32 CD-ReWriter |
| At last Plextor has released the information for their new flagship, the PlexWriter 12/10/32A |
PlexWriter 12/10/32A Specifications:
- 12x Write, 10x ReWrite & 32x Read
- 14X-32X read P-CAV (2100 KB/s-4800 KB/s)
- IDE/Atapi Interface (PIO Mode-4)
- Access Time 150 ms
- 2 MB Buffer
- Capable of reading and writing CD TEXT
- Supports SPDIF (Digital Audio Output)
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| Aiwa CDC-MP3 Car MP3 Player |
MP3 Players |
| The latest Aiwa Car CD Receivers shows a very nice new addition Aiwa CDC-MP3. This Car CD Receiver, with a 6- or 10-CD changer, is able to playback MP3 files from CD-R or CD-RW media.
It will be available in June 2000 at a suggested retail price of $350. |
Aiwa CDC-MP3 Features:
- Power output 4x 45 watts
- Full flap type detachable front panel
- CD changer control
- four-color LCD dot matrix display
- 2 Preamp Outputs
- Steering wheel remote control
- Advanced H-Bass
- Source Level Adjustment
- My Information and Advanced DSSA services
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10 May 2000 |
| PlexWriter 12/4/32 CD-ReWriter |
| At last Plextor has released the information for their new flagship, the PlexWriter 12/10/32A |
PlexWriter 12/10/32A Specifications:
- 12x Write, 10x ReWrite & 32x Read
- 14X-32X read P-CAV (2100 KB/s-4800 KB/s)
- IDE/Atapi Interface (PIO Mode-4)
- Access Time 150 ms
- 2 MB Buffer
- Capable of reading and writing CD TEXT
- Supports SPDIF (Digital Audio Output)
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| Aiwa CDC-MP3 Car MP3 Player |
MP3 Players |
| The latest Aiwa Car CD Receivers shows a very nice new addition Aiwa CDC-MP3. This Car CD Receiver, with a 6- or 10-CD changer, is able to playback MP3 files from CD-R or CD-RW media.
It will be available in June 2000 at a suggested retail price of $350. |
Aiwa CDC-MP3 Features:
- Power output 4x 45 watts
- Full flap type detachable front panel
- CD changer control
- four-color LCD dot matrix display
- 2 Preamp Outputs
- Steering wheel remote control
- Advanced H-Bass
- Source Level Adjustment
- My Information and Advanced DSSA services
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9 May 2000 |
| BlindRead Update |
CD/DVD Software |
| Added BlindRead 3.0.0.23 Beta to the CD/DVD Utilities page.
Updates:
- Internally, the extraction engine has dramatically changed.
- The way the CD TOC is gathered has completely changed. This was needed for BlindWrite, which will be released 31-05-2000!
- CD Text support has been added
- Full Subcodes extraction support is added now, both for data and audio. And believe us, it's easier said than done!
- Alternative extraction method is added. We've implemented an old idea, and it worked on plextors units : The result is a huge speedup with Safedisc's protected CD.
- Cosmetic changes in the interface, and in the language support.
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| New File Sharing Applications & Tools |
| It seems that the Napster & Gnutella way of sharing files online has caught on as a lot of similar applications & tools are now available: |
| File Rogue |
| File Rogue is a new free "File Sharing" application, like Gnutella, that allows unrestricted file sharing across the Internet. File Rogue allows the for creation of a personal "Catalogue" of files that can be shared with other members of the File Rogue Community. The public beta will be released 12 May 2000 |
| Mp3exchanger |
Mp3exchanger is a windows program, similar in appearance and functionality to Napster or Gnutella, which connects to the Mp3exchanger server and exchange files with other users online.
After connecting to the server you can search, view or download MP3 files (or any other file format). It can also be used to chat or send email with/to other users.
Mp3exchanger is, more business-oriented than its competition. By inviting companies (such as record labels) to share their resources with Mp3exchanger and its users, they will have more control which keywords can be used or block, thus they can block their artists names. |
| Napigator |
| Napigator is a free navigator to nap servers. It works side-by-side with your favorite Windows nap client, giving you an up to date status of all nap servers on various networks, including the new and openly free Opennap Network and popular Napster Network. |
| GnOtella |
| GnOtella is clone of Gnutella, a distributed real time search and file sharing program. GnOtella is for the Win32 environment and offers extra benefits such as multiple searches, improved filtering/spam protection, bandwidth monitoring, enhanced statistics as well as more. |
| N-Tella |
| N-Tella is a another Gnutella clone with ease of use in mind. |
| CD/DVD Software Releases |
CD/DVD Software |
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| File Sharing Software Releases |
MP3/Audio Software |
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4 May 2000 |
| CD/DVD Software Releases |
CD/DVD Software |
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3 May 2000 |
| Win-Jam Portable WMA Player |
MP3 Players |
| The Win-Jam is made by I-Jam and it is a joined venture with Microsoft. It will be the first portable audio player which will exclusively play back tracks encoded in Microsoft's Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. It does NOT d will never) support playback of MP3 files! |
Win-Jam Specifications:
- Plays Windows Media Format (WMA) with (DRM)
- Plays MMC Flash and ROM Cards
- 2 MMC Slots
- USB Interface
- 2x AA Batteries (for up to 8 hours playback)
The Win-Jam is scheduled to be available in July 2000 for a suggested retail price of $129.99. |
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| DDump Update |
CD/DVD Utilities |
| Added DDump 1.08 to the CD/DVD Utilities page.
New Features since the Previous Version:
- Added support for older SafeDisc R0/R1 (where the protection area is NOT between 800 and 10000)
- DDump can now be aborted safely by ESC.
- Adding waiting for key pressed.
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| CD/DVD Software Releases |
CD/DVD Software |
|
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| MP3/Audio Software Releases |
MP3/Audio Software |
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| The Week in Review |
CD/DVD NewsWire |
| CD News: |
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| MP3/Audio News: |
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2 May 2000 |
| CD/DVD Software Releases |
CD/DVD Software |
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1 May 2000 |
| Buying a CD-Writer |
| The Buying a CD-Writer page has been updated because Sony has replaced the CRX-140E/S for their new 10x Speed writing CRX-145E/S. Both drives rank first as the Best SCSI & IDE CD-Writer available! |
| Nero 5.0 Delayed |
| Ahead has delayed it's Nero 5.0 release to the 3rd of May mainly because of final adjustments. |
| The Week in Review |
CD/DVD NewsWire |
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