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Toshiba / Samsung joint venture hit with lawsuit by LG over DVD+RW/RAM patents
LG Electronics has found itself at the center of quite a few patent lawsuits in recent years (both as a plaintiff and defendant), and it's now kicked yet another one off. As Bloomberg reports, LG has today filed suit against Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology, alleging that the Toshiba / Samsung joint venture violated a number of patents related to DVD+RW and DVD-RAM technology. In the complaint, LG further alleges that TSST is knowingly infringing on the patents as they were previously licensed to Toshiba itself (and TSST as an affiliate company) as part of a deal that expired in 2010. LG is asking for a jury trial to sort things out, and demanding that TSSC pay "no less than a reasonable royalty" along with some unspecified damages. You can find the complaint in full at the link below.
LaCie launches Little Disk line and portable DVD+RW drive
LaCie, always known to drop a fresh drive on us during our extreme times of need, has once again stepped up to the plate with a new line of petite storage options aimed at "people on the go" and other likeminded busibodies. The company's new "Little Disk" line was designed by the "award winning" Sam Hecht, and comes in 1.8- or 2.5-inch varieties, ranging from 30GB to 250GB, all with retractable, USB 2.0 connectors. Mr. Hecht also oversaw the creation of LaCie's other small offering, a portable DVD+RW drive with LightScribe technology (allowing you to etch custom labels into discs), that comes in both USB 2.0 and Firewire varieties. The hard drives and optical drives are available now, ranging from $99.99 to $119.99 for the disks, and $99.99 to $149.99 for the DVD writers.[Via PhotographyBLOG]Read -- LaCie Announces the New Little Disk Family of Mobile Drives, Design by Sam HechtRead -- LaCie Ships Portable DVD±RW Drive with LightScribe, Design by Sam Hecht
JVC announces first rewritable single-sided dual layer DVDs
Inventing the dual layer DVD-RW standard may seem like an extreme example of too little too late in the days of 15GB+ HD DVD and 25GB+ Blu-ray, but JVC has gone ahead and done it anyway. Hitting up the same 8.5GB capacity as regular double layer DVD-RWs and dual layer DVD-RWs, the JVC discs come with a specially hardened coating which is apparently "150 times" more effective than the coating on plain old DVDs. Unfortunately, the new format requires entirely new burners, is only available at 2x write speeds, and no shipping dates or details are available. Sounds like JVC's got a winner on its hands ... yeah.
Victor's single-sided 8.5GB DVD-RW coming in August
While everyone is up in arms over the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD debate, Victor is creeping up from behind with some fresh DVD technology that you never even saw coming. The Japanese company has created a new variation on the DVD-RW format with a single-sided, two-layer disc that can handle up to 8.5GB of data on one side. Up until now, if you wanted to get that much onto a rewritable, you would have had to use a dual-sided disk, but it would appear that Victor has found a way around those problems. No telling if this opens the door for a double-sided, two-layer disc with 17GB of capacity, but it sure does seem to be heading in that direction.[Via Impress]
Samsung slot-loading DVD burner supports 8cm discs
A huge problem with the all those sweet DVD camcorders is that any machine with a slot-loading DVD drive (cough, Apple) totally chokes on 8-centimeter discs. Well, Samsung's got you covered with its new SE-T084L external burner, which it's touting as the world's only slot-loader to accept the format in addition to standard 12-centimeter discs. The bus-powered USB 2.0 burner features a seek time of 130 milliseconds, and record speeds of 8X DVD±R, 6X DVD+R DL, 4X DVD-R DL, 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-RW, and 5X DVD-RAM. For some reason, Sammy only announced this thing today, but they've been shipping since April for $150 -- maybe it wanted us to focus on those snazzy Blu-Ray burners instead?
