Stories by Melissa J. Perenson

Picking the Right Media

With a plethora of options, which media should you choose the next time you buy?

Format Wars Redux: Blu-ray Disc vs. HD-DVD

The future of high-def recording rests with two competing optical formats: Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD. Here's why both matter.

NEC to market DVD burners

NEC Solutions has begun marketing and shipping a DVD burner under its own brand.

Ahead pushes Nero digital format for DVDs

Ahead Software and ESS Technology announced a major development this week for Ahead's Nero Digital video format. ESS will incorporate Nero Digital support into the next version of its Vibratto chip. ESS chips power the digital video processing in man...

GoVideo unveils audio players

GoVideo, known for its dual-deck VCRs and other consumer electronics products, is jumping back into the digital audio player business with its new Rave-MP players. The players emphasize simplicity and style, and come in both flash memory and hard dri...

Video conversion tool

When you’re ready to convert your stacks of cherished (but now only rarely watched) videotapes to DVD, consider Hewlett-Packard’s clever new DVD Movie Writer Dc3000.

New HP device converts VHS to DVD

A device to convert those stacks of cherished but now rarely watched videotapes to DVD is a highlight of the dozens of new Hewlett-Packard Co. products announced in the US this week.

Iomega unveils multiformat DVD burner

Iomega is taking multiformat DVD burning a step further, unveiling this week the Super DVD Drive, which combines all three rewritable DVD formats into one drive.

Pioneer unveils multiformat DVD/CD unit

Pioneer Corp. is leading a radical shift in the optical storage market, broadening its support for DVD rewritable standards, with consumers coming out the winner.

Plextor drive boosts security, capacity

When CD-RW drive speeds reached 52X, the race cooled--until now. Plextor's PlexWriter Premium CD-R/RW drive, released this week, offers the first promising innovations seen in a while.

Sony MPD-AP20U music maker

The Sony MPDAP20U is a CD-RW and DVD-ROM drive that also doubles as a portable audio player.

Shattered: This CD's in Tatters?

If you hear an intense vibrating noise or a bang from your superfast 48X CD-ROM or CD-RW drive, beware: Your disc may be shattering.

HP restores DVD writer upgrade offer

Hewlett-Packard has quietly launched an upgrade program for owners of its HP DVD Writer dvd100i, restoring its offer to let them move up to a drive that supports both its initial DVD+RW (rewritable) format discs and the cheaper DVD+R (recordable) med...

Iomega HotBurn (beta) and SmartDisk MVP

New CD-burning programs from Iomega and SmartDisk both try hard to be consumer friendly. The difference is that Iomega targets "general-purpose users, while SmartDisk aims squarely at people who want to create CDs filled with digital audio, video and...