This is a good news for all those looking to buy a PS3. According to DigiTimes, the current global shortage of BD pick-up heads, in which blue laser diodes is a key component, will gradually relax next year. Nichia and Sony are currently the world’s top two producers of blue laser diodes, but Nichia is suffering from a defect rate too high to meet global demand and Sony’s output is going mainly for use in its PS3 and BD writers.

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According to DigiTimes, Ritek has recently announced it will be raising its prices for CD-R discs to US$0.12, up from US$0.11. The supply shortage in the CD-R disc market now stands at over 20%. Ritek has been able to gain new orders from two Japan-based brands with respective monthly shipments of 10 million CD-R and 10 million DVD +R/-R discs. Sources indicated one of Ritek’s new customers is Japan-based Maxell.

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Droppix is not one of the best known recording software suite around, but they are very well in time with their new v2.0 upgrade. Droppix is now ready for the next generation of Windows Vista and Blu-ray recording. Also included is a disc labelling software that supports LightScribe

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LITE-ON IT has released its first Serial ATA Blu-ray Disc Triple Writer LH-2B1S. Through next-generation blue laser technology, LH-2B1S can record up to 25GB data on one BD-R / BD-RE media, more than 5 times capacity of a DVD media, or around 36 times capacity of a CD media. This Blu-ray Disc Writer is able to write BD-R media at 2X maximum, rewrite BD-RE media at 2X maximum, and read BD-ROM media at 2X maximum.

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It seems that both the PS3 and Xbox 360 has received batterings from consumers and the press. Earlier this week there were some problems associated with television upscaling on the PS3. The PS3 would force the games to run at the lowly, Wii-like, 480p resolution, as PS3 titles run at either 720p or 1080p resolutions in the ‘older’ HD TVs that only support 1080i signals. The same problem seems to exist when scaling Blue-ray movies too. Microsoft has had problems with the newly launched Xbox Live Video Marketplace, with users still struggling to download TV shows and movies. Not a perfect start.

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Sony and Nintendo are be in big trouble if the consumers turn out to be impatient and buy the Xbox 360 for Christmas. While PS3 has serious availability problems, and the Wii has a limited availability, the Xbox 360 has been available for some time and Microsoft has had plenty of time to prepare for the season.

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Once again the behemoth of CD/DVD recording software has been updated. And as usual, there is no information about the changes in this version - at least not yet. However, being an official mirror site we got it on our server adn ready for you to download.

Download Nero 7.5.9.0

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According to CBC.ca, Microsoft has launched a digital video download service that lets owners of Xbox 360 buy television shows and rent feature-length movies through its online store. The service is available only in the United States for now. Television series being offered for download through Xbox Live Marketplace include CSI, remastered episodes of the original Star Trek and reality TV show The Ultimate Fighter. Films to be available by the end of the year include Superman Returns, M:I:III and The Matrix.

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Unfortunately, the PlayStation 3 is not different from other recent consoles or High Definition hardware. This time a rather major bug seems to have found it’s way to the store selves, as reports say that the PS3 plays Blu-ray movies in 1080i (interlaced) rather than 1080p or 720p resolution (progressive). This means that a majority of the picture sharpness is lost. Also there are issues in the scaling of games. Luckily a firmware update is to be released shortly.

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…financially and at the moment. While Microsoft has never made a nickle on Xbox hardware and Playstation 3 is speculated to cost $300 loss per unity for Sony, the Nintendo Wii is profitable from day one. Yes indeed, the device is the cheapest of the next-gen consoles and the only one with a profit margin. Of course, technologically the Wii is closer to the previous console genration than Playstation 3 so the profitability is not really that big of a surprise. What this means for the consumer? With Wii you get some air when you purchase, and with PS3 you get more than you actually paid for - at least in terms of hardware.

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