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a, Dual-beam configuration for super-resolution writing and reading. b, Spin-coating process for material addition, material diffusion and blank-disk molding. c, The capacity of a single 3D nanoscale disk is approximately equivalent to that of a petabit-level Blu-ray library or an HDD data array. Credit: Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06980-y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A team of photonic engineers affiliated with several institutions in China has developed a new type of optical DVD that is capable of holding up to a petabyte of data. The group used a new material to coat the DVDs and new laser techniques to write data. The results are published...

Netflix has announced it is ending its DVD rental service after 25 years. DVD rentals formed the basis of Netflix’s original business model when the company launched in 1998. It initially had 925 titles available, and the first it ever sent out was a copy of Tim Burton’s 1988 horror comedy Beetlejuice. Netflix’s rise helped cause the downfall of stores like Blockbuster, before it began transitioning into streaming in the mid-2000s. DVD rentals accounted for $126m (£101m) of Netflix’s $31.6bn (£25.4bn) revenue last year – equivalent to just 0.4 per cent. The company announced $8.18bn in revenue for the first...

A 27-year-old Florida woman was arrested after her parents found two dozen pipe bombs in her bedroom and called the local sheriff's office, authorities said Friday. Michelle Louise Kolts was arrested early Friday and booked on 24 counts of making, possessing, throwing, projecting, placing or discharging a destructive device.

Perhaps you could call it a coda to an outstanding symphony of audio/videophile tech. Oppo Digital, the company whose products have won it many awards over the years – and which deserved them – has announced it's winding down its operations. Say it isn't so, Oppo! The announcement on the company's website as of April 2, came as a big surprise to me. I've been reviewing the company's products since they first appeared on the North American scene and have yet to find one that wasn't a great addition to whichever market niche it was invading. From TV's to DAC...

North Korea is so isolated that rather than bring the Internet to its hackers, it brings them to it—in a swank hotel in China. The luxury hotel that has been called a command post for North Korean hackers would make for a unique holiday getaway and give you lots to talk about back home. “Surprisingly Great Hotel - Clean, Tasteful.... and North Korean!” says a trip advisor review for the Chilbosan Hotel in Shenyang, China. For just $53, you get “a deluxe twin room,” including a North Korean breakfast considerably more substantial than those enjoyed by the vast majority of...

People who want to buy Christmas gifts, without having to confront the crowds at the local shopping mall (or shopping maul) can take a load off their feet by buying books or movies on the Internet, while sitting in the comfort of their own homes. In addition to old standbys like gorgeous coffee table books of Ansel Adams' scenic photographs or the collected works of Shakespeare -- or of "Calvin and Hobbes" comics -- there are also many thought-provoking books on current events or on history. People who already seem to have everything may not have DVDs of the latest...

Two great movies dealing with Nazi Germany that had limited play, if any, in movie theaters. "The Book Thief" "Sophie Scholl - The Final Days"

The upcoming Windows 8 operating system (which you can download and preview now) is dropping the ability to play DVD content. According to Windows engineering team member Steven Sinofsky (emphasis his), "Windows Media Player will continue to be available in all editions, but without DVD playback support. For optical discs playback on new Windows 8 devices, we are going to rely on the many quality solutions on the market, which provide great experiences for both DVD and Blu-ray." In other words: If you want to watch that Bridesmaids DVD on your next plane trip, you're going to have to pay...

For your consideration: DVD questioning LDS...being distributed in Gilbert - AZCentral.com

Gordon Brown gave Barack Obama $16,500 (£10,000) worth of gifts during a US visit, in return for a selection of DVDs. The value of Mr Brown's gifts, a pen and holder made from the wood of an anti-slavery ship, along with two biographies of Winston Churchill, was disclosed by the US State Department on Tuesday. Mr Obama, by comparison, gave him a boxset of 25 classic US films such as Citizen Kane and ET.

I've recentluy been mulling getting a new portable PC, and have been considering getting a Netbook, rather than a notebook. While a netbook is much smaller and lighter for traveling pirposes, I still want to be able to hook it up to a larger monitor, keyboard and mouse at home, and be able to watch movies with a USB connected DVD drive. Looking at the specs of some Netbooks, it appears this can be done as easily as with a full sized notebook. But I find myself wondering, if these Netbooks can handle..basically replacing a Notebook as the central componant...

The Canadian Press VANCOUVER — SNIPPET: "Khaled Nawaya, a flight instructor, was arrested by Canada Border Services agents when they found $800,000 in gold coins and other currency in his car and pockets on Oct. 6, as he crossed into Surrey, B.C., near Vancouver." SNIPPET: "He'd been living in the U.S. since he was 17 and had gained approval for permanent residency in Canada. Besides the gold, Canadian agents found a ring bearing the insignia of Hezbollah, which has been listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government since 2002. They also seized 9/11 conspiracy theory-themed DVDs and a...

LONDON (Reuters) – The amazing eyes of a giant shrimp living on Australia's Great Barrier Reef could hold the key to developing a new type of super high-quality DVD player, British scientists said on Sunday. Mantis shrimps, dubbed "thumb splitters" by divers because of their vicious claws, have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. They can see in 12 primary colors, four times as many as humans, and can also detect different kinds of light polarization -- the direction of oscillation in light waves.

A recent shift in merchandising strategy by the world's largest retailer spells more trouble for DVD sales and the entertainment industry that depends on them for profits. As part of a larger effort to clean up its aisles and appeal to higher-end shoppers, Wal-Mart is doing away with display cases to promote the latest hot movie titles. The move comes as major film studios are reeling from declines in revenue from DVD sales as cash-strapped consumers turn to low-cost rental services and digital downloads for home movies. "We think the new strategy implies Wal-Mart no longer sees DVDs and Blu-ray...

DVDs are set to explore new dimensions.Punchstock Spreading into extra dimensions could help next-generation DVDs to store even more data than they currently do. The new technique could squeeze around 140 times the capacity of the best Blu-rays into a standard-sized disk. Traditional DVDs and Blu-ray disks store data in two dimensions, and there's been a recent push to increase their capacity by creating multi-layered disks that store data across three dimensions. But, asks James Chon at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, why stop there?Chon and his colleagues are stepping into hyperspace, by encoding information in two...

Blu-Ray’s conquered the HD format war, but its design and technical limitations mean the current format is as good as it’ll get. Sony says it’ll be the last optical format, after which, we’ll move way from shiny discs altogether. See, it’s all down to the limitations of lasers and the discs themselves. Speaking at IFA, Taka Miyama, Sony’s product strategy manager for home video marketing in Europe told us: “Blu-Ray is the final format for the optical disc. We don’t have a shorter laser. In the future, if we have a physical media format, it will change physically. It won’t...

RealNetworks is putting its considerable prestige behind a DVD-copying Windows application, moving into territory hitherto occupied by illegal freeware. The $30 program called RealDVD will copy not only the main disc content but also the extras and art. In an interview with The New York Times, Real chief Robert Glaser calls it "a compelling and very responsible product" for making disc backups and transferring content to a laptop for viewing on the road. Expect Hollywood to erupt over this like a volcano. The studios have long litigated against companies making DVD ripping software, which circumvents the DVD Copy Control Association's...

Ok, so as some of you know, the bootleg dvds in China have "regular" packaging, often just like the real things. I pick up the Spiderman bootleg dvd and here's the English description on the back: "Even as Scully's genetically altered DNA brings her closer to the brink of death, government agent Michael Kritschgau helps Mulder in the search for a cure, partly to atone for his own involvement with perpetuating the alien hoax. Scully's DNA comes into play once again when she discovers she is the mother of a little girl named Emily, an incident that could only be...

FORT HUACHUCA — For Alyzia and Keyana White, the upcoming holidays will be sad. Their father, Army Staff Sgt. William White, is in Iraq. The two girls have only heard their dad’s voice once since he left in August. But on Thursday, the two cut a disc to be sent to their air traffic controller dad, and he will not only be able to hear them but see them, too. The Southern Arizona Chapter of American Red Cross project, supported by Raytheon and radio station 104.1 The Truth, recorded family messages as part of Operation Message. Amanda Thomas, spokeswoman for...

We just bought the newly remastered Popeye DVD set. If you're a fan, you must see this. It has all the old black and white cartoons from 1933-1938. The clarity is so sharp and the sound is outstanding. Many of the toons have optional commentaries, which really add to the experience. Strange thing, I guess, is that it's put out by Warner Bros. I didn't know they owned the rights! But bravo to whoever made this happen.