AUDIO VIDEO NEWS

No matter how much data storage is available in any medium, people always want more. Take Blu-ray, for example—one might think that 25 or 50GB would be plenty for just about any storage requirement, but some applications need even more. To address this insatiable demand, the Blu-ray Disc Association this week announced a new high-capacity recordable format called BDXL as well as a new hybrid format called IH-BD.

Home Entertainment 2001 arrives at the Hilton Hotel & Towers in New York this week for three days, May 11-13. There will be more than 80 rooms stuffed with the latest high end audio and video gear, including dozens of brand new products. For more information about the show, go to the <A HREF="http://www.homeentertainment-expo.com">HE 2001 website</A>.

In a move that will keep union members working for at least the next three years, negotiators for the <A HREF="http://www.wga.org">Writers Guild of America</A> agreed to a new contract on May 4, three days beyond the date of a threatened strike. The WGA had agreed to let its members keep working as discussions continued beyond the renewal date for the old contract, which expired May 1.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.ravisent.com">Ravisent Technologies</A> announced a technology partnership with <A HREF="http://www.oren.com">Oren Semiconductor</A>, which sells DSP-based digital television demodulator ICs to manufacturers such as Sony, Hughes, and Global Telemann Systems for use in TVs, VCRs, PC cards, and set-top boxes. Ravisent and Oren say they will jointly develop complete broadcast reception and playback solutions for delivering HDTV broadcasts to consumers using the current generation of personal computers.