The latest member of Lite-On’s external optical drive series, the eTAU108 DVD writer, is looking trim and thin. The device weighs under 350 grams and features a USB connection interface. The eTAU108 DVD writer has write speeds of up to 8x for DVD-R/+R and DVD+RW, 6x for DVD-R/+R DL, 5x for DVD-RAM and 24x for CD-R/RW.

No grey area here. The top-loading drive is available in pearl white or piano black. The eTAU108 goes on sale next month for about 45 Euros or $63.

Back in the heyday of AOL it seemed like there was a CD or DVD in the mail each time I went to the box. Thankfully, I rarely get optical discs in the mail anymore. I wonder if some of the reason you don’t see optical discs being mailed today has to do with the cost of sending them.

A company called CD Digital Card has announced a new type of DVD called the Flex DVD. The Flex DVD is the same diameter as a traditional DVD, but about half as thick at 0.6mm. The Flex DVD can store 4.7GB of video or DVD-ROM content and weight 8 grams.

As far as originality, you won’t find any here. When they designed this Maxx Digital portable DVD player, they simply re-did the PSP for some reason I can’t fathom. Not that it’s not a good looking PSP. It is. It’s just a PSP, not a DVD player design. I just don’t like all my stuff to look like PSP’s, that’s all I’m saying.

The PDV-8500BLK features a nice 8.5-inch LCD widescreen, and will play videos in DVD, DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, CD, CD-R/RW, VCD and SVCD formats. It’s also got support for JPEG, MP3 and MPEG4 files via a built-in SD, MMS/MS card reader slot. Strangely it doesn’t play video games at all. And no UMD discs. It will cost you $120.

Have you ever wanted to have your adult DVD collection readily at hand but secure in a way that your children can’t access said naughty titles? Here’s a blurb about the Disc Manager 100, pictured above, which just came into our virtual news desk:

“Are you looking for a safe place to store your adult DVD collection? Disc Makers has you covered with the Disc Manager 100. The Disc Manager 100 allows users to store and password protect certain DVDs owners may prefer to keep private. The Disc Manager 100 and its bundled software makes it easy to locate any file and eject the appropriate disc in seconds. It also protects your CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs from damage caused by improper handling, exposure to dust, and UV light. Users can stack up to five Disc Managers 100s – allowing parents to manage a 500 disc library with just one USB connection.”

BCD has produced a new industrial DVD recorder which can also record to a built-in hard drive. It is called the DVD-1150HDD and you’ll find it pricing at around $2,000.

The BCD DVD-1150HDD is primarily targeted towards more commercial applications. It is designed to be remotely controlled via RS-232, USB or Web-based interactions. Video recorded via this device can be done to either a DVD or standard 250GB hard drive. BCD says the drive is large enough to store around 58 DVDs worth of data.

Envision, if you will, a home where your electronics look more like art than traditional rectangular boxes. You might on your desk have this above concept design - a hybrid DVD player & display unit - as your distraction during the home work day. Since it is just a concept though, there is no word on this ever being available at retail. At least not right now.

This DVD player/display unit, designed by Touch Interactive, is focused on “regenerating the look and feel of a home entertainment system through the design of a new generation DVD system.” The unit is described as having a metallic look with blue edge. The attached widescreen display offers a width of 19-inches.

DVD may be dead or dying, but maybe it will be able to live again in your car. This touchscreen sun visor will allow the person sitting in the passenger seat to enjoy some entertainment. Not you though. You need to focus on the road.

It comes with a handy remote, a 16:9 TFT high definition LCD display, USB Port, an SD slot that maxes out at 1GB. Supports DVD, DVD Audio, DVD-R /W, HDVD, DVCD, DVIX, MP3, MP4, CD-R /W and VCD. The 7-Inch Sun Visor DVD Touch Screen with TV + FM is available from the Chinavision for $128.14.

Cube3 is a 7 Inch DVD/TV Entertainment Center combo. Super nice looking and flexible. It will play your DVDs and even has one of those clever USB slots in front so you can hook up your MP3 player. It will even rip your CDs to the USB stick which is a nice feature. It can get quite loud for it’s size as well with the 60W RMS speakers.

The cube3 integrates those other features together with a digital TV. But it doesn’t have to be all about movies. Use it to view your photos and pictures on-screen like a digital photo frame. Playback compressed DivX or MPG4 videos from an external hard drive or USB flash drive. For it’s size that’s several great features that you want in a Hi-Fi system.

Amidst all the technology hype going on at CES in Las Vegas this week, Warner Bros. Entertainment somewhat quietly made an announcement with potentially significant implications on the high-def DVD war between Toshiba’s HD DVD and Sony’s Blu-ray disc formats. Warner made an announcement on January 4 that it would release its movies in only the Blu-ray high-definition format, and no longer would offer any of the rival HD DVD formatted discs.

According to Reuters, in talking to Warner Bros Entertainment Group President Kevin Tsujihara the company chose to go the Blu-ray route due to falling DVD says and a “deteriorating U.S. economy”. Tsujihara said the plan was made with the intention of ending the format war and hence ending confusion and split purchases by consumers between the two formats. This move to Blu-ray exclusively is so significant due to the fact that Warner has the industries largest offering of movies and continues to produce big titles, making 5 of the 7 major studios on board with Blu-ray.

iLuv, a maker of iPod accessories, revealed a number of interesting products as part of its CES 2008 line up. One of those is the new iLuv i1255, a sleek, desktop iPod/DVD player priced at around $130.

The iLuv i1255 lets you play control music from audio CDs, MP3 CDs and docked iPods via an included remote control. Dock adapters let you fit a variety of iPod models and the iLuv i1255 also lets you view iPod video on-screen. There’s also an on-screen display function for navigation of an iPod’s stored video and music files.

The EZ Dupe DVD Coach is a compact and fairly nice looking dual DVD drive that allows you to make simple 8x copies of your favorite discs.( Not for personal enjoyment of course,(that would be illegal) but for backup purposes. 16x for CDs. Just plug in the drive via USB to either a PC or Mac. You can also use it without the computer for more portability.

It’s not just slim and portable though. It has some features. A few of the CD duplication options include advanced playlist support and mobile playback. It’ll run you between $350 and $450 depending where you buy it online.

The DVD Xpress is aimed at that demographic who do not like to buy DVDs or just take awhile to get with the program. As long as you have a VHS version and the DVD Xpress home video archiver, you can turn your videos into digital versions. Store them on your hard drive or burn them to DVD. It also lets you
create movies for playback on your iPod or PSP.

It hooks up to your PC via USB. Then connect your camcorder to the video/audio inputs on the DVD Xpress. Put a blank DVD disc into your PC, press play on your camcorder and burn a copy automatically to DVD. It’s that simple. You better get started archiving all those precious family movies and bringing them into the digital age. May your embarrassing moments live forever.

The Evergreen DN-DRK72 wants to repair your CDs and DVDs. Just put the disk in the device and it does all the work. The disc that comes out is supposedly as good as when you bought it. Let’s face it, some of us still use our discs from time to time and if it has been well loved, chances are it’s also full of scratches. We probably should take better care of our things, but thanks to devices like this, we don’t have to.

No word on pricing or availability yet. Also no word on how many times it could potentially repair a disc. I am assuming this works by filling in the the scratches using heat and liquid.

Beginning next year the Walgreens drugstore giant will begin putting DVD burning kiosks in its 6,000 retail stores nationwide. The move is designed to deliver an improved selection of entertainment titles that the company offers to its consumers while reducing the potential for piracy. The kiosk will be located in the photo departments of the store. Once a customer has made their selection as to what movie they want to purchase the machine will begin burning the title. About 15 minutes later the buyer will have their DVD ready for viewing.

Samsung unveiled today what it is calling the world’s fastest DVD burner. The new Samsung Super-WriteMaster SH-S203N is priced at around $80.

The Samsung Super-WriteMaster SH-S203N is an internal DVD burner which offers up 16x dual layer recording and LightScribe technology, which lets you imprint a label or design on the disc. This 20x SATA drive supports all CD/DVD discs, according to Samsung, including DVD-RAM. The company also states this burner offers “a 30-40 percent improvement recording time” compared to other dual layer devices.