Sony Corp said it will launch four models of new Blu-ray high-definition optical disc recorders in November in Japan, as its format battle with the HD DVD camp heats up.

Sony, along with Panasonic maker Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd , promotes the Blu-ray technology, which competes with the HD DVD format, backed by Toshiba Corp and Microsoft Corp.

The new models, capable of storing up to 16 hours of high-definition programs on a dual-layer, 50-gigabyte (GB) Blu-ray disc, will go on sale on November 8.

Sony’s previous models, launched last year, were unable to record on a dual-layer disc.

China has suffered “massive” losses of state and military secrets through the Internet, a senior official said, urging sweeping controls and new security agencies to fight computer threats and uncensored news.

Vice Minister of Information Industry Lou Qinjian’s claims come as China faces reports that it has raided the computer networks of Western powers.

He did not address those allegations, but depicted his country as the target of a campaign of computer infiltration and subversion and he proposed new investment and censorship controls to counter the threat.

“The Internet has become the main technological channel for external espionage activities against our core, vital departments,” he wrote in a magazine, Chinese Cadres Tribune.

“In recent years Party, government and military organs and national defense scientific research units have had many major cases of loss, theft and leakage of secrets, and the damage to national interests has been massive and shocking.”

He did not detail any of these cases.