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DIGITAL DIGEST - http://www.digital-digest.com
DIGITAL DIGEST | LIVE UPDATE Issue 29
Your "whenever I have time to write one" newsletter
Sunday, 28th July, 2002

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TOP NEWS SUMMARY :

0. Section Zer0 - An Introduction to this Issue

1. MPAA Antics

2. XviD Explained

3. Back To The Future Trilogy DVD - Confused ??

4. How to Cancel/Change Your Subscription Email Address/Settings
- how to maintain the subscription to this newsletter even if
your email address has changed

5. A Simple Thank-you
- a thank-you message for all those that joined this list

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0. Section Zer0

Welcome to this, the 29th issue, of the Digital Digest LiveUpdate
newsletter.

MPAA censors Homer Simpson ; RIAA wants to hack your computer ; XviD
VS DivX ; Back To The Future confuses people - it's all just another
day in the world of DVD/DivX.

Enjoy :)

-- DVDGuy

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1. MPAA Antics

The MPAA, and all their friends, have been busy at work these past
few months.

Gloating after their success over 2600 in the "DeCSS case", where
2600 has decided not to appeal the case all the way to the US Supreme
Court, the MPAA and the RIAA (AKA. "Hollywood") has been pressuring
the US Congress to pass a bill to allow them to hack into your
computer if they "suspected" that you had pirated versions. That's
right folks, if you find that you suddenly lose control of your
computer, and the MP3s you downloaded were mysteriously being
deleted, it might just be the good folks at the RIAA that are doing
what may be perfectly legal under US law.

According to a Reuters report, "The bill would permit recording
companies and other copyright holders to hack onto networks to thwart
users looking to download free music, and would protect them from
lawsuits from users."

This should come as no surprise, as the RIAA has already been
screwing around with file sharing networks by the way of "spoofing".
Spoofing refers to the act of distributing fake/broken files onto
popular file sharing networks to frustrate users and consume costly
bandwidth. But according to the RIAA, "Spoofing is just one example
of a lawful and appropriate self-help measure available to the labels
to respond to the growing problem of peer-to-peer network piracy."
Overpeer, a New York-based software firm funded by South Korea's SK
Group, is one firm helping the industry disguise online files to
thwart unauthorized swapping (source :
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020705/wr_nm/media_piracy_dc_1).

Not that I want to give the MPAA/RIAA any ideas, but if the "legal
hacking" bill is passed and when combined with "spoofing", who's to
say that the MPAA/RIAA won't introduce some kind of virus/worm into
file sharing networks and use the worm to delete "suspected" MP3/DivX
files from your home computer.

Fortunately, not everything is going the MPAA's way, largely thanks
to a Fox employee by the name of Homer Simpson. In a Fox online Q&A
to promote the new Simpsons DVD set, Homer Simpson was happy to
recommend users to bypass DVD's region protection scheme. When
asked "what does region coding mean?", Homer replies "I have no idea
whatsoever what regional coding means. But it is essential that you
buy a multi-regional player. Do it now. Don't worry, we'll still be
waiting here when you get back." Fox is a member of the MPAA.

Soon after the story broke that Homer Simpson was possibly breaking
the law, Fox took action and censored what Homer had said, by
removing Homer's recommendation for multi-regional DVD players,
probably at the "request" of the MPAA. Luckily, through the wonderful
Internet caching technologies of Archive.org, Homer's original (and
wise) remarks can still be read here :

http://web.archive.org/web/20011121052157/http://www.fox.co.uk/thesimp
sons/dvdqa/simp_dvdqa4.html

(Just in case the MPAA "requests" action from Archive.org again, I've
already saved a copy of this priceless web page to my hard-drive
ready for distribution across the Net, that is if the MPAA doesn't
hack into my computer and wipe my files first)

Related link :
2600 withdraws Supreme Court appeal in DeCSS case (The Register) :
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/26038.html
Bill Lets Music Firms Hack Napster-Like Systems (Excite/Reuters) :
http://www1.excite.com/home/technology/tech_article/0,2109,159551|tech
nology|07-25-2002::16:22|reuters,00.html
Congress to turn hacks into hackers (The Register) :
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/26357.html
Fox recommends hacked DVD players for The Simpsons (The Register) :
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/26139.html
Music Labels Plant Online Decoys, Mull Lawsuits (Reuters) :
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020705/wr_nm/media_piracy_dc_1

Discussions :
Homer J. Simpson takes on the MPAA : http://forum.digital-
digest.com/showthread.php?threadid=9604
F**king overpeer : http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?
threadid=10063


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2. XviD Explained

There is a new video compression codec that has been quietly closing
in on DivX as the most popular video codec, confirmed by the fact
that it is the 7th most downloaded software on DivX Digest. This new
video codec is called XviD (DivX backwards), and unlike DivX, is a
completely open-source project.

As stated on DivX Digest's XviD download page : "XviD is a
continuation of Project Mayo and aims to develop a high quality open-
source MPEG-4 codec. As you may already know, XviD comes from the
same open-source project that was the basis for DivX 4.x/5.x, but
instead of going all commercial, XviD remains open-source. The
quality of the codec is extremely good, and encoding speed is very
fast as well, so it is at least worth a try".

Since both XviD and the new DivX 4.x/5.x codecs comes from the same
source (Project Mayo), performance and quality between these codecs
are actually quite similar - so similar in fact, that both formats
are almost interchangeable (meaning you can use the DivX codec to
playback XviD encoded movies, and vice versa).

Technically, XviD is still somewhat behind DivX 5.x in terms of
compression, quality and efficiency.

But in my opinion, XviD's open-source approach is much preferred over
DivX Network's closed-source/commercial licensing approach. Of
course, DivX Network's main goal is to make DivX profitable and a
commercial licensing scheme is necessary - there is absolutely
nothing wrong with trying to make money out of DivX, and in the
process, promote DivX as a viable commercial video codec. But because
XviD is an open-source project, many in the DivX/MPEG-4 community
with programming skills are able to offer their skills in improving
this codec - and this is an advantage DivX Networks does not have.
Those that had contributed to Project Mayo before DivX Networks
closed it off, are now likely to offer their help in developing XviD
(DivX Networks closed the Project Mayo open-source project, and
released the Project Mayo based DivX 4.0 as closed source).

Related links :
XviD Download Page : http://www.divx-digest.com/software/xvid.html
What is XviD : http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?
threadid=5778
XviD Setup/Reference Guide : http://www.divx-
digest.com/articles/xvid_setup.html
Koepi's XviD Options Explained Document :
http://www.roeder.goe.net/~koepi/


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3. Back To The Future Trilogy DVD - Confused ??

"Great Scott" - The Back To The Future Trilogy (BTTF) is finally
coming to DVD!!

One of the greatest science fiction movies in the last 20 years are
coming to DVD, and according to preliminary reviews, it will be 3
great DVDs.

For some strange reason, the region-1 version of BTTF won't be
released until December, whereas other parts of the world (eg. where
I live, Australia) will receive their version much earlier, some as
soon as August/September.

Further confusion and anger erupted when the it was announced that
the region-1 version would have more extra features than the overseas
versions, and the possible delay of the Region-2 (UK) version of BTTF
until December as well (but possibly with fewer features than the
Region-1 version).

Apparently, some extras on the DVD are still being produced for the
US version (eg. additional audio commentary, music videos), whereas
overseas fans have to live with a DVD set with less features
(although with an earlier release date). Most of the "extra" extras
on the R1 version will be material that the DVD producers can find
between the release of the overseas versions and the release of the
R1 version, and the most important features will already be on the
overseas versions (eg. documentaries, most deleted scenes).
Considering Universal has had years to come up with the extra
features on the DVDs, I wouldn't expect the R1 version to have
additional extras that fans of the movie can't live without - perhaps
some newly recorded audio commentary will be the only thing that
oversea fans will miss terribly. Also, the overseas versions seems to
have a better looking cover.

While it still isn't clear what exactly is on the Region-1 version of
BTTF, and whether the Region-2 version will be released earlier or
later or have the same content as the R1 or R4 version of the DVD,
below is a list of likely release dates and prices for this eagerly
awaited DVD release :

Region 1 US : December 17 (possibly with more extras than R2/R4
version) - $US 48.43
Region 2 UK : December 2 (possible with less extras than R1 version) -
£26.24
Region 2 FR : October 8 (possible with less extras than R1 version) -
EUR 44,99
Region 4 Au : August 21 (possibly with less extras than R1 version) -
$AUD 45.95 (~ $US 25-30)

As you can see, the Australian version is clearly the cheapest and
quickest way to get your BTTF DVD fix. And just released yesterday, a
full review of the Australian version of the DVDs have been released
by Michael D's Region-4 DVD Info Page, so those that are eager to
find out what is on the DVD (see "Related Links" below for links to
the reviews). According to the review, all three DVDs have
perfect/reference quality video, almost perfect audio and some
terrific features.

Regardless, this whole mess could have been easily avoided if BTTF
had the same or similar worldwide release date, like most other big
DVD releases such as the Star Wars Episode I DVD (BTW : Star Wars
Episode II : ATOC DVD is rumored to be coming sometime in November
this year!!).

Purchase links :
Back To The Future Trilogy Region-1 :
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006AL1E/thehoppingxenter
Back To The Future Trilogy Region-2 UK :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000062V8Q/dvddigest-21
Back To The Future Trilogy Region-2 FR :
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006B0KP/
Back To The Future Trilogy Region-4 : http://www.atlanticdvd.com.au/
or http://www.ezydvd.com.au

Related links :
BTTF DVD Official Site : http://www.bttfmovie.com
Universal making its "Future" plans (Variety/BTTF.com) :
http://www.bttf.com/news/02062701.shtml
Disc news (DVDFile.com) : http://www.dvdfile.com/software/dvd-
video/archive/2002/06_13.html
Michael D's BTTF review (Region-4, Australia):
http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Reviews/Reviews.asp?ReviewID=1754
Michael D's BTTF Part II review (Region-4, Australia) :
http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Reviews/Reviews.asp?ReviewID=1755
Michael D's BTTF Part III review (Region-4, Australia) :
http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Reviews/Reviews.asp?ReviewID=1756


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4. How to Cancel/Change Settings/Email Address for Your Subscription
to this Newsletter

Changing subscription status for this newsletter is pretty easy.

To un-subscribe :
- Send an email to liveupdate-unsubscribe@egroups.com using the email
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To change the email address that receives this newsletter :
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5. A Simple Thank-you

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