DIGITAL DIGEST - http://www.digital-digest.com
DIGITAL DIGEST | LIVE UPDATE Issue 37
2 September, 2003

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TOP NEWS SUMMARY :

1. What's happened on DivX Digest since the last newsletter?

2. What's happened on DVD Digest since the last newsletter?

3. What's happened on DVD±R Digest since the last newsletter?

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 and some concluding words

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1. What's happened on DivX Digest since the last newsletter?

A new version of UBW Player was released since the last newsletter.
UBW Player is Polish/English multimedia player that is focused
towards the area of subtitles. UBW Player comes with a subtitle
editor amongst other things. The official website is in Polish only
though.

A new version of SubRip was also available. SubRip was one of the
first subtitle rippers. As you may know, the subtitles on DVD aren't
stored as text, but rather, as a subpicture layer. SubRip acts as an
OCR software (optical character recognition) and converts the DVD
subpicture into text, so that is can be more easily
manipulated/edited/stored. Being open-source, SubRip's development
has actually changed hands since the original release, and is now
being developed by ZuGGy. Almost all the big conversion tools (eg.
GordianKnot, DVDtoOgm) use SubRip or the SubRip format for their
subtitle functions.

There was also a new version of Media Player Classic, which now has a
built-in MPEG-1/2 decoder, which can be used for DVD playback.<br><br>

As for DivX news, in an interview with Gej (the original creator of
DivX 3.x), the news is that DivX 5.1 will be released soon. The next
major release of DivX (dubbed "Q") will come sometime near the middle
of next year, and will have an audio codec and use it's own container
format, as opposed to AVI. An AVI container version will still be
provided.

That's all for this issue, stay tuned for more DivX news on DivX
Digest ...

Related Links :
DivX : http://www.divx.com
Media Player Classic :
http://www.divx-digest.com/software/media_player_classic.html
SubRip : http://www.divx-digest.com/software/subrip.html
UBW Player : http://www.divx-digest.com/software/ubw_player.html


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2. What's happened on DVD Digest since the last newsletter?

There has actually been quite a few updates on DVD Digest, more so
than on DivX Digest, which was a little strange. Anyway, on to the
updates ...

A new major version of DVDIdle and DVD Region-Free, both from the
same company, has been released. DVDIdle is a DVD-ROM caching tool
that caches the DVD files to reduce disc access, improve performance,
and extend the lifetime of your DVD-ROM drive. DVD Region-Free does
just what it's name suggests, and makes your system region-free.
Unlike other region-free tools which makes the software components of
your system region-free, and hence, won't work with region-locked DVD-
ROM drives, DVD Region-Free aims to make your DVD-ROM drive region-
free without the need to flash your drive with hacked firmware. It
can also turn off Macrovision protection in software players. The Pro
version of DVDIdle simply bundles DVDIdle and DVD Region-Free in the
same package. The new major version enables DVD backup programs that
usually prohibit straight backups from protected DVDs to do so, hence
eliminating the need to rip the DVD first.

The newly added DVD X GHOST software has similar functionalities to
DVD Region-Free, so there is choice if you need it. And to continue
the theme of DVD-ROM utilities, CDBreak was also recently added to
our downloads section. CDBreak's goal is to reduce drive noise and
save power by slowing down the reading speed of DVD-ROM drives.

An update for WinDVD has also been released. Intervideo doesn't
always keep users well informed of small releases (ie. non major
version releases), and so it's a little hard to find out just exactly
what's new in the update release. To apply the update, just download
the trial version again and install it on top of your existing paid
for version - it should perform an update, as opposed to re-
installing it. What is well publicised is a new add-on pack for
WinDVD, called the DVD-Audio pack. This pack transforms WinDVD into
the first ever DVD-Audio player for the PC. Couple it with a good HD
capable sound card, like the Creative Audigy 2, a set of good
speakers, and you've got your very own DVD-Audio player. The pricing
structure of WinDVD have been tweaked somewhat as well, with the
Platinum version dropping in price. Value for money, if you can
remember, was one of the things that I griped a bit about in my
WinDVD 5 review, so it's good to see the price drop happening. And a
new version of WinDVD Tweaker to go along with the new WinDVD release
was released in a very timely fashion.

A new version of DVD2SVCD was also released in the time since the
last newsletter. Think of DVD2SVCD as the "GordianKnot" of DVD to
SVCD conversion - set it up, press the convert button, and apart from
burning the actual SVCD, you're done. And most of the settings only
need to be set once, and so it gets easier and easier to use the more
you use it. And of course, it's free!!

And to round it off, new versions of movie management tools, DVDdb
and eXtreme Movie Manager were released. Check out their download
pages, as usual, for a list of "what's new".

Related Links :
* DVD2SVCD : http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/dvd2svcd.html
* DVDdb : http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/dvddb.html
* DVDIdle : http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/dvdidle.html
* DVD Region-Free :
http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/dvd_region-free.html
* DVD X GHOST : http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/dvd_x_ghost.html
* eXtreme Movie Manager :
http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/extreme_movie_manager.html
* WinDVD : http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/windvd.html
* WinDVD Tweaker :
http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/windvd_tweaker.html

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3. What's happened on DVD±R Digest since the last newsletter?

Shortly after the last newsletter, 321Studios became a sponsor of
DVD±R Digest. 321Studios is the maker of the popular (and sometimes
controversial) DVD copying software, DVD X COPY. They are also known
for taking the MPAA head on by counter-suing them.

This is probably a good time to talk about the various versions of
DVD X Copy. The original DVD X Copy allowed DVD-9 (dual layered) DVDs
to be split up and backed up without any quality or content loss. DVD
X Copy Xpress uses the shrinking/transcoding method (re-compression
with quality loss) to reduce the size of the DVD. The original DVD X
Copy is no longer available separately, but is park of the package in
DVD X Copy Gold, which also includes DVD X Copy Xpress. Then there is
the new DVD X Copy Platinum, which is like DVD X Copy Xpress, but
allows you to vary the compression ratios of each chapter separately,
and a host of other advanced features.

While we're at the topic of DVD backup software, a new version of
CloneDVD was recently released. CloneDVD is made by the same people
that made CloneCD, which was so good at making CD-ROM backups, even
those with copy protection included. CloneDVD uses the
shrinking/transcoding method of backup, and allows you to remove
content from the DVD if needed.

One of the biggest problems with DVD ripping and DVD recordable
drives is that these drives almost always limit the DVD-Video disc
reads (and hence, ripping) speed to 2x, despite being able to go much
higher for DVD-Data disc reads. Sony DRU-510A owners now no longer
have to suffer slow ripping speeds, as Sony have released a small
utility called Drive Speed Selector (DSS) which allows you to
increase the DVD-Video disc reading speed to 12x for single layered
discs, and 8x for dual layered discs.

And if you also find DVD writing speeds not up to scratch, look out
for 8x DVD-R and DVD+R coming out soon. RW speed is expected to
increase to 4x.

Related Links :
CloneDVD : http://www.dvdr-digest.com/software/download_38.html
DVD X COPY : http://www.dvdr-digest.com/software/download_41.html
Drive Speed Selector :
http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?threadid=24054


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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
account that receives this newsletter.

To change the email address that receives this newsletter :
- Un-subscribe using your current one, and sign up using a new email
address


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5. A simple thank-you and some concluding words

Just a note to thank all the thousands of people, including you, who
joined the Digital Digest LiveUpdate list. I've spent quite a bit of
time developing this site, and making it what it is today, and really
do appreciate your continued support.

I hoped you enjoyed another issue of the LiveUpdate newsletter. You
won't have to wait seven more months for the next issue, I promise :)

Thanks!!


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