DIGITAL DIGEST - http://www.digital-digest.com
DIGITAL DIGEST | LIVE UPDATE Issue 39
27 November, 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?

The last three weeks have seen a revolution the area of DivX. The
DivX we know is no longer, and has been replaced with an entirely
different kind of DivX - more resilient, more robust and definitely
more sexy. This is the kind of thing you write home about, and I
suggest you do that, not just home, but to everyone in your email
address book.

Either that, or maybe I'm just making stuff up to cover up the fact
that nothing much has happened since the last issue (even less, if
you count the supplement issue as the last issue) ...

DivX 5.1.1 has been released. Claims of 110% performance increases
have been labeled around, although if you really think about it, the
performance of DivX 5.1 was quite horrible, and 5.1.1 is probably
just a bug fix release to cover up the fact that the 5.1 release was
screwy ... allegedly (I have no intention of getting sued *again*
today).

A new major version of BS Player has also been released. To be
precise, it is actually the release candidate version of the next
major release, and so it doesn't have all the features that will be
present in the final release. For those that don't know, BS Player
(according to the official site, the names come from the original
author of BS Player's company name, Boris Software) was one of the
first DivX multimedia video players on the scene, around back when
DivX 3.x was still ruling the day. The concept is pretty simple :
make a video player that specializes in playing back DivX movies
(support for subtitles, codec features, and basically features likely
to be used by people ripping DVDs), then make it also playback all
the regular video/audio formats (MPEG, AVI, MP3, OGG, WMV ...).
Basically make it a perfect replacement for Windows Media Player,
WinAMP and a whole bunch of other players. BS Player was able to do
this, and more, and that's why it is the most popular player out
there, and why so many other players have been modeled after it
(although some of these players, like The Core Media Player, have
been giving BS Player quite a bit of competition). Like most things
DivX related, it's free as well. Anything that makes Windows Media
Player obsolete (at least for audio/video playback, which is
something that WMP does least well at) can't be a bad thing.

Also updated was 3ivx, which now comes in a pack of filters for both
playback and encoding. Again for those that automatically equate DivX
with DivX.com and not DivX.ctw.cc, 3ivx shot to fame for trying to
port the original DivX 3.x codec to the Mac, with some success. Now,
3ivx is a major competitor to DivX, with it's own MPEG-4 based codec
format. What 3ivx has done differently in my opinion, and what DivX
is only now starting to do more seriously lately, is 3ivx's
concentration on the MPEG-4 compliant side of things. While DivX is
essentially a proprietary format, that did not provide MPEG-4
compliance in earlier versions, 3ivx has always tried to go the MPEG-
4 compliancy route, and it now seems like a very reasonable decision.
This is because there are already thousands of MPEG-4 compliant
devices out there (since MPEG-4 is a well known and established
format with format rules and guidelines, unlike DivX or 3ivX),
whereas DivX or 3ivx devices are rare. I do believe that all the MPEG-
4 based codecs should at least provide a MPEG-4 compliant mode, and
what differentiate each codec should be the algorithm it uses to
convert/encode video, as well as additional processing features.
Hopefully, all DVD players (or HD-DVD player by that time) can,
sometime in the future, support MPEG-4 playback - couple this with
DivX/3ivx MPEG-4 compliancy, and it basically means that any video
file you encode using DivX/3ivx will be guaranteed to be playable on
your standalone DVD player, much like how MP3s are playable on
standalones now. Or we can all go the Home Theatre PC route, which I
think I've ranted enough about already :)


Related Links :
3ivx : http://www.divx-digest.com/software/3ivxcodec.html
BS Player : http://www.divx-digest.com/software/bs_play.html
DivX 5.x : http://www.divx-digest.com/software/divxcodec5.html
The Core Media Player : http://www.divx-digest.com/software/tcmp.html


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

One of the things that people keep on asking me through email is how
to extract only the audio stream from a DVD. My usual response is to
drag and drop the email to the trash folder.

When I am not feeling so mean spirited, I may respond with a series
of baffling instructions using DVD Decrypter and BeSweet (if they
wanted to convert the audio track to MP3 format). Essentially, you
can get away with it by using only free tools, but it may not be
worth the trouble. A few software DVD players does have the
capability to rip audio (eg. NVDVD), and they are a good away around
all the hassle, although they are not specialized tools for doing
this, and don't always have all the options that you need.

In comes DVD Audio Ripper - a commercial tool for ripping DVD audio
tracks, with most of the features you will find with MP3 encoding
software (like ID3 tag editing/creation). DVD Audio Ripper can rip
audio tracks based on DVD chapters, or a specified time segment, or
even by file size. The only downside is the price, which at $59.95,
is more expensive than NVDVD that has the audio ripper built in (and
a DVD player to boot), and $59.95 more expensive than the DVD
Decrypter + BeSweet solution, but if you do a lot of ripping (eg. you
want to convert your collection of music DVDs to audio CDs), then you
should definitely consider it.

A new version of Zoom Player has also been released. It also sort of
goes in the same mold as all-in-one multimedia players that I
mentioned above, but it specializes in a few key areas. As the name
suggests, Zoom Player has all the zoom functions you'll ever need on
a player, and is perfect for those that uses their TV-outputs and
want to ensure the zooming is just right (to get rid of borders
around the picture, or to fix non standard aspect ratios). Zoom
Player now has a sort of cult status amongst home theatre PC
enthusiasts, mainly because of it's zooming features, but also the
fact that with the DirectShow structure, additional filters can be
added to improve the picture quality. Two frequently used filters are
ReClock and ffdshow. ReClock synchronizes the playback with the
hardware clock on your graphics card, ensuring smooth and in the case
of playing PAL DVDs, at the correct frame rate (PAL DVDs playback
movies at 25 frames per second, even though the original movie is at
23.976 per second - this is known as the PAL speedup problem, which
explains why PAL movies are always shorter than the NTSC equivalent).
ffdshow is a codec for playing back DivX/XviD, but it can also be
used as a standalone post-processing filter for other decoders, such
as DVD playback decoders. With a relatively slow CPU (say a bottom of
the range P4), you can playback a DVD with the sharpening filter
turned on, and make the DVD look like a HD-DVD on a high end home
cinema display.

DVD Region-Free has also been updated, along with the whole range of
products that includes it (DVDIDle, DVDIdle Pro). DVD Region-Free
started as an alternative to flashing DVD-ROM drives to be region
free. DVD Region-Free works by intercepting the calls between your
software DVD player and the DVD-ROM drive, allowing region checking
(as well as other features, such as Macrovision protection, UOP) to
be bypassed. DVD Region-Free has now expanded it's feature set, and
now includes some DVD backup specific features (which I guess I
should talk about in the next section) - it basically allows you to
use a range of well known DVD backup tools (such as DVD X Copy)
without having to first rip the DVD to your hard-drive, and
wasting "not-so-precious" hard disk space (160 GB for $120!!)
and "much-more-precious" free time. Supported DVD backup tools
include DVDFab (DVD Region-Free is made by the same company as
DVDFab), DVD X Copy families, InterVideo DVD Copy, CloneDVD, DVD2One,
Pinnacle InstantCopy, DVD Shrink and Nero Recode.


Related Links :
DVD Audio Ripper :
http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/dvd_audio_ripper.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
ffdshow : http://www.divx-digest.com/software/ffdshow.html
NVDVD : http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/nvdvd.html
ReClock : http://www.divx-digest.com/software/reclock.html
Zoom Player : http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/zoom_player.html


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

A quiet few weeks for DVD±R news, especially software news.

A new major version of Cover-Whiz was released though. Cover-Whiz, to
put it simply, is a DVD cover printing tool. In order to make this
newsletter more informative than it appears, I will now elaborate a
little on the functionalities of Cover-Whiz, which is actually a lot
more than just a DVD cover printing tool. Cover-Whiz, the simplified
version of Cover-Maestro, allows you to download DVD covers directly
from an online archive (or from other DVD cover sites). If you can't
find a cover (which is pretty hard to do, considering the number of
cover sites available online, you can always design your own DVD
cover. After you have the cover, Cover-Whiz/Maestro will then allow
you to print the cover properly based on your printer type and paper
size. It's just a nice way to search/download/print covers, and
probably worth it for the small price you have to pay for it.

In the last issue, I mentioned the news that dual layered DVD burners
will be available next year. This means that you will now be able to
backup dual layer DVDs without the 3 S's (shrinking, splitting or
stripping). So will this mean that the range of DVD backup tools out
there that does the 3 S's will be obsolete? My opinion is that no,
nothing will change, at least not at first.

I think the powers-that-be will try to ensure dual layer DVD media
prices will stay sufficiently high. This will mean that if one plans
to rent a DVD and then copy it, the cost involved, including the
rental fee and the blank media, will be high enough to drive people
away from the idea of doing this (especially for double disc special
editions). This does not even consider the initial cost of actually
purchasing the burner hardware. This makes backup using the 3 S's
still an appealing solution (obviously not for copying rented movies,
of course, since it's illegal and you shouldn't do it, of course). I
also expect DVD backup tools will be updated to include support for
dual layered media (ie. make 1:1 copies of dual layered discs), and
they will still be necessary for removing region/RCE protection,
Macrovision and UOPs (prohibited user options) - the free DVD
Decrpyter will probably suffice. Perhaps over time, dual layer blank
media prices will drop - there are no signs that blank DVD media
prices are dropping right now (at least not to levels that make them
viable for backing up dual layered double sided double disc special
editions, which would require 8 blank media), and certainly it won't
drop much lower until CD recordables are phased out (we can't have
blank DVD media being cheaper than blank CD media, can we?). Perhaps
the movie studios will counter this by producing more dual layered
double sided double disc special editions movies, which can't be a
bad thing :)


Related Links :
CloneDVD : http://www.dvdr-digest.com/software/download_38.htm
Cover-Whiz : http://www.dvdr-digest.com/software/download_20.html
DVD-Replica : http://www.dvdr-digest.com/software/download_49.html


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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@yahoogroups.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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