DIGITAL DIGEST - http://www.digital-digest.com
DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 50
7 June, 2006

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TOP NEWS SUMMARY:

1. Introduction

2. News in Brief

3. Technology Spotlight: H.264

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. Introduction

In this issue, we take an interesting look at H.264, the next big
thing in the world of video compression. H.264 can deliver the same
quality of MPEG-2 (DVDs) at only half the file size, and it's part
of the high definition DVD standards, so now is a good time to take
a closer look at this format with a series of guides that will be
published on Digital Digest.

-- DVDGuy


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2. News in Brief

Do you own a PSP? Do you want to flash it with custom firmware? The
UP Team has now developed "Undiluted Platinum". Undiluted Platinum
is a chip that allows the use of previous flash updates or custom
firmware builds, opening up the possibility to run unsigned homebrew
code on even the latest PSP systems.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-59991.html

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Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 7+. It's written on the same
code as IE 7 but, the are some important improvements that are only
available to vista users.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-59990.html

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They have finally settled on a copyright protection scheme for both
Blu-ray and HD-DVD. It is called Analogue Copy Protection (ACP), and
is made by our wonderful friends "Macrovision".

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-59988.html

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Is Windows Media Player 11 really that good? Well, Microsoft things
so as they are ready to go head to head with Apple iTunes. Who will
be the preferred music/media hardware maker?

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-59951.html

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JPEG images will dominate no more, says Microsoft. They will be
releasing a new image format called "Windows Media Photo". The
picture to compression ratio is supposed to be a lot better.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-59978.html

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StreamCast, the makes of the program Morpheus sues eBay. Some how
StreamCast didn't get their share of the profit and are a little mad
about it.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-59975.html

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Ever wonder what Microsoft's new OS "Windows Vista" will look like
on your computer? Then, check this article out to download a free
program that will show you how Vista will look on your computer.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-59973.html

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Rumor has it that Microsoft will finally enter the hand held gaming
market. Although, it probably won't be released until late 2007 or
early 2008. Could it be a mini Xbox?

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-59994.html

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Apple is telling customers that the life expectancy of iPods is 1
year. They so conveniently tell customers they will not fix them if
they are over a year old. How is that for product support?

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-59943.html

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When is Blu-Ray coming? Some say they are waiting for the release of
the PS3? They better not wait too much longer, they are giving HD-
DVD a big head start, seeing how they have already released their
players and spitting out HD-DVD's left and right

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-59984.html

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The HD-DVD format will have region coding similar to that of regular
DVD. Players that are being sold right now do not have region
coding, and the logical solution might be to allow these players to
play any HD-DVD regardless of region coding.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-59982.html

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Windows Media Player 11 was leaked out a few days earlier than its
official release date. Most people liked it; they said it was more
organized and cleaner looking.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-59957.html

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Nintendo tried to pull a fast one at the E3 convention. Spectators
say that the machine on show was just an empty box with a light on
it. A large number of cables were seen coming out of the back which
appeared to lead to a Gamecube.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-59966.html

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Do you do a lot of searching the internet? If so, read the phrases
that you should never search for.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-59955.html

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Are you ready for High Definition? Got a HDMI connector on your
TV/DVD Player? If not, consumers could be left with a product that
plays at low quality or not at all if HDMI is not present on one's
player or TV.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-59923.html

-- jmet

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3. Technology Spotlight: H.264

There is a good chance you'll be hearing a lot about H.264 in the
coming future. H.264, also known as MPEG-4 AVC, is the next logical
step in terms of video compression.

MPEG-2 has been around for a while now, and is no doubt still the
most popular video compression format around due to it's use in
DVDs. MPEG-2 was developed at a time when most people's computers
were only just capable of decoding a standard resolution PAL/NTSC
video without the aid of dedicated decoder cards. Computers now are
5 or 6 times as powerful, and it is more than enough computing power
to not only decode and encode MPEG-2 in realtime. High definition
MPEG-2 clips are easily handled as well. By using more of the CPU,
it is very much possible to improve the quality of video compression
and at the same time, decrease file size. This is where H.264 comes
in.

H.264 can offer the same quality as MPEG-2 at only half the size.
This makes H.264 ideal for high definition broadcasts and optical
formats like Blu-ray or HD DVD - H.264 is included as part of the
specifications for both Blu-ray and HD DVD.

H.264 encoded files are gaining popularity on the Internet too, with
many people opting to use this format to encode files to minimize
the file size. There is some confusion as to MP4 files and H.264,
which are actually two separate things (although you'll more than
likely see them being used together). MP4 is a file container format
much like AVI, and like AVI, it can allow different compression
codecs, including the H.264 codec, to be used. MP4 with H.264 is
probably the most common combination around, so some people will
refer to H.264 content as MP4 and vice versa.

H.264 is still a pretty new technology, and some of its more
advanced encoding features are still not fully supported by many of
the free decoders around, or at least not optimized for the best
performance. If you are interested in seeing what H.264 actually
looks like and how you can play back the file on your computer, you
can take a look at the recent High Definition DVD Playback Test
Guide I wrote which features some sample clips (high definition, of
course) and playback instructions.

I will also be doing a guide taking a closer look at H.264 playback,
examining the different playback solutions (VideoLAN, ffdshow,
CoreAVC, PureVideo). After that, a guide on how to make your own
H.264 clips will be made available, most likely using the StaxRip
program (which is what I used to make the sample clips).

-- DVDGuy

High Definition DVD Playback Test Guide (H.264 sample clips and
playback instructions included):
http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/highdefdvd_test_page1.html

x264 Download:
http://www.divx-digest.com/software/x264.html

ffdshow Download:
http://www.divx-digest.com/software/ffdshow.html

CoreAVC Download:
http://coreavc.corecodec.org

VideoLAN:
http://www.videolan.org

StaxRip Download:
http://www.digital-digest.com/software/staxrip.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
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To change the email address that receives this newsletter:
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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.

Thanks!!

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