DIGITAL DIGEST - http://www.digital-digest.com
DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 55
29 August, 2006

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TOP NEWS SUMMARY:

1. Introduction

2. News in Brief

3. High Definition DVD Myths - Part 1

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

Welcome to another issue of Digital Digest's "LiveUpdate"
newsletter. In this issue, I spotlight some of the biggest myths
surrounding high definition DVDs.

-- DVDGuy


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2. News in Brief

Online veteran AOL is looking to jump aboard the downloadable and
streaming video bandwagon in a big way by rolling out a new video
service with plenty of professional connections.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60116.html

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Microsoft is preparing for another major launch, with Windows Vista
scheduled for public release early next year. This time however they
are experimenting with a new exterior visual approach.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60117.html

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VSO has updated their PhotoDVD software, it now supports RAW format
which is used by many professionals and photo enthusiasts, instead
of the lossy compressed JPEG.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60118.html

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Unfortunately the high definition DVD race is still going. Both HD-
DVD and Blu-Ray are neck and neck because of the lack of testing
attributes, until now.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60119.html

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KaZaA users beware!! A new type of malware virus is spreading
through the popular file sharing software.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60121.html

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Slysoft has updated their AnyDVD software to overcome new types of
copyright protection.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60122.html

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Radio in the car might be a thing of the past here shortly, as 3
major car manufactures have already signed a deal with Apple to
include a iPod connection in their existing car radios.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60123.html

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Nintendo & Microsoft were both sued for patent infringement of a
game controller.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60124.html

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Limewire, the most popular file sharing program that was downloaded
the most from download.com was recently sued by the RIAA.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60125.html

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Learn how to fix your dead hard drive.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60126.html

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The 7-11 convenient store/gas station chain is giving away 711
Nintendo Wii's.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60127.html

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MTV & Google have gotten together to bring you more videos online.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60128.html

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Blu-Ray & HD-DVD will both have a lot of perks, one being that you
won't have to stop the movie to watch the special features anymore.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60129.html

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Since the dismal of DVD Decrypter, LIGHTNING UK! has been working on
his magnificent burning program ImgBurn which was just updated to
version 2.0.0.0. This version contains a large amount of very handy
features!

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60130.html

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Thinking of buying a PS3 for its Blu-Ray playing capability and have
already purchased a XBOX ? Well, fear not cause Microsoft has
released a "Add-On" for the XBOX that is capable of playing HD-DVD
movies.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60131.html

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DivX 6.3 was released packed full of useful features such as a DivX
download manager and more.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60132.html

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Blu-Ray may have a advantage over HD-DVD with its Java based
features.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60133.html

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Sony is dropping its price on its mobile gaming platform the PSP for
the holiday season.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60135.html

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The end of copyright protection? Well, no but they have lightened
the rules just a little bit!

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60136.html

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Microsoft will get it right one of these days, at their desperate
attempt to make Windows Vista perfect, they have released yet
another Beta version to download.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60138.html

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Create and share your games online with the XBOX 360.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60140.html

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Fox Entertainment and MySpace have also teamed up together to bring
you a online movie download service.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60141.html

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Talk to your friends and family anytime and anywhere for FREE with
Google Talk!

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60142.html

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Dell laptops have exploding batteries and have spawned one of the
biggest recalls of all time.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60143.html

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Memorex is already bringing your 15GB blank HD-DVD media!

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60144.html

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Rumors are floating around about the amazing low price of the
anticipated Nintendo Wii.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60145.html

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Elby software has released a minor update on CloneDVD which fixes
several bugs and also has some improvements.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60146.html

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Sony has come out with gigantic 50GB blank Blu-Ray media.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60147.html

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VirtualDub has updated to cover some known conflicts with the AMD 64
processor as well as some other critical bug fixes.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60149.html

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Find out everything and anything about High Definition DVD's with
this informative FAQ written by DVDGuy!

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60150.html

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Watch out Apple, cause your iPod has new competition! The people at
Sandisk have brought you the Sansa player!

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60152.html

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Samsung now boasts it has the new largest LCD TV out right now, its
an amazing 75"!

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60153.html

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Toshiba has hired the LiteOn It corporation in assisting with its
hardware fabrication.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60155.html

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The best freeware combo that money can't buy (although donations are
welcome and severely appreciated)! DVD ReBuilder + ImgBurn

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60157.html

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Use PowerDVD's new compatibility tester to see if your PC's hardware
will play Blu-Ray and/or HD-DVD.

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60163.html

-- jmet


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3. High Definition DVD Myths - Part 1

An eagerly (sort of) anticipated technology plus the rumor mill also
known as the Internet means that there's a lot of rumors and myths
surrouding high definition DVDs. Even though I have written a FAQ
about high def DVDs, I must admit that I've been duped several
times, and certainly what I thought was true before writing the FAQ
completely changed after I wrote it.

Below are some of the more commons misconceptions associated with
high definition DVDs:

1. Blu-ray has more capacity than HD DVD - Technically true. A
single layer Blu-ray Disc (BD) can hold more information than a
single layer HD DVD - 25 GB versus 15 GB. Similarly, a dual layer BD
holds 50 GB, while a triple layer HD DVD can only hold 45 GB. This
fact has been used to promote Blu-ray long before any hardware or
media became available. What the Blu-ray sales execs weren't saying
was how difficult it would be to make dual layered BD compared to
dual layered HD DVD, and for quite a while, the largest capacity
high def DVD was a dual layered HD DVD at 30 GB compared to BD's
single layer 25 GB. Now that dual layered BDs are available, Blu-ray
is once again ahead, but at nearly $50 a pop, does anybody actually
care?

2. HD DVD games on Xbox 360 - Undecided. When news that Microsoft
will release a HD DVD drive add-on for the Xbox 360, the rumors
started flying about games appearing on HD DVD only, forcing people
to pay $200 or something just to play the latest games. This seemed
to make sense since Sony's PS3 will be using BDs to hold the data.
It was only until recently that Microsoft confirmed once again that
the HD DVD drive add-on would be for movies only, and no HD DVD
games have been planned. I doubt this would end the debate, because
as long as the PS3 can do high def DVD games, people will always
wonder why the Xbox 360 can't. Certainly the read speed difference
between the 360's DVD drive and HD DVD drive (the DVD drive can
transfer data theoretically faster by 80%, depending on who you
believe) is an issue, although it's not stopping Sony from doing
games on BD. And yes, the all PS3s have hard drives, while it's
optional for the 360 so it means that PS3s can use the HDD to pre-
load data to bypass the transfer speed limit, while the 360 can't
(even though some 360 games does use the HDD in this way). Until
Microsoft specifically states that it is either possible or
impossible to use the HD DVD drive for games, the debate will
continue...

3. Only HDMI 1.3 can support 1080p - False. A quick browse through
the official HDMI website shows that all versions of HDMI supports
1080p. They even have a specific FAQ entry for this:
http://www.hdmi.org/consumer/faq.asp#q6_3. This misconception comes
from the fact that certain people in the industry have been saying
the reason the first HD DVD players lack 1080p output is because of
the lack of a settled HDMI specification, even though it's actually
the Broadcom chip used in the players that lacks this ability. HDMI
1.3 does add some interesting new features like greater color depth
(up to 48-bit, up from 24-bit), higher bandwidth, automatic audio
synching and HD lossless audio support.

4. MPEG-2 is technically better than MPEG-4 AVC or VC-1. False.
BD/HD DVD supports all of these formats, but Sony has chosen to
encode all the early U.S Blu-ray release using MPEG-2, while HD DVD
uses Microsoft's VC-1 or MPEG-4 AVC. While Sony didn't specifically
claim this "fact", Don Eklund, senior vice president of advanced
technology for Sony Pictures is quoted as saying: "Our goal is to
present the best picture quality for Blu-ray. Right now, and for the
foreseeable future, that's with MPEG-2.". A properly encoded MPEG-4
AVC/VC-1 at the same bitrate as MPEG-2 will look superior, simply
because AVC/VC-1 is a newer and better compressor. The reason Sony
talks up MPEG-2 might be more to do with patents and royalties
associated with these formats, then actual technical advances. They
do have a point in that a properly encoded MPEG-2 video is better
than an improperly encoded AVC/VC-1 video, and that there's a lot
more experience with encoding in MPEG-2 than in the new video
codecs. Still, HD DVD has managed to do a decent job with its VC-1
releases, and all reports indicate the early Blu-ray MPEG-2 releases
are poorer in quality (and takes more space on the disc as well).

In part 2 of this article, we look at the "HDMI only high def
output", "all players require internet connections" and "1080p is
heaps better than 1080i" rumors.

-- DVDGuy


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4. How to cancel/change settings/email address for your subscription
to 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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