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DIGITAL DIGEST - http://www.digital-digest.com
DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 69
25 November, 2007

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TOP NEWS SUMMARY:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

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

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1. Introduction

I was busy this week trying to find HD/gaming deals and bargains to
post online. While I'm sure prices will continue to drop, but the
free stuff being offered right now, mainly HD movies, probably won't
be repeated when the promotional period for these new tech ends, and
we move into the mass adoption period where the low prices will
come. So higher prices with lots of free stuff, or lower prices with
no free stuff - you end up getting similar value anyway, and one
method gives you extra time to enjoy your new purchase. I also took
a look at one of our recent poll results in regards to HD movie
ownership.

And I'm also proud to say that I'm now totally format neutral when
it comes to HD, having purchased a PS3 be able to enjoy Blu-ray
movies as well as HD DVD movies on my Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on. It's a
shame Blu-ray is not region free (although the majority of movies
released so far has been), as otherwise it would mean I will be able
to enjoy every single HD movie released anywhere, which is much
better than being a bitter supporter of a single format.

Links:
* How many Blu-ray/HD DVD movies do you own: Poll Results
http://www.digital-digest.com/blog/DVDGuy/2007/11/21/%e2%80%9chow-many-blu-rayhd\
-dvd-movies-do-you-own%e2%80%9d-poll-results/

-- DVDGuy


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2. Weekly News Roundup

Time again for the weekly news roundup. I've been fairly busy this
week with a few things like looking up Blu-ray and HD DVD bargains
and posting them in the blog and forum, and while I've been
advocating HD format neutrality right here for a while now, I've
finally made myself format neutral by buying a PS3. I will post more
about my shopping experiences and my initial experiences with the
PS3 in my blog (http://www.digital-digest.com/blog/DVDGuy/) later
this week.

Starting with Copyright news as usual, Macrovision, the company
responsible for screwing up the video signal if you did not plug it
straight to the TV, has now purchased the recently hacked/bypassed
BD+ copy protection system (1) for Blu-ray in a deal worth $45
million (so that's how much a cracked copy protection system is
worth!). With DRM at an all time low in terms of popularity, it must
be a big worry for companies like Macrovision which relies on
the "need" for DRM for a profit. Kim Bayley, director-general of the
UK based Entertainment Retailers Association says that DRM (2)
is "stifling growth and working against the consumer interest", and
I think she's right. DRM-Free MP3s are selling very well indeed, and
I don't think music piracy has increased due to these easily
copyable music files. But while the world seems to be united in
fighting DRM and restrictive copyright legislation, France's newly
elected (US commercial interest friendly) right wing government
wants to set up a new body which will monitor Internet usage. ISPs
will monitor the activities of their users and report to the body,
and if someone is found guilty of piracy, they could be banned from
using the Internet. This sounds more like a fight against privacy
than a fight against piracy, in my opinion. And it's not just the
French, the MPAA wants universities to help stop piracy (3) by
monitoring the Internet usages of their students through a toolkit
provided by the MPAA. So governments spying on citizens, ISPs spying
on its customers, school spying on their students … is it me, or
does this all sound very Orwellian. Meanwhile, Hollywood is making
record profits, while not paying it's writers what they deserve
forcing them to go on strike. It's all about the money.

Onto something a bit less frightening now. In HD news, Home Media
Magazine has written a story about the HD format war and the fan's
contribution to it (4). It's a very interesting read, not just
because I'm quoted in it, but it summarises what is going on in
forums and on websites, and how the war seems to be slightly out of
control at times. And the two promotion groups for the formats are
not exactly helping, coming out all the time with misleading
statements and fuel to add to the fire. This time, it's Blu-ray with
a series of viral ads (5) that they've been trying to get websites
to promote. But these ads are quite childish, petty and not all that
funny (apart a scene where Betamax player is seen being thrown away
into the "junk closet", perhaps as a reminder of the fortune of
Sony's last proprietary format), and it certainly doesn't help calm
the two sides of the format war. Sometimes it's hard to not get
caught up in it (although as I mentioned above, I'm now format
neutral), but in the end people love movies, not formats. But the
war does bring some benefits, and there are lots of bargins to pick
up during the holiday sales period. The latest one sees Wal-Mart
offering the 80 GB PS3 plus 10 Blu-ray movies (6) (worth $30 or
less), plus the existing 5 free movie redemption from Sony, for only
$499. It was 2 per store only, and it's over now as it only lasted
one day, but I doubt that it will be the last of the sales. Keep you
eyes peeled for bargains, and just like I've done for the past week,
I'll be posting some of the best online offers here in my blog.

Onto gaming, in an effort to bring more developers to the Sony
stable, they have now halved the price of PS3 development kits (7).
It's a step in the right direction, although if they truly want the
PS3 to be a successful games platform, they need to do a lot more.
For my new PS3, I'm going to be using it more as a upscaling DVD and
Blu-ray players, rather than a games machine, which is not what Sony
wants (since they lose money on each console sold). I will talk more
about this later in the week, but let's just say that my Xbox 360
and Wii, plus the good old PC, provides for all my gaming needs
without the need for the PS3. But it is an excellent Blu-ray and
upscaling DVD players, and even if you use it just for these
functions, the price is still not too bad compared to standalones.
Meanwhile, somebody has leaked the Xbox 360 Fall update list (8),
but I'm highly suspicious of it's legitimacy, let's put it this way.
The PS3 has also been updated again with the 2.01 firmware to fix a
few issues in the 2.00 firmware. The speculation (9) is that the PS3
will get Blu-ray 1.1 profile compatibility before the start of the
new year, as that's why Sony will release its first 1.1 movie.
Another week, and another report of a multi-platform release that
rocks on the 360 and sucks on the PS3 (10) - this time for the
excellently valued Orange Box collection. The developers Valve
apparently decided to concentrate on the 360 version, and dumped the
PS3 development on publishers EA. I know PS3 fanboys will scream at
Valve for being "lazy", but all these companies have limited
resources and if the decision is between making two average
versions, or concentrating on getting at least one version right, I
think they have done the same thing. The alternative is to have a
further 6 to 12 month delay for the PS3 version to get everything
right, but I'm fanboys will be even more outraged if this had
happened. It seems that the PS3 is not doing well at all in the
gaming department, but if you look at the yearly sales figures for
all the consoles, it's not doing too badly (11). But just like with
HD stuff, the console wars will bring discounts over the coming
weeks. For example, this last friday, dubbed Black Friday in the US,
Amazon ran some sales (12) which saw heavy discounts for several
gaming items. Again, I will post some of the better online deals
when I see them.

See you in a week's time.

Links:
(1) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=84947
(2) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=84975
(3) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85003
(4)
http://www.homemediamagazine.com/news/html/breaking_article.cfm?article_id=11574
(5) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=84957
(6) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85020
(7) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=84931
(8) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=84945
(9) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=84959
(10) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=84991
(11) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=84970
(12) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=84990


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3. Weekly Software Roundup

November 25, 2007 Burn4Free 3.8.0.0 (Freeware)
November 24, 2007 eac3to 2.05 (Freeware)
November 24, 2007 ProgDVB 5.12.1 (Freeware)
November 23, 2007 MPEG StreamClip for Mac OS 1.9 (Freeware)
November 23, 2007 Collectorz.com Movie Collector For Mac OS X 2.0.9
November 23, 2007 RipBot264 1.6.8 (Freeware)
November 23, 2007 Q DVD Author 1.0 RC3 (Freeware)
November 22, 2007 K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 3.5.7 (Freeware)
November 22, 2007 K-Lite Codec Pack 3.5.7 (Freeware)
November 22, 2007 DeVeDe 3.4 (Freeware)
November 22, 2007 XULPlayer 0.2.1.2 (Freeware)
November 22, 2007 XP Codec Pack 2.3.1 beta (Freeware)
November 22, 2007 DivX Codec 6.7.0.26
November 22, 2007 H264TS_Cutter 109 Beta (Freeware)
November 22, 2007 Fraps 2.9.3
November 22, 2007 x264 full rev. 700 (Freeware)
November 22, 2007 SlideshowMovie 1.1
November 22, 2007 AutoMKV 0.92 (Freeware)
November 21, 2007 Collectorz.com Movie Collector 5.3.2
November 21, 2007 Video DVD Maker Pro 2.7.0.42
November 21, 2007 Video DVD Maker 3.3.0.6 (Freeware)
November 21, 2007 Txt2VobSub 3.0 (Freeware)
November 21, 2007 Nero Burning ROM 8.1.1.4
November 21, 2007 MeGUI 0.3.0.0 (Freeware)
November 21, 2007 TitleWriter 4.61 (Freeware)
November 20, 2007 PowerDVD Ultra 7.3 Build 3516
November 20, 2007 Photodex ProShow Producer 3.2.2042
November 20, 2007 Photodex ProShow Gold 3.2.2042
November 20, 2007 Photodex ProShow 3.2.2042
November 20, 2007 VisualHub 1.29a
November 20, 2007 ffdshow Rev. 1625 (Freeware)
November 19, 2007 ImTOO iPod Movie Converter 3.1.45.1116b
November 19, 2007 EMDB 0.56 (Freeware)
November 19, 2007 KMPlayer 2.9.3.1413 Beta (Freeware)
November 19, 2007 Haali Media Splitter 1.7.359.22 (Freeware)
November 18, 2007 Txt2Sup 42.6 (Freeware)
November 18, 2007 EAC3toGUI 1.40 (Freeware)
November 18, 2007 AVStoDVD 1.2.0 (Freeware)
November 18, 2007 Net Transport 2.51

http://www.digital-digest.com/software/lastweeksoftware.php


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