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DIGITAL DIGEST - http://www.digital-digest.com
DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 72
16 December, 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

Last week felt quite busy for some reason, although having looked
back, it didn't seem I did much. I spent a lot of time looking
through various websites and forums trying to find good HD deals,
mostly for Amazon. I've set up a page where I will continously
updated with the latest sales and discounts (it's for my own buying
needs as well). I also wrote the first ever update for my "If I were
to buy a computer today" feature that I first started back in
September (again, this is for my own buying needs too) - follow my
specs and you can get yourself one power gaming and dual format HD
system for a reasonble price. I also took time to update the MP4
Usage Guide (I did not update the version info, since the update was
a minor one), adding in updated instructions for the new version of
YAMB and a few other minor updates. And just before I went into
weekend mode, the November NPD video game sales figures came out and
I wrote my usual analysis.

Come to think of it, I actually did do a bit of work, which means I
can slack off for next week. Woohoo!!

Links:
* Updated Amazon HD DVD and Blu-ray Deals
http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60825.html
* If I were to buy a new computer today (December 2007 Update)
http://www.digital-digest.com/blog/DVDGuy/2007/12/12/if-i-were-to-buy-a-new-comp\
uter-today-december-2007/
* MP4 Usage Guide
http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/MP4_Usage_Guide_page1.html
* Game Consoles - November 2007 NPD Sales Figure Analysis
http://www.digital-digest.com/blog/DVDGuy/2007/12/14/game-consoles-november-2007\
-npd-sales-figure-analysis/

-- DVDGuy


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2. Weekly News Roundup

Only three more weekly roundups for 2007, assuming I'm arsed to do
them just before and after Christmas. This is the 13th roundup that
I've done, setting a personal record for keeping up with anything
for so long. I hope you've all done your holiday shopping, and that
the shopped items include some of the very things covered by this
blog (HD, gaming, movies). If so, then I think the people that will
be receiving your gift will get a very nice surprise indeed.

The big news in the last couple of weeks, in regards to
copyright/DRM, has been the Western Digital portable hard-drive
scandal. WD apparently added certain DRM provisions in the bundled
software (1) that prevented sharing of popular media files due
to "unverifiable media license authentication", in other words, they
couldn't tell if your files are pirated or not so they basically
assumed so. Now, the actual issue has been exaggerated a bit, some
going as far as suggesting that WD drives have hardware control
built in to prevent media sharing, but this is not the case. The
software that comes with the drive is optional, and the drive
supports other methods of file sharing that is not restricted. The
software itself isn't even very good. But what is clear is that DRM
has gotten so out of control that even large companies such as
Western Digital are too afraid to include software that do basic
things such as media sharing on your own home network. And while the
first step is a simple software control that can be easily bypassed,
if the trend continues, then who knows where we will end up. The
public outrage is a welcomed sight though, because as long as we're
angry enough to demand a DRM-free world, then we will get a DRM-free
world (just look at online music buying and how public pressure,
along with companies that aren't afraid to listen to consumer
demands, have basically killed off DRM in that arena). But if we
don't get angry, then the media owners are going to get more and
more greedy and demand more and more control over "their" content
(or rather, content they've gotten comparatively cheaply from
artists forced into the studio system) - perhaps something like not
being able to rip your CDs to MP3 because the RIAA thinks that's
copyright infringement (2) (even though CDs are not protected, and
even if you don't share the MP3s with anyone other than yourself).

But I did find this news story about porn companies suing a certain
YouTube-style adult video site (3) quite funny for some reason. The
Internet has probably been the worst thing that could have happened
to the porn industry - who needs mail order videos when you could
just log online and get unlimited porn. But it appears the increased
competition has meant every increasing production values of pornos,
umm … or so I've been told.

Moving on quickly, in HD news, Blu-ray player prices have dropped,
for the first time, below the $300 mark (4). Samsung's BD-P1400 (5)
can be had for less than $280 now on Amazon (I just checked), and at
that price and with HD DVD's already low price, as well as PS3s
being discounted all over the place, there's very little reason not
to get into HD now (especially if you already have a HD screen), and
even more reason to project yourself from the format war and become
HD neutral. Be warned though that the BD-P1400 is only profile 1.0
compatible, so I would save up and buy the PS3 instead for about a
hundred dollar more (and for the extra price, you get a pretty
decent media hub, Internet browser and of course, games console).
I've decided to set up a page where I will list and update all the
HD deals on Amazon (6) (including both hardware and software deals) -
there are some good savings to be had. The war of stats between the
two camps have intensified, with both sides claiming some sort of
victory in the Black Friday sales. The HD DVD people say that they
captured 62% of the market (7) during the sales, most likely not
including the PS3. There is also research from them showing that the
next wave of buyers might favor HD DVD (8) over Blu-ray. I'm sure
the Blu-ray people have similar stats showing the exact opposite. Or
if not stats, than just more rumors about Warner Bros. going Blu-ray
exclusive (9) will do (despite Warner having already denied the
rumors twice - and again, the HD DVD people will find some "clues"
that suggests Warner are going HD DVD exclusive too). But even when
you add both HD DVD and Blu-ray sales, they only amount to 10% of
combined high def and standard def DVD players sales (10) in the
same period - there's still a long way to go before people stop
buying DVD players and start buying high def ones, if we ever get
there. I don't like the notion that somehow high def is fighting a
war against SD (in this case, HD will eventually win, just like
HDTVs won over SDTVs). I think the war is against user confusion and
apathy towards HD - the confusion comes from the format war, and the
apathy comes from the high prices of HD movies. But hopefully, the
confusion will slowly go away we more dual format players, like the
LG BH200 (11), are released. Right now, it's the real dedicated,
early adopters that are getting into HD and confusion and apathy are
not issues, and even life and death is a trivial matter (12) when it
comes to your home theater equipment.

And finally in HD, last week I mentioned something about Michael Bay
saying Blu-ray is superior. Michael Bay seems to like posting on his
forum, and this should be applauded, but there's probably a reason
why famous people like Mr. Bay need to be more careful when it comes
to public speech. His statement about Blu-ray suiting the look of
his movies better (13), apparently irregardless of trivial things
like the video codec, bitrate, transfer process, is funny to the
extreme. By his reasoning, CDs sound better than MP3s because MP3s
don't even have a physical medium. It's like a ghost format, and how
can a ghost defeat something that is real? Unless of course the
ghost uses it's ghostly powers to scare away physical beings -
perhaps this the reason the RIAA is so against MP3s is because THEY
ARE AFRAID OF GHOSTS!!! Well, it makes a little bit more sense than
Mr. Bay's statements anyway. As as for his conspiracy theory about
Microsoft, of course Microsoft has come out to deny all of his
claims (14) (but their response was expected, just like how
government deny the existence of UFOs and yet already have
spacecrafts that can travel thousands of light years to make deals
with alien races in regards to the enslavement of mankind). And to
show that Microsoft cares about HD DVD, they've released an emulator
(15) for testing HD DVD/HDi compatibility, quite ingeniously I might
add - it works simply through the Xbox 360 and an Xbox Live account
(and $2,999 to buy the emulator, of course), no need to purchase
dedicated hardware at all.

In gaming, the November NPD figures were just released and you can
read my full analysis here (16). But to sum up, sales of everything
was up for the holiday shopping season, with the Nintendo DS leading
the way and the Wii following only because of stock problems. Xbox
360 was next, followed by the PSP and PS2. And propping up the whole
group is the PS3 once again, even though sales quadrupled, it was
not enough to even get past the PS2 sales. The Xbox 360 "only"
doubled (or nearly) it's sales numbers from last month, but because
the 360 sells more games per console (6.9 per console), they are the
most profitable (17) when it comes to third-party revenue in the US -
more than both the PS3 and Wii combined. Which means they can cut
prices even further without feeling it, unlike Sony.

Ok, that's all for this week. I'll be back the same time next week,
just two days before Christmas, to bring you more news updates.
Until then …

Links:
(1) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85254
(2) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85276
(3) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85275
(4) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85244
(5) http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TME35W?tag=dvdloc8-20
(6) http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60825.html
(7) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85256
(8) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85279
(9) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85221
(10) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85262
(11) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85261
(12) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85257
(13) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85168
(14) http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/7427/
(15) http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60840.html
(16)
http://www.digital-digest.com/blog/DVDGuy/2007/12/14/game-consoles-november-2007\
-npd-sales-figure-analysis/
(17) http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=16643


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3. Weekly Software Roundup

December 15, 2007 DVDRemaster Pro 4.1
December 15, 2007 DVDRemaster Standard 4.1
December 15, 2007 DAEMON Tools 4.11 (Freeware)
December 15, 2007 QuickTime Alternative (QT7) 2.2.0 (Freeware)
December 15, 2007 Winclipdvb 2.9.6 (Freeware)
December 14, 2007 BurnAware Free Edition 0.9.9.3 beta (Freeware)
December 14, 2007 ffdshow Rev. 1700 (Freeware)
December 14, 2007 DIKO 2.33 (Freeware)
December 14, 2007 WinFF 0.32 (Freeware)
December 14, 2007 x264 full rev. 712 (Freeware)
December 14, 2007 XULPlayer 0.2.1.3 (Freeware)
December 14, 2007 IsoBuster 2.3 Beta
December 14, 2007 VideoReDo TVSuite 3.1.3.549
December 14, 2007 TitleWriter 4.62 (Freeware)
December 13, 2007 RAD Video Tools 1.9b (Freeware)
December 13, 2007 DGMPGDec 1.5.0 RC2 (Freeware)
December 13, 2007 Videora iPod Converter 3.06 (Freeware)
December 13, 2007 Videora iPhone Converter 3.06 (Freeware)
December 13, 2007 DVD-lab Pro 2.34
December 13, 2007 H264TS_Cutter 110 Beta (Freeware)
December 13, 2007 VisualHub 1.30
December 13, 2007 Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder 4.2.0
December 12, 2007 QT Sync 0.3.2 (Freeware)
December 12, 2007 Replay A/V 8.41
December 12, 2007 SageTV 6.3
December 12, 2007 Foto2Avi 2.1 (Freeware)
December 12, 2007 DeVeDe 3.6 (Freeware)
December 12, 2007 Media Player Classic 6.4.9.1 (20071206) (Freeware)
December 11, 2007 YAMB 2.0.0.8 (20071210) (Freeware)
December 11, 2007 Video DVD Maker 3.4.0.8 (Freeware)
December 11, 2007 Video DVD Maker Pro 2.8.0.44
December 11, 2007 XP Codec Pack 2.3.4 (Freeware)
December 11, 2007 SimpleMovieX 3.6.1
December 11, 2007 MediaInfo 0.7.5.6 (Freeware)
December 10, 2007 VirtualDub 1.7.7 (Build 28312) (Freeware)
December 10, 2007 KMPlayer 2.9.3.1427 Beta (Freeware)
December 10, 2007 MemoriesOnTV Pro 4.0.0
December 10, 2007 MemoriesOnTV Home 4.0.0
December 10, 2007 Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD December 2007 Update
December 10, 2007 Womble MPEG Video Wizard December 2007 Update
December 10, 2007 DGAVCDec 1.0.0 alpha 13 (Freeware)
December 10, 2007 Movica Beta 6.5 (Freeware)
December 10, 2007 DVB Dream 1.4f (Freeware)
December 10, 2007 SVCD2DVD 2.5.3600
December 10, 2007 MediaCoder 0.6.0 Build 3993 (Freeware)
December 9, 2007 Net Transport 2.52
December 9, 2007 AVStoDVD 1.2.1 (Freeware)

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


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

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