**************************************************************

DIGITAL DIGEST - http://www.digital-digest.com
DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 74
30 December, 2007

**************************************************************

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

*******************************************************

1. Introduction

Hello to everyone on this new year's eve eve. Hope you've had a nice
week, and getting ramped up for NYE celebrations. Unlike most
people, I've not been able to take a break this week as I had to
finish the Blu-ray and HD DVD Buyer's guide. It was worth the effort
though, because writing the guide allowed me to learn a few more
things too. I also wrote a blog yesterday on the ATI Radeon 3870
versus the 8800 GTS 512 MB, both new GPUs that offer excellent HD
video acceleration and good to great 3D performance.

This week's news roundup is a bit short, so I've padded it with a
brief year in review. Just few paragraphs on what I found memorable
about 2007.

So by the next issue it will have been 2008 already. I hope you've
had a great 2007 and will have an even better 2008. Happy New Year!!

Links:
* ATI Radeon HD 3870 versus NVIDIA 8800 GTS 512 MB
http://www.digital-digest.com/blog/DVDGuy/2007/12/29/ati-radeon-hd-3870-versus-n\
vidia-8800-gts-512-mb/
* The Blu-ray and HD DVD Buyer's Guide
http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/Blu-ray_HD_DVD_Buyers_Guide_page1.html

-- DVDGuy


*******************************************************

2. Weekly News Roundup

So here we are, the very last blog entry of 2007. Not much in the
news recently (not that I've been paying any attention), so I've
supplemented this otherwise short blog with a brief look back at
2007, should be interesting.

But to get the news stuff out of the way first.

In copyright news, Antigua has won a fight against the US <1> which
will now allow it to (once again) become a pirate and gambling
haven. Or something like that. While this decision has a lot to do
with online gambling, it also has copyright implications. While I
can't talk about it directly on this website, many people are aware
that Antigua is home to a particular software that does certain
things to protected video content. It now seem that this software,
and software like it, might have found a safe place to reside
without being subject to copyright laws of other countries. But a
safe home might not be needed for much longer, as DRM in music at
least appears to be dying a quick death. Warner, the last major
holdout, has just agreed to release all their music DRM-free on
Amazon <2>. The next obvious step will be to get rid of DRM on
movies, although it probably won't happen as quickly since the movie
DRMs usually reside on discs, rather than online formats. It's not
like music where DRM obstructs portability, which is the whole point
of digital music downloads. DRM does not, at the moment, interfere
with the normal operation of movie discs, other than being not able
to backup your movies (which you'd be hard pressed to do with Blu-
ray and HD DVDs, what with them being so large in size).

Moving quickly onto HD movies, apparently The Bourne Ultimatum and
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix HD DVDs are outselling all
Blu-ray titles this week <3>, including the Blu-ray version of OOTP.
This is not too surprising because Bourne is a format exclusive hit
movie, and that the Blu-ray version of OOTP has had several
production and distribution problems. In the end though, Blu-ray
still won the week by nearly a 2:1 margin again. All those PS3s are
really helping Blu-ray's movie sales - even if every PS3 owner just
buys only one movie, that will still give Blu-ray a huge advantage
even if HD DVD owners buy 3 or 4 movies per player. What I think
will happen eventually is that the HD DVD movie sales number will go
up due to the people who purchased the cheap $99 HD DVD players (and
subsequent sales) finally starting to purchase some movies. Remember
that all the HD DVD players came with up to 12 free movies, so there
is no immediate reason for people to buy titles until they've
finished watching the free ones. And once Universal and Paramount
start releasing their catalogue titles (older classics, such as Back
to the Future or The Godfather), then the numbers will be more even.
That's my prediction for 2008 by the way, and it's the only
prediction I'm going to make since I suck at them. Speaking of
sales, don't forget to keep looking at our special online sales page
for high def bargains <4>. The current HD DVD BOGOF sale is going
very well, with more than 20 HD DVD titles in the Amazon top 100
movies at times (the top 100 includes DVD, Blu-ray as well as HD DVD
sales). Amazon has even released a statement <5> saying they they
sold so many high-def players that it could have filled seven
(American) football fields. If you're still confused about Blu-ray
and HD DVD, don't forget to read my new Buyer's Guide <6>, which
even if I'm saying so myself, is pretty useful if you still need
more information to make up your mind as to whether to get into HD
or not (or which one of Blu-ray/HD DVD/both).

And that's pretty much it in terms of news.

So onto the yearly review. 2007 has been an interesting year for
myself and Digital Digest. The biggest even happened in March. I
still cannot legally say much about what went on, except to say that
it was a legal matter and that, for a while at least, it appeared
that Digital Digest might not have survived to its 8th birthday
(which was celebrated in July this year). But survive I/we did, and
I think the website is a better one for it - there's no longer any
confusion toward its legal status, and it has forced me to
concentrate on some other parts of the website which has been
neglected (such as the Blu-ray and HD DVD stuff).

But apart from that, I think 2007 is when Blu-ray and HD DVD finally
entered into people's thoughts, if not their homes (I think this
will happen in 2008). This time last year, nobody really gave a damn
about the format war or sales figures. Paramount was still format
neutral, and you wouldn't even think possible that a HD player's
price would fall under $100. But from what I have seen, people are
starting to think about getting into HD, and while it may still take
a year for most people to start caring, I think the trend is there.

Another war that has been brewing is the next-gen games console war,
a three way fight between the Nintendo Wii, the Xbox 360 and the
PS3. You might say that there are really no losers in this war, at
least not for 2007, since in their own way all three consoles have
made significant gains. The Wii has become a fad, attracting people
who have never played games before. The Xbox 360 has held firm
despite RROD problems, while the PS3 looks less like the whipping
boy that it was at the start of the year. 2008 should probably see
the PS3 make more gains, while we might yet see some new innovations
<7> coming the Wii's way.

2007 is also the year music DRM finally died. To be fair, it was a
short and bitter life for music DRM - it never really had any chance
because it's hated by the most important demographics - the actual
consumers. Hopefully, 2008 will be the year video DRM dies too, with
CSS, AACS and BD+ being hacked beyond all recognition, I don't think
DRM will be missed at all, not even by the studios.

So that's it for 2007. I hope you've had an eventful and pleasant
2007, and if not, I hope that 2008 will be much kinder. Happy New
Year from me and everyone here at Digital Digest. See you in 2008.

Links:
<1> http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85506
(2) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85533
(3) http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85445
(4) http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60825.html
(5)
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Industry_Trends/Amazon/Amazon_Reports_Str\
ong_Holiday_Sales_For_HD_DVD,_Blu-ray_Players/1305
(6)
http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/Blu-ray_HD_DVD_Buyers_Guide_page1.html
(7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw


*******************************************************

3. Weekly Software Roundup

December 30, 2007 cdrtfe 1.3 (Freeware)
December 29, 2007 Haali Media Splitter 1.7.401.3 (Freeware)
December 29, 2007 AutoMKV 0.93 (Freeware)
December 29, 2007 ProgDVB 5.12.6 (Freeware)
December 29, 2007 MyFilms 4.6
December 28, 2007 J. River Media Center 12.0.403
December 28, 2007 RSHUT PRO 2.8.1.2
December 28, 2007 DivX Codec 6.8.0.19
December 28, 2007 TsRemux 0.0.19 (Freeware)
December 27, 2007 VSO PhotoDVD 2.6.2
December 27, 2007 HCbatchGUI 13.8 (Freeware)
December 27, 2007 Mpeg2Schnitt 0.9 (Freeware)
December 27, 2007 MediaCoder 0.6.0 Build 3999 (Freeware)
December 26, 2007 ffdshow Rev. 1724 (Freeware)
December 26, 2007 PPT2DVD 4.6.0
December 26, 2007 XviD4PSP 5.026 (Freeware)
December 26, 2007 AVStoMPEG 10.2007.1223.2300 (Freeware)
December 26, 2007 DVDINFOPro 4.7.6.0
December 25, 2007 BSplayer Pro 2.26
December 25, 2007 BSplayer 2.26
December 25, 2007 eac3to 2.12 (Freeware)
December 24, 2007 Plato DVD Creator 3.79
December 24, 2007 Plato Video To Zune 3..71
December 24, 2007 Plato Video To iPod PSP 3GP 3.71
December 24, 2007 EasyMPEG MX 3.3.4build88
December 23, 2007 Freevo 1.7.5 (Freeware)
December 23, 2007 K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 3.6.2 (Freeware)
December 23, 2007 K-Lite Codec Pack 3.6.2 (Freeware)
December 23, 2007 AviDemux 2.4 (Freeware)
December 23, 2007 Real Alternative 1.75 (Freeware)

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


******************************************************

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.
- Or go to the Yahoo My Groups page to edit your group
subscriptions. More information here:
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/groups-32.html
- DO NOT reply to this email for unsubscribe requests - it will be
ignored

To change the email address that receives this newsletter:
- Un-subscribe using your current one, and sign up using a new email
address


======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======