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DIGITAL DIGEST - http://www.digital-digest.com
DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 77
20 January, 2008

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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

The December NPD game console sales figures are out, as well as
general 2007 figures. It's been a great year for gaming, and none of
the console manufacturers can really say they are disappointed with
how things turned out, although Nintendo and Microsoft will be the
happier of the three.

Links:
* Game Consoles - December 2007 NPD Sales Figure Analysis
http://www.digital-digest.com/blog/DVDGuy/2008/01/18/game-consoles-december-2007\
-npd-sales-figure-analysis/

-- DVDGuy


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2. Weekly News Roundup

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the roundups of our week.
Or something like that.

Let's not waste any time, starting with copyright news, it seems the
studios have finally wised up and have started experimenting with
managed copy. Managed copy is a concept that, instead of letting
people make copies of DVDs and stuff for backup or portable use, the
studios would make these copies available to you (with the cost
included). Fox has demonstrated this feature on some of its new DVDs
<1>, including the Family Guy Blue Harvest DVD which will have a
DRM'd iPod version of the feature on the disc. Last week, you'll
remember Sony demonstrating something similar with Blu-ray discs on
PS3, and copying a version of the feature to the PSP. You have to
say that this is much preferred to not being able to make copies at
all, although I don't think this goes far enough - it would be much
better if perhaps a 1:1 copy of the feature can be made and stored
on networked storage, and to allow standalones to playback
these "ripped" features without the disc being present. I'm sure
this can be done without encouraging casual piracy (for example,
making a copy without owning the original), through some kind of
registration/watermark/DRM system. One of these days I'll have to
write a blog entry on how this could work and why it will benefit
users (and I do remember promising to write a blog on wireless HD
last week, and I haven't). A more disturbing news was the good old
USB system is going to be updated to allow digital video
transmission, to compete with the HDMI standard. The disturbing part
is that DRM will be added (most likely HDCP) to allow this to
happen, which sounds to me like an excuse to add DRM to a standard
that didn't have it before <2>. Why do we even need USB for video
anyway - all new AV devices use HDMI as the standard already.

Onto to HD, Amazon is running a competition where 60 fantastic
prizes are going to be given over a month's period (to US residents
only, unfortunately). There will be 30 packs that include a Blu-ray
player and 100 Blu-ray movies (so 30 players and 3,000 free movies
to be given away), and the same for HD DVD. Entry links found here
<3>. You don't need to buy anything to enter, so if you do live in
the US, why not give it a go? Good luck. While Blu-ray and HD DVD
are fighting a war, Apple has launched a new front in HD downloads
through Apple TV <4>. Microsoft already has something similar
through Xbox Marketplace, and Sony will introduce something similar
too for the PlayStation Store. Will these new distribution methods
beat the good old optical disc? I think the problem is that HD
downloads and HD content on Blu-ray or HD DVD are two completely
different things - one is relatively bitrate limited low quality,
while the other represents the best possible quality in A/V at the
moment. People who have spent thousands of dollars on LCD/plasmas
and surround sound system aren't going to be terribly impressed by 8
Mbps 720p video with 5.1 channel audio, when they have access to 25
Mbps 1080p versions of the same feature with 7.1 lossless audio. And
how will ISPs react to the increase in bandwidth of these new
applications? If the infrastructure has been rolled out, then
perhaps not much will change. But if the infrastructure is not
capable enough of handling such traffic increases, then ISP will
have to raise prices and lower bandwidth, like they have done here
in Australia regularly over the last few years. Could this happen in
the US as well? <5> As for the format war, things continue to
bubble, and Blu-ray still has the upper hands, especially the latest
sales figures show a commanding 85/15 lead <6>, a likely reaction to
the Warner announcement. However, Paramount is still releasing discs
for HD DVD, having just announced their 1st quarter release schedule
<7>, the same with Universal <8>. If HD DVD can hold on to these two
studios, then there will still be many releases that are exclusive
to HD DVD, such as Beowulf, Cloverfield, Bee Movie … of course,
whether these two studios remain HD DVD exclusive is something that
only time will tell. Toshiba is still promoting HD DVD, and they
have just dropped the retail pricing of the HD-A3 to around $150,
and you can pick one up from Amazon (with 7 free HD DVD movies) for
as low as $130 - check out Digital Digest's Blu-ray/HD DVD deals
page <9> for more information on this and many other HD deals. $130
with 7 free movies for a HD DVD player that also does very good DVD
upscaling is a bargain, considering that a good DVD upscaler will
cost about the same without the free movies. Plus you will get
access to whatever exclusives that may still exists for the format,
for the time being anyway.

In gaming news, the December and 2007 NPD results are out and I've
covered it in the previous blog post <10>. Now some (including
myself) have been confused by the numbers, which suggest the Xbox
360 widening it's lead in December over the PS3, but shrinking in
terms of overall market share to Sony's console. This can be easily
explained because while the Xbox 360 still enjoys a 3 to 1 lead,
unless the monthly Xbox 360 sales numbers continue to have the same
ratio to PS3 sales, then market share will continue to grow in PS3's
favor. Of course, if the 360 outsells the PS3 continuously, even if
the margin decreases, all this means it that the PS3 will gain
market share until a certain point and then stop gaining and at
best, all it can look forward to is equal market share with the 360.
Or something like that. The somewhat unexpected surge in 360 sales
has meant a disruption to the usually reliable Xbox Live service. To
make up for it, Microsoft will be giving away a free copy of the
Xbox Live Arcade game <11>, Undertow, to all Xbox Live users (both
Silver and Gold members). The offer is only for a week, and starts
right about now, so don't miss out.

That's it for this week. Hopefully I will write that article about
wireless HD next week, or maybe about managed copy as well. We'll
see.

Links:
<1> http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85828
<2> http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85830
<3> http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85814
<4> http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85826
<5> http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85876
<6>
http://www.dailytech.com/HighDef+Sales+Tip+Towards+Bluray+Disc+Following+Warner+\
Announcement/article10385c.htm
<7> http://news.punchjump.com/article.php?id=5413
<8>
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3ie7d46e37694ce94\
1f2d65f37f6865fd9
<9> http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60825.html
<10>
http://www.digital-digest.com/blog/DVDGuy/2008/01/18/game-consoles-december-2007\
-npd-sales-figure-analysis/
<11> http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=85872


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3. Weekly Software Roundup

January 20, 2008 ffdshow Rev. 1798 (Freeware)
January 20, 2008 SUPER v2008.build.24 (Freeware)
January 20, 2008 DVBcut 0.5.4 Rev. 112 (Freeware)
January 20, 2008 RipBot264 1.8.3 (Freeware)
January 19, 2008 Dr. DivX 2.0.1 Beta 6 (Freeware)
January 19, 2008 ProgDVB 5.12.10 (Freeware)
January 19, 2008 XviD4PSP 5.028 (Freeware)
January 19, 2008 DAEMON Tools 4.12 (Freeware)
January 19, 2008 EasyMPEG MX 3.3.4build91
January 18, 2008 x264 full rev. 721 (Freeware)
January 18, 2008 Movie Library ++ 4.0.0 (Freeware)
January 18, 2008 Batch DVD Streams Converter 1.0 (Freeware)
January 18, 2008 VideoInspector 1.12.0.112
January 18, 2008 DVBViewer 3.9.2.0
January 16, 2008 RAD Video Tools 1.9c (Freeware)
January 16, 2008 QuickTime Alternative (QT7) 2.3.0 (Freeware)
January 16, 2008 VoltaicHD 1.1.1
January 16, 2008 AVCutty 3.0 (Freeware)
January 15, 2008 MoKgVm2DVD 1.1 (Freeware)
January 15, 2008 Fraps 2.9.4
January 15, 2008 HCbatchGUI 14.1 (Freeware)
January 15, 2008 IsoPuzzle 1.7 Beta (Freeware)
January 15, 2008 H264TS_Cutter 111 (Freeware)
January 14, 2008 Q DVD Author 1.0 Final (Freeware)
January 13, 2008 DivX Codec 6.8.0.30
January 13, 2008 MediaCoder 0.6.1 Build 4026 (Freeware)
January 13, 2008 PgcEdit 8.6 (Freeware)
January 13, 2008 avi.NET 2.5.7.0 (Freeware)
January 13, 2008 MovieGate 2.66
January 13, 2008 Net Transport 2.54

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


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