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DIGITAL DIGEST - http://www.digital-digest.com
DIGITAL DIGEST | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 81
17 February, 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

I've written another instalment in my regular "If I were to buy a
computer today ..." feature. I was going to wait until March to keep
with the quarterly nature of the instalment, but because of the new
Intel and AMD CPUs, I thought it might be a good time to discuss
these new chips.

Links:
* If I were to buy a new computer today (February 2008)
http://www.digital-digest.com/blog/DVDGuy/2008/02/15/if-i-were-to-buy-a-new-comp\
uter-today-february-2008/

-- DVDGuy


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2. Weekly News Roundup

I've never completely trusted February. How can you trust a month
that isn't 30 or 31 days, and not only that, seems to change length
every couple of years as well. February is well shifty, I wouldn't
trust it to give me the time of the day, let alone the day of the
month. This issue of the roundup is a bit short of news, just like
February is short of days. Don't blame me, blame February (hey,
that's not a bad slogan).

In copyright news, the "War on Torrents" has been declared a success
<1> by the outgoing Bush administration. In a time when terrorism,
the economy, the environment and many other issues are causing
concern, it's nice to see where the White House's priorities are.
The "War on Canada" continues, with a US Group calling Canada a top
copyright violator <2>. Canada is still deciding on whether to adopt
tougher copyright laws, so the scare campaign is not surprising.
After all, the same tactic has been applied time and time again in
other countries, including Australia. Here, we've been forced to
adopt the same harsh laws as part of our free trade agreement with
the US - no DMCA, no trade, is apparently the message the Bush
administration is sending out on behalf of the MPAA.

But this week really has been about HD news, and actually, mainly
bad news for HD DVD. As I type this, the vulture and their fanboy
riders are circling, as rumours suggest Toshiba will call it quits.
It's probably the right decision *if* Toshiba believes they can't
win or sustain the format war, and I hope they bring their expertise
in producing the XA2/XE1 to bring a cheaper, new Blu-ray/dual format
Profile 2.0 player, that's also region-free. One can still dream,
right? As someone who is format neutral, it's sad to see HD DVD go
along with cheap hardware prices and region-free discs, if the
rumours are true. But on the other hand, being neutral was all about
avoiding and mitigating the potential risks of a format dying, while
being able to enjoy all available HD movies from the get go. I have
a Toshiba HD-XE1 player, the best DVD upscaler you can buy for under
$1,200 (and I got it for $500) and will be my main DVD player and HD
DVD player to service the 30 HD DVD movies that I currently own (and
I will add more titles to my collection if there are clearance sales
and such). My Xbox 360 add-on drive will now become an external
drive for my (as yet un-purchased) new computer for testing HD
stuff. My PS3 remains my main Blu-ray player until something better
comes along (Profile 2.0, bitstreaming/decoding for all audio
formats, fast loading and response like the PS3). All bases covered,
as they say. Anyway, the whole week started on a sour note for HD
DVD when Netflix decided to go Blu-ray exclusive <3>. This was
followed by Best Buy deciding to recommend Blu-ray over HD DVD <4>,
while still stocking both types of players and movies. The biggest
blow came when, previously HD DVD exclusive Wal-Mart, went Blu-ray
exclusive as well <5>. Then the rumour surfaced that Toshiba was
going to drop HD DVD, and this rumour, plus possibly some fact
behind it, is now what's causing the media circus. Monday is
supposed to be the day Toshiba officially announces their decision,
and the official end of the format war, and I will cover whatever
happens in more detail in a blog entry. In between all of this HD
DVD bad news, there was one bit of "good" news for HD DVD in that
Warner has not ruled out still providing movies on HD DVD <6> after
the end of May. Probably a bit pointless now.

In gaming news, I've not yet had the time to go over the January NPD
figures for game sales (next week, I promise). Apparently, the PS3
beat the Xbox 360 for the first time in monthly sales figures <7>,
although it was largely a quiet month in terms of game console sales
compared to the feverish December period. Both the Wii and 360 sold
considerably less units as compared previously, and both Nintendo
and Microsoft <8> has blamed it on stock shortages after unexpected
demand in December forced them to sell January stock ahead of time.
This corresponds with my experiences during December, when store
after store I visit would not have any Wii or 360 stock, while the
only game console available was the PS3. But hardware stock issues
should not affect software sales, and the 360 has another good month
with 4 titles in the top 10, including the number one item (Call of
Duty 4). The Wii also did well 3 titles, while the PS3 only had 1
item (Call of Duty 4 again) at 8th, the remaining two spots
belonging to the Nintendo DS. More details in a blog entry next week.

And so that's it for this week. The next few days will prove
interesting for HD enthusiasts. And by HD, I mean both Blu-ray and
HD DVD. People often forget that Blu-ray is HD (High Definition) as
well. HD DVD is a brand just like Blu-ray, while HD is just a
description of a certain type of video, like SD being used to
describe DVDs.

Links:
<1> http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=86210
<2> http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=86223
<3> http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=86197
<4> http://www.digital-digest.com/news-60953.html
<5> http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=86251
<6> http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=86236
<7> http://videogamemedia.com/article.php?id=649&cat=News
<8>
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aFOS_ThBc3vY&refer=japan


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3. Weekly Software Roundup

February 17, 2008 Comskip 0.79.116 (Freeware)
February 17, 2008 Movie Library ++ 4.3.0 (Freeware)
February 16, 2008 VSO PhotoDVD 2.8.3
February 16, 2008 EMDB 0.59 (Freeware)
February 16, 2008 AviDemux 2.4.1 (Freeware)
February 16, 2008 eac3to 2.23 (Freeware)
February 15, 2008 AVStoDVD 1.2.3 (Freeware)
February 15, 2008 DVD Rebuilder Pro 1.27.0
February 15, 2008 Plato Video To Zune 3.74
February 15, 2008 Plato Video To iPod PSP 3GP 3.74
February 15, 2008 Plato Video to iPod Converter 3.81
February 15, 2008 AutoMKV 0.95c (Freeware)
February 15, 2008 Elecard Converter Studio 2.1
February 15, 2008 ChrisTV Lite 5.15 (Freeware)
February 15, 2008 DAEMON Tools 4.12.1 (Freeware)
February 15, 2008 BurnAware Free Edition 1.2.6 (Freeware)
February 15, 2008 RAD Video Tools 1.9e (Freeware)
February 14, 2008 EAC3toGUI 1.85 (Freeware)
February 14, 2008 DVD2oneX 2.1.4
February 14, 2008 DVD2one 2.1.4
February 14, 2008 VisualHub 1.31
February 13, 2008 VirtualDub 1.7.8 (Build 28346) (Freeware)
February 13, 2008 X Codec Pack 2.2.0 build 507 RC (Freeware)
February 13, 2008 DVDStyler 1.6.1 beta 1 (Freeware)
February 12, 2008 DVD-Audio Solo 1.4.4
February 11, 2008 ffdshow Rev. 1852 (Freeware)
February 11, 2008 Collectorz.com Movie Collector 5.4.3
February 11, 2008 ProgDVB 5.13.4 (Freeware)
February 11, 2008 ImgBurn 2.4.0.0 (Freeware)
February 11, 2008 DVB Web Scheduler 5.0.0.19 (Freeware)
February 10, 2008 SubDownloaderČ 0.7.1 (Freeware)

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


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