News written by James Delahunty (June, 2007)

Plextor announced its latest external drive offering earlier this month, following the success of its recently launched internal PX-800A & PX-810SA DVD ReWriters. The new high-end external drive, the PX-810UF, is ideal for all users as it is compatible with both Mac and PC systems. It features Plextor's legendary quality and reliability in a robust matt black external unit.

From professionals and enthusiasts, through to anyone looking for a stylish addition or upgrade to their home/office set-up, the PX-810UF offers the ideal solution. The PX-810UF comes conveniently with a dual interface for extra flexibility, sporting both USB 2.0 and FireWire (IEEE1394) connectors. In addition, the drive comes with a software package suitable for all users including Nero 7 Essentials (including Nero Express 7), and Plextools Professional LE.

The drive is capable of the following write speeds...

CyberLink Corp. announced recently that its Hi-Def Suite was released with HLDS GGW-H10N, a universal drive supporting Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs. The combined solution lets users play high-definition movies stored on Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs, record high-definition video content to Blu-ray Discs, as well as burn and backup data to Blu-ray Discs and DVDs.

"The Super Multi Blue drive provides a neat solution that offers a lot of value to customers, with support for both Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs," said D.Y Roh, senior specialist of HLDS.

"CyberLink and HLDS have released a software-hardware solution that supports both next-generation disc formats, eliminating the complication and expense of users having to operate multiple single-format drives," said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. "Instead, consumers can access all the features they want via a single software suite and play any movie they want via the same disc drive."

The software titles included with the suite are PowerDVD, PowerProducer, Power2Go, InstantBurn and PowerBackup.

Sonic Solutions' Roxio division is now offering a version of Roxio Crunch, an application made to easily convert video content to formats required for Apple devices including iPhone, for the Windows operating system. The software offers a one-step process for converting a broad range of the most popular video formats including DVD-Video, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and DivX files into a format recognized by these Apple devices.

The application includes powerful transcoding technologies and pre-defined device profiles to ensure optimal playback regardless of the screen size. It can convert native QuickTime file formats, such as DV, AVI, MOV, and MPEG and non-QuickTime file formats, such as MPEG-2 and DivX. It can also convert DVD movies and discs created with Toast, iDVD, DVD Studio Pro, and other DVD authoring applications.

A thread over at AVS Forum has been running for weeks now, discussing what many have discovered; "Blu-ray disc rot". Some users are reporting finding small spots on their discs that render them unplayable, particularly with "The Prestige". However, as it usually goes, many other users are reporting that their discs are still working correctly and do not show the dreaded signs of rot.

It's impossible to use a forum to judge how widespread a problem really is, but in the past, forum posts have lead to product recalls. If you check your Blu-ray titles now and find that the data side seems to be showing signs of rot (picture below), you should seek a refund or replacement disc immediately.

Here is an image posted by the user Venom5 on AVS Forum...



Sources:
Engadget HD
AVS Forum

YouTube is attempting to keep up with some of its competitors by offering video editing capabilities to its users via an online editing tool provided by Adobe Systems. The tool, dubbed "remixer", will allow users to easily create more professional looking videos by splicing together media such as video clips, photos, music, graphics and other effects, according to information found on the site.

Photobucket and Yahoo Video already offer similar services to users. Yahoo acquired Jumpcut last September, a pioneer in Internet-based editing tools. Photobucket launched an Abode-branded editor back in February. The online editing tools cater well to amateurs, particularly users who have just discovered digital video production in general.

Sites like YouTube have sparked a broad interest in the creation of professional-looking videos, with users of the sites often competing with each other or commenting on each others video editing/effects skills. This has created an opportunity for the developers of video editing software to market low-priced tools that can perform tasks that would cater well to amateur web video creators.

Source:
News.com

We rarely report about early movie leaks on the Internet unless there is some significance to it other than piracy. Examples would be the outrage when Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith leaked early and was a main reason for "Operation D-Elite".

Another example is how rampant piracy of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 caused news outlets to report about a video of Moore explaining he is happy that his movies, books and TV shows are shared as long as its not for profit, and does not really agree with copyright laws.

However, Fahrenheit 9/11 was being shared heavily on the Internet "after" its theatrical release. This time around, a copy of Moore's highly-anticipated "Sicko" movie is being snatched up by thousands of pirates well ahead of its June 29th release date. What makes this interesting is how Moore's personal views on file sharing and copyright applies to such an early leak.

Of course, this could be exactly what Sicko needs and might not even be accidental. If you have been following the news, you know that the U.S. Government is investigating a trip Moore took to Cuba with workers from the World Trade Center site so they could receive health care they could not get at home. There was speculation that Sicko could have been "impounded" by the federal government due to the Cuba issue - so much so that Moore found it a necessity to stash a copy of the movie in Canada.

According to NBC/Universal general counsel Rick Cotton, today's society is wasting its time battling crimes such as home burglary, bank robbery and fraud. The incredible statement was made to suggest that more effort should be put in to battling piracy due to the financial damage it does to the entertainment industry.

"Our law enforcement resources are seriously misaligned," Cotton said. "If you add up all the various kinds of property crimes in this country, everything from theft, to fraud, to burglary, bank-robbing, all of it, it costs the country $16 billion a year. But intellectual property crime runs to hundreds of billions [of dollars] a year."

The argument is hardly convincing, especially since the industry's own nit-picked reports claim much less than "hundreds of billions of dollars" in losses per year. For example, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) cites a study from Smith Barney in 2005 that puts their annual loss at less than $6 billion.

Also, you might have a tough time finding an example of how somebody was stabbed or shot during an intellectual property crime, whereas people are often attacked and even killed while being burgled and bank robbers do shoot hostages and employees. Perhaps somebody should suggest to Cotton that protecting against the theft of physical property and of course, protecting human life, is more important than intellectual property protection.

Google Inc. has sent its Google Video service further down the search engine path by adding clips from other popular video sites to its database. The updated Google Video service still shows the results of its own videos and YouTube results, but now also offers results from Metacafe, MySpace, BBC, and Yahoo Video. Search results will show thumbnail snapshots of videos hosted from these sites.

Earlier this year, the company had announced it planned to turn Google Video into a search service for multimedia content online after questions were raised about its fate when Google acquired YouTube. The company continues to expand on its offerings to the online video revolution despite constant copyright complaints and criticism of its services.

YouTube, which is currently being sued by Viacom Inc. for over $1 billion, is testing out "video fingerprinting" technology that could identify clips that have been uploaded without permission and give content providers an option to delete them. Such technology could also be developed further to act as an automatic shield against uploading of such videos.

Source:
Ars Technica

AT&T has announced plans to step up efforts against Internet piracy being carried out on its network. The company will work closely with Hollywood movies studios and record companies to produce technology that can identify offshore content pirates that upload thousands of illegal files through AT&T's network. Privacy advocates have already voiced concerns about the plans, particularly because of how little details have been given on how it operates.

"What we're trying to do here is see if we can devise a technology that can address the problem," James W. Cicconi, AT&T's senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs, said. "Then we'll have to address the legal issues that flow out of using such a technology." Cicconi acknowledged that AT&T's interests have become more aligned with content providers.

AT&T offers its own television service to consumers to compete with cable and satellite providers (and also Verizon Communications Inc.). "We've been considering these issues of piracy, and we do feel the interests of our shareholders are aligned with the interests of the content community," Cicconi said. "We very much have a stake, as they do, in trying to stem illegal appropriation of that content."

Just as the HD DVD Promotional Group is set to cut global sales forecasts for HD DVD players, Sony has said that shipments of its Blu-ray disc players could jump to about 600,000 this year. The company attributes growing demand for Blu-ray to movie titles released exclusively for the Blu-ray disc format.

Out of the top 20 blockbusters "there were 14 or 15 that were exclusive to Blu-ray", Sony's Randy Waynick told a meeting in San Francisco, according to Bloomberg. Sony is relying on exclusive movies to drive demand, having shipped only 100,000 units in 2006.

The U.S. sales target for HD DVD players has been lowered to 1 million from the previous 1.8 million prediction. "Obviously we are going to have to lower our previous global estimate," Toshiba's Yoshihide Fujii said. The HD DVD group is claiming that it has sold 150,000 dedicated HD DVD players, giving it the lead when you exclude the PS3 (Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on also excluded).

Source:
BBC News

Kyte.tv, which allows users to create their own TV channel and broadcast it on websites, blogs, social networks, and mobile phones, has received funding from the private equity and venture capital arm of Nokia, the worlds largest handset maker. The service is funded by top venture capital firms including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Draper Richards and Atomico.

Rob Trice of Nokia Growth Partners said in a statement that the vision for Kyte is to, "bring together social networking, user-generated content, and mobile services." Users can share Kyte channels with others, or have other people take part in their shows by adding their own content, voting, and chatting live.

YouTube, which receives 100 million video views and more than 65,000 new videos on a daily basis, already has a deal with Nokia to let mobile phone users view YouTube content on their cell phones via broadband links.

Source:
Yahoo

Just five months after announcing a milestone of 1 billion (1,000,000,000) torrents served, Mininova is now boasting that it has served 2 billion torrents to its users. The amount of total torrent downloads roughly doubles every half year. TV Shows were the most popular torrents, accounting for 40.11% of all downloads.

Music dragged along behind, accounting for 21.21% of all downloads. Next, as you would guess, Movies accounted for 17.89% of the torrents downloaded. Games and Software were next with shares of 6.59% and 5.61%, respectively. The rest were as follows: Anime 3.61%, Books 3.04%, Other 1.42% and Pictures 0.53%.

"Of course this is not the end, if the growth keeps continuing we might be able to reach the 4 billion mark by the end of this year! Watch out, Apple iTunes," the blog post reads.

Source:
Mininova

CinemaNow Inc., a movie download source, has announced it will start selling music videos again after failing 2 years ago. The company hopes that demand for content to view on thriving portable players will drive sales. Music videos from Warner Music Group will be available initially and will go for $1.99. With iTunes having some success selling music videos now, it is a good idea for CinemaNow to re-enter the business.

"We were a little bit premature," CinemaNow chief executive Curt Marvis said Monday. The company first launched its watchmusicherenow.com website back in 2005, but the portable devices on the market that could play the videos never caught on. The new music videos on sale will be just under DVD quality and can be transfered to a total of three devices running Windows Media software.

"This year, consumers headed to the Web for short-form content in record numbers, and we see great potential in music video downloads," Marvis said. Around 1600 videos exclusively from Warner will be available until July 21st. After that, more videos from Warner and other major record companies will become available.

In another move to further its rapid subscriber growth, Blockbuster has made some price changes to its onlien movie rental system. In its fierce competition with the dominant player in the market, Netflix, Blockbuster has dealt a few noticeable blows. It's "Total Access" program is an example of how the company is using its large physical store presence to boost its online offerings.

A new Blockbuster plan will let customers place online orders to rent 3 movies at a time for a $16.99 fee, $1 cheaper than the Total Access plan. The only difference is customers on the cheaper plan, dubbed "Blockbuster by mail", will not receive a free rental when hey return DVDs to a store instead of mailing them back.

Through the Blockbuster by Mail plan, they will get a coupon for one free rental per month though. The company also said it would offer more limited plans for as low as $4.99. Its rival Netflix charges $17.99 for a three-out at one time plan and a $4.99 plan for up to two rentals per month.

Netflix recently began a streaming service also to give customers more options and make it a more attractive venue for new customers than Blockbuster. Blockbuster has done some damage recently though, beginning 2007 with 2 million subscribers, which jumped to 2.8 million by the end of March. The 800,000 extra subscribers is almost double what Netflix received (487,000) in the first quarter.

Maven Networks, which provides hosting services for Internet TV, is set to make an announcement tomorrow regarding support for Microsoft's new Silverlight technology as a video delivery vehicle. Using the Silverlight technology, Maven's users can leverage familiar Windows Media technology as well as workflow automation, publishing, and player creation capabilities of the Maven Internet TV platform.

Silverlight, which is currently in Beta release phase, is considered as a rival to Adobe's flash technology. Maven plans to support SIlverlight once it becomes available later on in the summer. "That means that [users] can leverage their existing investments in the Windows Media format while at the same time providing new and engaging user experiences," Todd Boes, vice president of product management, said.

"Our collaboration with Maven will help provide compelling and innovative Silverlight-based solutions for content creators looking to differentiate and maximize their online media offerings," said Microsoft's Sean Alexander, director of Silverlight Media, in a statement released by Maven. "Silverlight ushers in a new level of online experiences with improved video streaming capabilities that can scale up to HD and incorporate rich interactivity, all with a lower total cost to operate."

Google Inc.'s YouTube video sharing site is to test a new video identification technology with Time Warner Inc. and The Walt Disney Co. The technology was developed by Google to help content owners identify uploaded videos that were posted without permission. "The technology was built with the Disney's and Time Warner's in mind," Chris Maxcy, YouTube partner development director, said.

The "video fingerprinting" tools can identify unique attributes in the video clips. The feature will be available for testing in about a month according to a YouTube representative. Google has been using similar technology (audio fingerprinting) with record labels for some time now.

Once the tools identify improperly posted videos, content creators can choose to have them removed. Once the technology is proven to work adequately, it could be used as am automatic shield against the uploading of many popular copyrighted videos.

YouTube's lack of content protecting features has it in the bad books of many major content providers. Viacom Inc. is the best example, as it is currently suing YouTube for more than $1 billion.

Source:
Reuters

After disappointing sales in the United States, Toshiba Corp. has announced it will lower its sales target for HD DVD players in the United States to 1 million units in 2007, down 44% from the 1.8 million previous estimate. "Sales in the U.S. have been slower than expected, and we are going to have to lower our U.S. sales forecast," said Yoshihide Fujii, head of Toshiba's digital consumer business.

"Obviously, we are going to have to lower our previous global estimate (too)," he added. He declined to give any new sales target for now. The HD DVD promotional Group recently claimed that more than 150,000 dedicated players have been sold, accounting for 60% of all HD players sold, excluding gaming console hardware.

"Consumers who are buying Playstation 3 are buying it as a game console. They're simply not buying it for watching as many high-definition movies as Sony said they would," said Ken Graffeo, executive vice president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment said when spoke at a news conference announcing the release of Toshiba's Vardia-brand HD DVD players in Japan.

The Court of Appeal in Sweden has today upheld a 20,000 kroner fine imposed on a 45-year-old man from Borås by his local District Court for distributing music (uploading while using P2P) on the internet. The man had originally been fined for uploading four copyrighted music tracks without permission using DirectConnect P2P software.

"This is a victory for copyright and we are, naturally, pleased that there was a guilty verdict. Copyright is the foundation of the whole music industry. If the industry is to continue to thrive, clear and effective copyright enforcement is vital", said Ludvig Werner, chairman of IFPI Sweden.

He continued: "The sentence related to only four songs and the fine imposed of SEK 20,000 (US$2,831) means that it cost the perpetrator SEK 5,000 (US$708) per song. In addition, the injured party has the opportunity to seek damages. It is clearly an expensive business to share files illegally, when there are legal and affordable alternatives on the internet today."

Source:
Press Release

The HD DVD Promotional Group has taken a leaf out of the Blu-ray Disc Association's (BDA) PR book by claiming it is winning the format war - at least in stand-alone player sales. The group claims that 60% of all all the high definition set top players sold use the HD DVD format. In addition, the group said that its HD DVD players have a four to one movie "attach rate" over the competing formats.

All in all, the HD DVD Promotional Group said that 150,000 dedicated HD DVD players have been bought up by consumers. The HD DVD format has seen strong sales and growth lately due to aggressive promotional efforts including a $100 instant rebate on its entry-level HD-A2 HD DVD player.

"Toshiba's latest promotional efforts are clearly resonating with consumers and showing that price is king when it comes to hardware," said Craig Kornblau, chairman of the North American HD DVD Promotional Group. "Behind the increase in sales for hardware and movies, you're seeing fundamentally lower manufacturing costs and ease of authoring for HD DVD. That's the type of model that can scale."

Jericho, a TV drama canceled by CBS earlier this year, was soon after granted an extra seven episodes as fans showed their anger with the decision by sending 25 tons of peanuts to CBS in protest. Now that the show has another seven episodes to show what it can do, there is a discussion about why its ratings were failing in the first place. Actor Brad Beyer thinks he knows why.

"The biggest problem with our show is that so many people were watching it on the Internet or Tivo (which doesn't count toward Nielsen ratings), so I think the fans are now aware to watch it when it's on," he said. He isn't alone either! Nina Tassler, the president of CBS Entertainment, told the New York Times that if fans want the show to keep running, they need to watch it as it broadcasts.

"We want them to watch on Wednesday at 8 o'clock... and we need them to recruit new viewers who are going to watch the broadcast," Tassler said.

Source:
Ars Technica

Bon Jovi is bundling a digital iTunes copy of its new album, Lost Highway, with advance tickets for October concerts in Newark, New Jersey. American Express cardholders can use the online presale program from June 12 through June 14 and the general public can use it from June 15 through June 22. On June 23rd, tickets without the bundled downloads will be available.

Those who purchase the tickets will receive a code from Ticketmaster to download "Lost Highway" from iTunes beginning on its June 19 release. The tickets that include the downloads cost $9.99 extra - the price of an album download on iTunes - so its not exactly a promotional offer and will count towards SoundScan and the album's Billboard chart position.

For those fans who have already pre-ordered "Lost Highway" from BonJovi.com or iTunes, Bon Jovi and Ticketmaster have arranged for iTunes to provide a passcode that will enable them to purchase a single presale ticket for $9.99 less without adding the digital album.

The program is similar in concept to past initiatives by Ticketmaster, but this is the first "all-in" presale that bundles together a ticket and a digital album as a single transaction sold via Ticketmaster.com.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), along with a coalition of public interest groups, trade associations, and businesses, urged a federal appeals court Friday to overturn a damaging lower court ruling that puts companies that provide remote computing technologies at risk of copyright infringement liability. The ruling involved CableVision's plan to create a Remote Storage Digital Video Recorder for its users.

The Remote Storage DVR, or RS-DVR, would have meant Cablevision wouldn't have to install hundreds of thousands of digital set-top boxes in subscribers' homes. The company has already installed more than 500,000 set-top boxes in customers' homes, and the planned RS-DVR would have saved the company a substantial amount from administration and maintenance costs by allowing users to remotely store recordings instead.

Twentieth Century Fox, the Cartoon Network, and other television networks filed suit, and a district court in New York ruled against Cablevision, reasoning that Cablevision, not its customers, was making the copies. That ruling has now been appealed by Cablevision.

"The Supreme Court has already ruled that consumers have a fair use right to time-shift TV shows," said Fred von Lohmann, EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney. "It should not make a difference whether the copies are stored inside their set-top boxes or back at Cablevision headquarters."

After months of speculation ever since the iPhone was first introduced earlier this year, Apple Inc. has confirmed that there will be support for some third-party applications. However, developers will be able to create applications using the full Safari engine instead of writing code that works directly with the handset.

The announcement was made by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at this year's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. This move means that Apple is able to keep its iPhone interface secure. Developers will be able to use standard Web 2.0 + AJAX coding to create applications that will be able to be integrated with the iPhone services.

Apple also said that no software development kit (SDK) will be necessary, developers will only need to understand web standards. The company also revealed that there is no secret 12th application as has been speculated. "Third party apps can be live from day one", Jobs said. "This is how Google do it, how Saleforce do it and it means that the phone will stay secure."

The iPhone is due out in the U.S. on June 29th.

TorrentSpy, a popular BitTorrent search engine, has been ordered to log the activities of its users. The order was made by federal Judge Jacqueline Chooljian on May 29th. Chooljian however, has granted a stay of the order on Friday to allow TorrentSpy to file an appeal. The appeal must be filed by June 12th according to TorrentSpy's attorney, Ira Rothken. TorrentSpy's privacy policy specifically states it does not log user activity.

"It is likely that TorrentSpy would turn off access to the U.S. before tracking its users," Rothken said. "If this order were allowed to stand, it would mean that Web sites can be required by discovery judges to track what their users do even if their privacy policy says otherwise." The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) sued TorrentSpy back in February 2006, accusing it of, "making it easier to download pirated files."

According to Fred von Lohmann, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), who called the ruling "unprecedented", the decision could have a chilling effect on e-commerce and digital entertainment sites. The EFF is currently reviewing the courts decision and von Lohmann said so far it is a "troubling court order."

Internet radio providers such as RealNetworks and Yahoo have sent letters to politicians to raise awareness of a troubling provision in the Copyright Royalty Boards's (CRB) new fees for Internet radio broadcasters that demands a minimum of $500 per "channel" every year to cover the administrative costs of SoundExchange. In the letter, the Internet radio providers said this would force them to give SoundExchange billions of dollars in addition to significantly higher royalty rates.

RealNetworks, for example, offers over 400,000 channels through its Rhapsody music service and so could be forced to pay an annual fee of $200 million. The letter explains how SoundExchange does not necessarily plan to distribute these administrative fees to artists, and has provided no explanation of how the fees are used.

The letter also points out that the fee was capped at $2,500 per webcaster until 2005, but the new rules have no cap at all. When Ars Technica spoke to Internet radio provider Live365 a month ago, it discovered that Live365 handles all of its station administration and licensing itself and merely submits reports to SoundExchange "as a single service." So why does SoundExchange need $500 per channel for administration when licensing and administrative services are already largely handled by Internet radio providers?

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a public notice on Friday, looking for comments on the proposed merger of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. The proposed merger, which is values at $4.7 billion, has seen a lot of industry lobbying, congressional hearings and intensive Wall Street analysis since it was announced back on February 19th.

The FCC is trying to determine whether it is in the public interest for both licenses to be controller by a single company. In 1997, the FCC granted each company a license which stated that one licensee will "not be permitted to acquire control" of the other. The clause was there to ensure "sufficient continuing competition."

The proposed merger is subject to approval by theDepartment of Justice, which will examine possible competitive harm from the combination. The acceptance of the applications for filing starts an informal "shot clock" at the FCC. The FCC tries to finish its its review of mergers within 180 days.

If it is to succeed, the Department of Justice will have to conclude that the merger of the country's only two Satellite Radio providers can not be considered anticompetitive and the FCC would have to allow both to break the condition of the licenses that forbids such a merger. In their defense, Sirius and XM say that a lot has changed in 10 years and now satellite radio competes with all forms of "audio entertainment," including HD Radio, MP3 players and even mobile phones.

Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, has denied rumors that the company is about to offer music downloads without digital rights management (DRM) restrictions. The rumors, which surfaced yesterday, indicated that the company would follow EMI Group by selling DRM-free tracks via Apple Inc.'s popular iTunes download service.

"The rumor is completely untrue," Peter LoFrumento, Senior Vice President at Universal Music Group told Pocket-lint.co.uk. Many in the market for music downloads hope that the record industry will eventually scrap Digital Rights Management. Steve Jobs pointed out in an open letter earlier this year that DRM on downloads of tracks that are available on unprotected CDs is unnecessary.

EMI is currently selling its catalog, DRM-free, through iTunes at a premium rate. However, Apple has been criticized for quietly embedded personal information (users name and account email details) into each DRM-free track sold. The move was made to discourage file-sharing of DRM-free downloads, as the downloads aim to remove restrictions on personal use, not to permit unlimited sharing.

YouTube.com co-founder Steve Chen has said that consumers in many areas of the world will be able to access videos from YouTube through mobile phones by next year. He made his comments to a group of enthusiastic Web users at a forum on Internet developments in Taipei. The Taiwan-born entrepreneur said he expected that clips between 30 and 60 seconds would attract commuters on subways or buses.

As for those who travel by train, clips of up to 10 minutes will be most popular to pass the time, he believes. He said that as technologies continue to develop at a rapid pace, web sites should keep up by offering richer content and greater mobility so users can access the content from almost anywhere.

Chen and his family emigrated to the United States from Taiwan when he was eight years old. In 2005, he setup the video-sharing website in San Mateo, Calif., with colleague Chad Hurley. The company, which was once run mainly out of a garage, sold to Google for $1.65 billion last year, and all because Chen and Hurley needed to find a way to get videos to each other that were too big for email.

Source:
Yahoo (AP)

We reported a few days ago about Alienware's Hangar18: HD Entertainment Center that allows you to record and play back high-definition content in up to 1080p via an HDMI output, delivers the pristine audio quality of an onboard 5.1 surround sound amplifier and offers up to 2TB of hard drive space to store a lifetime's worth of digital media content. However, the inclusion of a Blu-ray burner was originally planned for Hangar18, but the company ran into difficulties.

"When we first started working on Hangar18, we'd qualified it under Windows XP to work with Blu-ray, and it worked flawlessly," product manager Marc Diana said. However, the company waited for Windows Vista before releasing Hangar18, and discovered during testing that everything wasn't working as it should be.

"What we saw was that the Blu-ray playback support wasn't working correctly with our integrated nVidia 6150 graphics. The nVidia 6150 is a great integrated graphics choice because it has on-board HDMI support and PureVideo support; it's the most recent integrated chipset on an HDMI-supported board. But we saw stuttering with the Blu-ray playback. It would look like frames were being skipped," Diana said.

According to a report by BusinessWeek's Peter Burrows, Apple Inc. may have a pleasant surprise for iPhone seekers looking to pick up their own iPhone on June 29th. Burrows cites industry sources as saying that three million iPhones will be available through Apple and AT&T stores around the United States at launch. If true, it would mean that pretty much all consumers interested in buying a model at launch will get one.

"Still, Apple will need to execute flawlessly. In units built and shipped, the iPhone launch will dwarf anything Apple has attempted," Burrows wrote. "It plans to have 3 million iPhones ready for sale on June 29, two sources say." The report noted how the iPod wasn't a huge hit when it launched in 2001, but now has sold over 100 million units, helped by constant production increases.

"Jobs did so expertly, often creating a sense of scarcity by running slightly short of demand," Burrows implies. "With all the buildup over the iPhone, pumping up demand will be the least of his concerns."

Sony Corp. has updated its BRAVIA LCD line-up again with 40", 46" and 52" TV sets. The new XBR5, XBR4 and W series all feature 1920x1080 (1080p) 10-bit panels. They include BRAVIA Theatre Sync for hassle-free multimedia viewing as well as Xross Media Bar (XMB) interface and Sony Digital Media Extender (DMeX).

Using DMeX, users can use a BRAVIA Internet Video Link module can hbe used to access (high-definition) video content from sites such as Grouper and AOL. "Our BRAVIA flat-panel LCD HDTVs have the leading market share because they deliver an outstanding level of picture quality and style that people appreciate," said Sony Home Products VP Randy Waynick, senior vice president of Sony's Home Products Division.

He added: "The new line elevates our commitment to full HD1080p televisions displays, while offering many more choices." The W series TVs support x.v.Color technology, BRAVIA Engine EX video engine and can play from 1080/24p and 1080/60p sources. The XBR4 and XBR5 support 120Hz "Motionflow".

Most models will ship in August, with some coming in September, with prices that range from $2,700 to $5,100.

According to memory module makers (particularly in Taiwan), an NAND flash-based iPod video is in Apple Inc.'s plans as has long been speculated. However, the company has set no launch schedule for such an iPod model. Currently available video-capable iPod models come with conventional hard disk drives (HDD), which are supplied by Toshiba and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, for storage.

Besides the iPod Shuffle and Nano, all iPods include a HDD. Using NAND flash for storage in MP3 players has key benefits in access times, power consumption and product lifespan. Some memory makers in Taiwan have reported that over the third quarter Apple placed monthly orders for about 20 million units of NAND flash, suggesting the company is planning for increased demand.

However, based on current price trends, Apple may have to hold off the NAND iPod video model for another while as the product would not be competitive.

Source:
DigiTimes

VidaBox has announced that it is shipping CableCARD-ready systems for customers looking to tune and record HD Cable directly on their media centers. "We're absolutely excited to finally ship systems with CableCARD, Blu-ray, and HD DVD support – everything in one box," said Steven Cheung, a co-founder of VidaBox.

He added: "These systems answer the prayers of many of our customers who’ve been clamoring for a total, turn-key solution with the latest in HD technology. Now complete with life-like HD cable support, our customers can finally realize their HDTV's full potential beyond just Blu-ray & HD DVD."

The new CableCARD feature is available in the LUX & MAGNUM systems, which are already packed with a silently cooled nVidia 8600GTS video card to render back crystal clear video in full 1080p, support for up to 7.1 Dolby Digital HD and DTS HD surround sound, and options for 2 additional OTA HD tuners (for a total of 4 tuners), 4GB of RAM, and up to 5TB & 9TB of onboard VidaSafe-protected storage on the LUX & MAGNUM, respectively.

"CableCARD-ready VidaBox systems can also act as a safe & secure digital media repository," Steven continues. "Recorded HD Cable content can be streamed and played back on up to 5 connected Xbox 360 systems, while music, pictures, video, and DVDs stored on the system can be streamed to 10 VidaBox media extenders. This is perfect for users who want to access their content anywhere at home – regardless of where they are."

Sony's eSupport site has posted a firmware update for the Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc player. The main updated feature is support for Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD audio decoding. Here is some more information...

Improvements over firmware version 1.60:

• Adds Dolby® TrueHD and Dolby® Digital Plus Audio decoding functionality.
  
• Improves BD-Java compatibility to enhance interactivity with some BD-ROMs.
  
• Enhanced playback compatibility with certain BD-ROM format discs.

Additional improvements over original firmware:

• Enhanced playback compatibility with certain BD-ROM format discs.
  
• Improves BD-Java compatibility to enhance interactivity with some BD-ROMs.
  
• Enhanced customer support capability
  
• Compatibility with the newly released BD-R/RE format (BDMV).
  
• Corrects the output signal status information for audio output and display when Linear PCM 5.1 channel soundtracks are played via HDMI.

Comments made recently by TiVo CEO Tom Rogers appear to open the door to working with DirecTV once again. Both companies previously parted ways as DirecTV's owner, News Corp., decided to back the technology of its NDS subsidiary. With DirecTV now getting the presence of Liberty Media, working again with the DVR maker is a possibility.

At a Deustche Bank conference, Tom Rogers said that he believed there may now be a possibility that the two companies could work together again, and why not? TiVo's best period of consumer growth was during its partner ship with DirecTV. Right now, TiVo could really use the boost.

Analysts say that concerns over the DVR manufacturer's capabilities to attract new customers is a big drain on its stock price.

Source:
Betanews

According to an Associated Press report, Amazon may be about to buy online movie rental (and now video-on-demand) service Netflix, in a deal that could cost over $1.5 billion. At least that is what's coming from a Jackson Securities analyst named Brian Bolan who has "heard buyout speculation from industry contacts."

"[Amazon has] excess currency, if you will. Netflix, on the other hand, has been facing stiff competition from Blockbuster and everyone else, so they've seen their stock go lower," the AP quotes Bolan as saying.

Netflix's rental service delivers DVDs through the mail. It has faced tough competition from rival Blockbuster, which has gotten much more competitive in recent times. The company also launched a video-on-demand service earlier this year called "Watch Now", similar to Amazon's Unbox service.

Source:
The Register

With the iPhone set to begin selling on June 29th, AT&T and Apple stores in the United States are preparing for a rush. The iPhone is easily one of the (if not "the") most anticipated products of the year. Apple fans are expected to line up in the early hours of the morning outside some stores in hope of getting their hands on one.

Stores are not expecting to see a lot of stock available. Some are saying they expect about 40, while others set the number lower than that. "If I were you, I'd probably try going to some little store in New Jersey that nobody knows about," a sales representative from the AT&T store in Times Square said.

Even Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs was noted as suggesting that technology pundit Arianna Huffington go to an AT&T store where lines might be smaller. "There's no question there will be high demand for the iPhone, at least initially," Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research said. "People buy new versions of the Mac operating system in droves when it comes out. You don't see that kind of demand when Microsoft launches a new version of Vista."

Intel plans to add a next-generation DVD playback option to its Santa Rosa platform in the second half of 2007, according to Intel mobile graphics spokesperson Mike Choi. The company will use a third-party hardware decoder to bring support for both Blu-ray and HD DVD optical disc formats to versions of Santa Rosa with integrated graphics processors (IGPs).

When the support for HD playback arrives, Intel's graphics solution will be optimized for Windows Vista. Vista currently loses some of its Aero effects during HD playback, but Intel's optimizations will allow users have both the Aero experience and HD experience simultaneously.

Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD are currently slugging it out in a format war, fighting to be the next standard. While the stakes are very high, it is far too early to make any sure predictions. Hopefully, production costs and hardware prices will fall, bringing in more consumers to decide their favorite.

Source:
Ars Technica

Warner Music Group and online retailer AnywhereCD have settled a dispute over the scope of an agreement the pair had related to selling digital music. Both parties also agreed to dismiss related lawsuits. The current agreement will be terminated on September 30th. AnywhereCD sells audio CDs with immediately available corresponding MP3 format albums for downloading.

However, it was the fact that the MP3s sold contained no digital rights management (DRM) protection at all that brought about the dispute. Warner demanded that the company stop providing DRM-free tracks, accusing AnywhereCD of violating their their agreement.

AnywhereCD sued Warner for breach of contract, business defamation and trade libel and Warner responded with its own suit asking the court to enforce Warner's termination of contract with AnywhereCD. Thanks to today's agreement, albums from Warner artists including Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Green Day, will continue to be available for sale without DRM until the end of September.

Source:
Yahoo

Dell has denied widely reported claims that the company is going to stop making LCD TVs. Websites and blogs started reporting on the alleged plan after a Taiwanese newspaper, Economic Daily, reported that Dell was set to exit the LCD display market as early as this month to focus on selling more profitable PCs. The company did acknowledge that it will make changes to its TV line-up but will continue to sell screens of 37 inches and smaller.

"We will soon offer a wider assortment of televisions from leading manufacturers that feature the latest technology and meet Dell's high standards for performance," said Dell spokeswoman Rachel Lyon. Back in February, Dell started selling Sony LCD televisions with screens between 40 inches and 46 inches on Dell.com. Dell also now sells TVs from Panasonic, Samsung, Viewsonic and Pioneer.

Dell is currently undergoing a corporate reorganization which includes laying off 10% of its 88,100 workers to rebound from falling market share and sinking profits. The company is also changing its core business model. In late May, the company announced it will sell desktop PCs in Wal-Mart retail stores, a step away from its "direct sales" model.

CyberLink Corp. has announced that the Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD movie playback software PowerDVD Ultra now supports the high-definition playback and content protection technologies of Intel's GMA 3000 series integrated graphics chipsets. It now supports Intel chipsets with GMA 3000 series integrated graphics along with Broadcom Media PC products to provide a robust and secure path for high definition playback including Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD.

"The Intel 3 series chipsets, featuring Intel's GMA 3100, X3100 or X3500 graphics, enable robust and cost-effective solutions that provide high-quality movie playback for standard and high-definition content, including Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs," said Richard Malinowski, Vice President & General Manager of Intel's Chipset Group. "PowerDVD Ultra's optimization for Intel's GMA 3100, X3100 and X3500 graphics, ensures exceptional performance, enabling users to enjoy high-definition movies on many mainstream mobile & desktop PCs moving forward."

"By working closely with Intel to optimize PowerDVD Ultra for the Intel GMA 3000 series integrated graphics chipsets, CyberLink is very happy to deliver a high-performance solution for the home entertainment PC market," said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink Corp. "As the leading software enabling playback of Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs on the PC, CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra features the latest video and audio technologies, and supports content protection mechanisms to deliver reliable playback of high-definition movie content."

The Federation Francaise de Tennis, the French national tennis organization and Ligue de Football Professionnel, the country's top soccer league, have joined legal action against Google's video sharing giant YouTube. Both joined a class action lawsuit that accuses Google of copyright violations. Bourne, a music publishing company and the English premier league filed the lawsuit last month.

YouTube has claimed that it has protection under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) against being found responsible for the millions of copyrighted clips uploaded by third party users without permission to the service. Viacom sued YouTube for $1 billion back in March. Those in the class action lawsuit want unspecified damages and an injunction forcing YouTube to change its business model.

"We formed a firm conclusion that on Google and YouTube there is rampant copyright infringement," Louis Solomon, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the suit, said. "We think it's wrong and are eager for a judge to decide the issue." New York-based Cherry Lane Music Publishing also joined the class action lawsuit against YouTube. It owns more than 65,000 copyrights, including the publishing rights to music from Elvis.

Google Inc.'s YouTube service has gotten its first content agreement with an independent TV station. The company announced a partnership yesterday with Hearst-Argyle Television, which will bring local TV programming from five markets — Boston, Manchester, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore - to dedicated YouTube channels. "We have invested significant resources in our growing digital media efforts," Terry Mackin, executive VP of Heart-Argyle Television said.

He added: "With Google and YouTube, we can now better engage users and advertisers with our award-winning local video content and with new user-generated content while further broadening our reach beyond the boundaries of our media markets." The content currently available is mostly news clips, but it will expand to weather, "entertainment videos," local high school sports, other local TV shows, and local amateur entertainment.

YouTube also recently announced a deal with EMI that will bring music videos to the service and a strategic deal with NBC/Universal to get exclusive clips and content from NBC TV shows. Apple Inc. also recently announced that YouTube videos will be accessible through the Apple TV device.

A Silicon Valley based start-up, Lala.com, announced on Monday it will launch an "iPod compatible" online music service that will use free-play of online songs to attract potential buyers. The service will be offering music from the world's fourth largest record company, Warner Music Group, when it launches. It "says" it will sell DRM-free downloads, but considering they only offer downloads directly to iPod, and not to PCs, that kind of defies the point?

The company is in talks with other major record companies to expand the service with more music. Lala will offer free online song play without advertising, hoping to make up for licensing costs of playing the music online with sales of songs. "We believe over the next two years we might lose $40 million," founder Bill Nguyen said in an interview with Reuters.

He added: "We expect up to 70 percent of people will be freeloaders just listening to the music but around 30 percent will be buying music." With CD sales dropping 20% in the first quarter of 2007 and digital downloads unable to make up for it, the music industry is willing to experiment with new models and new ideas.

DivX Inc. and NXP Semiconductors have announced the DivX Certification of a series of processors designed to power a variety of device categories, including IP set-top boxes (STBs), digital media adapters, personal media players and in-car media players. Specifically, the NXP Nexperia processors PNX0190, PNX0191, PNX9520, PNX1501, PNX1502, PNX1503, and PNX1520 are now DivX Certified.

The chips will play back DivX video content at Home Theater resolutions and will support DivX Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology, enabling compatibility with download-to-own video services. The NXP processors are among the first DivX Certified chipsets for the IP set top box market, which will provide another way for end users to enjoy DivX content from the Internet or their PCs directly on their televisions.

"Certification of the NXP chipsets represents the expansion of the DivX common media language to important new device segments, like STBs and digital media adapters, which will provide users with the seamless ability to enjoy digital content anytime and anywhere," said Kevin Hell, President, DivX, Inc. "We’re pleased to work with NXP to enable new categories of DivX Certified consumer devices that will meet the global demand for a high-quality DivX media experience."

According to figures from Internet analysis firm Comscore, Google Inc. has become the leading online video property, serving up 1.2 billion video streams and 57.4 million unique people streaming videos in March. Google's YouTube video sharing service drove the numbers up for the company to a 16.7% market share, serving 53.5 million unique streamers and delivering 1.1 billion streams alone all by itself.

Yahoo came in second with 434 million streams, followed by Fox Interactive Media, which owns MySpace, with 421 million, Viacom with 260 million, Time Warner with 222 million and Microsoft with 151 million. 71.4% of U.S. Internet users streamed videos in March, with three in ten streaming from YouTube.

An average of 145 minutes of video was watched per viewer. The total figure of video streams was more than 7 billion.

Source:
TG Daily

Corel Corporation has announced it will demonstrate its InterVideo WinDVD high-definition playback software with Intel Clear Video Technology during Computex Taipei this week. WinDVD is one of the most popular software applications for movie playback on PCs and using Intel's Clear Video Technology, it can deliver a rich HD playback experience.

Intel Clear Video Technology is included on all Intel G965, GM965, G33, and G35 Express chipset-based platforms. It is a combination of video processing hardware and software technologies that deliver enhanced high-definition video playback, sharper images, precise color control and an advanced display capability.

In addition to hardware decode acceleration, Intel Clear Video Technology uses Advanced Deinterlacing and ProcAmp color controls to deliver sharper, more vibrant video images. "Hardware decode acceleration support and advanced de-interlacing deliver stutter free playback with clearer, more detailed images by eliminating many of the jagged edges associated with interlaced content," explained Blaine Mathieu, Vice President and General Manager, Products and Strategy, Digital Media at Corel.

Toshiba Corp. has announced it aims to put HD DVD hardware into all of its laptops starting next year, pushing the HD DVD optical disc format forward once again. "The demand is there: people want to watch their favorite movies in high-definition on the road," Toshiba Senior Vice President Hisatsugu Nonaka told reporters at a news conference. Sony equips PS3 consoles with Blu-ray Disc players to guarantee Blu-ray playback capabilities in millions of homes.

According to research firm IDC, Toshiba sold about 9.2 million notebook PCs in calendar 2006. Presumably, adding HD DVD hardware to all of its laptops, even next year, would push up the prices and could affect overall sales. Meanwhile, Sony shipped 5.5 million PS3s by the end of March, selling 3.6 million of those units.

Toshiba also announced that it will begin selling laptops that use flash memory for storage from June 22nd. NAND prices have fallen enough to make notebooks with 64GB of flash, needed for Windows Vista. "We think flash laptops are about ready to break into the consumer market, and will start to catch on around next summer," Nonaka said. While flash laptops have many benefits like being lighter and quieter, they are priced at around 400,000 yen ($3,286).

Alienware has introduced the new Hangar18: HD Entertainment Center. Enhancing the way you watch, listen, share and download entertainment, the Hangar18 allows you to record and play back high-definition content in up to 1080p via an HDMI output, delivers the pristine audio quality of an onboard 5.1 surround sound amplifier and offers up to 2TB of hard drive space to store a lifetime's worth of digital media content.

"Alienware's new Hangar18 offers more than just a home theater solution, it lays the foundation for a truly unforgettable high-definition experience," said Frank Azor, senior vice-president and general manager of Alienware's Worldwide Product Group. "Benefits such as HD video playback, massive storage capacity, convenient wireless capabilities and onboard theater-quality sound bring new meaning to the phrase 'all-in-one.'"

It includes a built-in 5.1 surround sound amplifier pumping out up to 200 watts per channel of high-octane audio. There is also an onboard HDMI interface so you can connect all your video and audio through one cable source, while enjoying crystal-clear viewing at full 1080p resolution with High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) enabled. Wireless functionality that allows you to stream music, videos and pictures to other Windows PCs, mobile devices and media extenders in your home.

Yet another defendant in a copyright infringement case brought by the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) crackdown on file sharing has decided to fight back with strong accusations. Suzy Del Cid has filed a counterclaim against the trade group that mirrors one filed by Tanya Andersen in October 2005. UMG v. Del Cid is being heard in the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Del Cid has accused the RIAA of computer trespass, conspiracy, extortion, and violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act in her counterclaim. It claims that, "these record companies hired unlicensed private investigators—in violation of various state laws—who receive a bounty to invade private computers and private computer networks to obtain information—in the form of Internet Protocol ('IP') addresses—allowing them to identify the computers and computer networks that they invaded."

Of course, if Del Cid had a shared folder on KaZaa, she may have a hard time convincing the court that MediaSentry trespassed. However, she did allege that the RIAA used private investigators unlicensed by the state of Florida to track her online activities in violation of Florida law. She also claims that the RIAA violated Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by "knowingly collecting an unlawful consumer debt," referring to the Settlement Support Center's attempts to settle the case before the lawsuit was filed.

Melodeo Inc. announced plans on Tuesday to help music fans expand what they can do with their iTunes digital music collections, going beyond the desktop computer and iPod. The company will offer a service that will stream personal libraries to mobile phones. The idea is to let consumers listen to their digital music on the go without having to bring portable players with them.

The service would also let users access songs from their library on more than one personal computer. Melodeo's vice president for music services, David Dederer, said revenue could be from monthly fees for the service, software download fees, or audio advertisements. The company would have to pay the same fees paid by Web-based radio services, or a tenth of a cent per song play.

"We're doing everything we can to follow the current legal guidelines and standard industry practices where the legal guidelines are not crystal clear," said Dederer. He said he expects the first version of the service to launch in six to 12 weeks. At first the service will be limited to iTunes libraries, but will expand to other digital music services after.

Source:
Reuters

If you live in the United Kingdom and pay your TV license, then the BBC Trust (the body that oversees the BBC) wants to hear from you. The body wants to know what the public thinks about about the BBC's proposed new high definition (HD) television channel. The development will be funded through license fees paid by citizens, so BBC Trust is giving you the opportunity to have your say on the matter.

Starting in 2006, the BBC ran a trial of HDTV broadcasting but for the scheme to develop further, it must be approved by the BBC Trust body. The closing time and date for receipt of responses is 5pm, 19 June 2007. The group is taking feedback via its website, but users can also write directly to it or email it instead.

To get involved, click here.

Source:
Pocket-lint.co.uk

According to Enterbrain, a Japanese publisher that tracks video game console sales, Nintendo's Wii games console outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) console by more than five to one during the month of May. The firm said that Nintendo sold about 251,794 Wii consoles in Japan in May, while the PS3 trailed behind with 45,321 sales.

The figures indicate that Nintendo is continuing to extend its lead over Sony in Japan, with the Wii outselling the PS3 by about four to one in April. Nintendo has seen impressive sales for its Wii console across the world since it launched last year, and the company's portable offering, the DS, has seen very strong sales in its market.

Nintendo has sold about 2.49 million Wii consoles in Japan since it was launched back in December. Sony has sold about 928,642 PS3s in the territory since last November.

Source:
Yahoo

In a decision which is devastating to the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) campaign against file sharing, both parties in Atlantic v. Andersen case have agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice. This means that Tanya Andersen, a disabled single-mother of a nine year old daughter, is the prevailing party and the door is now open to recovering attorneys fees.

The Oregon woman was accused of sharing gangsta rap music using the KaZaa P2P client. She completely denied involvement in distributing tracks like "Hoes in My Room" using the P2P network and filed a countersuit accusing the record industry of racketeering, fraud, and deceptive business practices in October 2005. The RIAA alleged that she shared the songs with the handle "gotenkito."

Last month, Andersen filed a motion for summary judgment, saying that the plaintiffs have "failed to provide competent evidence sufficient to satisfy summary judgment standards" to show that she was guilty of copyright infringement. A forensic expert hired by the RIAA also completely failed to find any evidence whatsoever on her hard drive to support the RIAA's allegations.

Do you remember that Microsoft's Soapbox service was closed to new users due to fears that users were uploading copyrighted content without permission? Well, the service is again open to the public after two months and now has several "proactive automatic filtering technology" products implemented that were produced by Audible Magic (as well as some of its own).

"As a software company, we have a deep belief in the responsible use and aggressive protection of intellectual property and see these as important steps to ensure the viability and success of our user-generated video service over the long term," Rob Bennett, general manager of Entertainment and Video Services at MSN, told Ars.

Audible Magic's technology enables the service to check for "fingerprinted" content. Uploaded videos would be compared against Audible Magic's database to check if the audio track is the same as that of any protected content. This feature should work pretty fast and should be very effective.

"In addition, Microsoft is building tools to help content owners with automating certain parts of notice and takedown for anything that might not be caught during proactive filtering," Bennett said. "These tools do not use fingerprinting—they help content owners find content that might have slipped through the filtering, then allow them to more easily determine if it needs to be taken down, and to let us know in an easy, seamless fashion."

Sony Corp. had a pleasant and welcome surprise for anybody who was waiting for its BDP-S300 player, announced back in February, to become available with a price tag of $599. Sony announced today that the Blu-ray player will cost $100 less, retailing for $499 instead. That figure is half of what the company's first Blu-ray player was priced at just six months ago.

The new player has essentially the same capabilities as the older BDP-S1 but is smaller. Sony cited lower production costs and growing demand for Blu-ray disc products for the surprise price cut. On the other side of the battlefield, Toshiba is now selling a HD DVD player for less than $300, about 14 months after Toshiba's first player hit stores in the United States.

Neither format has caught on strong enough to have a "definite" advantage over the other in the market, but declining prices combined with the growing number of homes equipped with a HDTV set could set the stage for a big showdown as earlier as the 2007 holiday season.

Broadcom Corporation has announced new media PC solutions that enable playback of high-definition (HD) video content across the widest range of PCs in the industry. By lowering CPU utilization, and integrating seamlessly into Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows XP environments, Broadcom's media PC solutions enable mainstream PCs featuring integrated graphics to play back high definition content from either a Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD, as well as from HD downloaded or broadcast content.

The new Broadcom media PC solutions are available in three add-in card formats (including desktop PCI Express, PCI Express mini-card or ExpressCard 34), and as a chipset solution for PC motherboard applications. HD DVD and Blu-ray offer new and exciting features such as high definition video at 1080p Resolution, picture-in-a-picture, high definition multi-channel audio, 3D style graphics and user interactivity (for games, trivia, web-enabled content, etc.).

Toshiba Corp. has announced its new slim HD DVD-RW drive for notebook PCs that can read and write and rewrite to HD DVD-RW discs, and read and write to HD DVD-R discs and to standard DVD and CD discs. The new SD-L912A makes it possible to backup the large capacities of PC hard drives to the reusable format of HD DVD-RW discs, and store data-rich HD digital content. The drive's ability to rewrite to HD DVD-RW also opens the way to a wide range of applications involving storage and rewriting of large volumes of data.

The new product also supports high speed read and write for standard DVD and CD discs, and the complete library of different DVD and CD formats. The new drive is compliant with the EU RoHS 3 directive on environmentally hazardous substances, which came into force in July 2006. Toshiba will feature the new drive at the Toshiba Digital Media Network Taiwan Corporation booth (booth: B1234) at Computex 2007, which will be held in Taipei, Taiwan from June 5 to 9.

Sample shipments of the new drive are scheduled to start next month.

Plextor today announced the immediate availability of the TurboPlex PX-810SA DVD Super Multi Drive. The new model addresses growing customer demands for DVD burners that support Serial ATA, the evolutionary replacement for the Parallel ATA physical storage interface. The PX-810SA also includes a new bundle of value-added software applications for tasks such as data backup, video editing, and DVD authoring.

OEMs, VARs, integrators, and consumers all gain benefits from Serial ATA technology. End users enjoy fast 150 MB/sec data transfer rates. The interface supports one device per controller connection, eliminating master/slave configuration jumper issues for installers. SATA also provides a substantial pin count reduction from Parallel ATA, while thinner cables help air-flow and improve cable routing—big pluses for OEMs and integrators.

"Our first internal SATA drives were designed specifically for manufacturers, resellers, and integrators, but we found there was also demand from professional and business users for these drives," said Michael Arbisi, vice president of channel sales for Plextor. "The new PX-810SA is a return to the Plextor legacy of creating drives that appeal to professional and business users who need mission-critical recording reliability and quality, combined with a rich set of software tools and features. Support for SATA makes the drive even more appealing to users who need to quickly transfer and record large volumes of data."

According to a report by the TimeOnline, British Members of Parliament are using their taxpayer-funded expense accounts to buy plasma televisions and iPods amongst other things, according to unnamed insiders. The report alleges that Finance administrators have approved such items despite widespread public concern about abuses of the parliamentary expenses system.

It also alleges that MPs have re-mortgaged their homes to get thousands of pounds, and are using their allowances to cover the repayments. "There has been a successful claim for a very expensive, large plasma television and for a fish tank. After discussion among officials in the fees office, both were waved through," the report cites an insider as saying.

"Also, in the run-up to Christmas last year, a lot of MPs suddenly started claiming for iPods. The system really is outrageous." The row over the £87m annual expenses bill erupted last month when MPs backed new legislation to exclude themselves from the Freedom of Information Act.

"It is public money and it should be accounted for. I don’t believe MPs ought to be exempt under freedom of information and I thought the vote was a shameful day. This is precisely the sort of thing that gives MPs a bad name," Mark Hunter, a Liberal Democrat MP opposed to the new legislation, said.

P2Pnet's Jon Newton recently had contact with Russian MP3 site AllofMP3.com. Record companies accuse AllofMP3 of illegally selling music downloads to international customers. AllofMP3 is known for selling its DRM-free downloads at a fraction of the price iTunes and similar authorized services do. This fact, for a time at least, made AllofMP3 second only to iTunes in the music download market in the UK.

AllofMP3 told p2pnet that is now has 5,500,000 registered users worldwide. When asked about U.S. pressure on the Russian government with regard to Moscow's 13-year-old bid to join the WTO, specifically about the existence of AllofMP3, the response was...

"It is disappointing that United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab completely and deliberately mischaracterized AllofMP3.com. Furthermore, it is irresponsible to use AllofMP3.com as a negotiating instrument in an attempt to extract concessions from Russia in return for US support for accession to the World Trade Organization.

AllofMP3.com is a Russian business that is in complete compliance with Russian law."

Japanese electronics firm, Hitachi Ltd. and U.S. software company, Oracle Corp., will jointly market wireless tags in China that can help in the fight against intellectual property theft by providing a means to identify authentic products. Piracy of branded and copyright goods is rampant in China, causing friction with its trade partners. The Chinese Government is taking steps to improve protection of intellectual property and to crack down on counterfeiting operations.

As a result, Hitachi and Oracle are expecting an increase in demand for integrated circuit tags for a wide range of products. The IC tags are tiny chips that store information on where a product was produced and by who. A reader can be used to access such information and also to confirm that the product is authentic.

According to a Nikkei report, the IC tags will cost about 10 yen (about $0.08) each. In an initial step, both companies will target tickets for events such as the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

Source:
Yahoo (Reuters)

Seeking to product LCD screens fast and efficiently while also keeping up with demand in Europe for flat screen TVs, LG Electronics, LG Philips LCD, LG Innotek and LG Chem have opened a European LCD cluster in Wroclaw, Poland. Thee other component makers from South Korea are also housed in the cluster, making it a one-stop-shop for manufacturing all the components to make the TV sets.

LG said it has invested about €400 million in creating the cluster and has an additional €407 earmarked for further expansion in 2011. Approximately 4,200 local jobs have been created. "With this highly efficient one-stop manufacturing system, we can provide faster response to regional customers and markets while increasing competence in cost and price," said Yong Nam, Vice Chairman and CEO of LG Electronics.

Nam continued: "As the demand for LCD TVs is increasing more rapidly in Europe than any other region, the Poland cluster will play a core part in LG's overall LCD-related businesses." The company says it invested in Poland due to geographic location, a competitive workforce and support from the Government.

Source:
ABC Money

Motorola is preparing to offer a wider range of multimedia handsets to boost profits, according to company CEO Ed Zander. The company will not be relying on a single product like the Razr as it has been in the past. Zander explained the strategy to investors just a day after announcing 4000 employees will be laid off.

"We're not going to have another Razr. Every once in a while, something will pop, but there have been only three in recent years-- the Microtec, the Startec and the Razr," Zander said in a webcast address at the Lehman Brothers Worldwide Wireless and Wireline Conference in New York last week.

During this month and next month, Motorola will bring new models to Europe and Asia. These include the Razr2, Moto Z8 which features mobile TV, Moto Q 9 smartphone and Rokr Z6, a mobile phone/MP3 player. "So there are four of them, which proves we can still design some pretty wild things. But we need more of them, at more price points, with more geographies and more carriers," Zander said.

Of course, Motorola has a lot of catch up to do as competitors such as Nokia, already have a selection of smartphones / multimedia phones on offer. According to Gartner Inc., Nokia claimed a market share of 35.7% for mobile sales in the first quarter, quite far ahead of Motorola's 18.5% share.

A Chicago man has been charged for uploading copies of the hit TV show, 24, to a website before they aired on television. Federal authorities have charged Jorge Romero, 24, with copyright violations for illegally distributing episodes of Fox's show. He had downloaded leaked episodes of 24 and then uploaded them to LiveDigital.com, according to a federal complaint filed in Los Angeles on Friday.

The four episodes were from the sixth season of 24 and were uploaded more than a week before they were to be aired on TV. Romero was charged with one felony count of uploading copyrighted material to a publicly accessible computer network knowing the work was intended for commercial distribution.

If convicted, he could be looking at up to three years in prison.

Source:
Yahoo (AP)

We reported back in April that a Dutch TV show, Kassa, had done a show about Microsoft's Xbox 360 console scratching discs under normal use. It blamed the problem on a TSST DVD-ROM drive that is missing parts that stabilize the disc. Maglena Kunevam, the European Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, confirmed that she has contacted Microsoft about the problem and expects an answer fast.

She has asked Microsoft to explain how it has handled the problem specifically in the Netherlands, but also wants to know how big this problem is in other regions. There has been about 1,000 reported complaints in the Netherlands about this problem. Kunevam said that she expects a full response from Microsoft within a week.

Source:
Vara (Dutch)

National Public Radio (NPR) and a group of webcasters have filed for an emergency stay in the US District Court of the DC Circuit, looking for a delay on new royalty rates that will go into effect on July 15th. The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decided in March that royalty rates should be significantly raised. The Digital Media Association in conjunction with NPR is requesting that the "radical and arbitrary" royalty rate increase be delayed.

The new fee structure means webcasters much pay a flat fee for each song streamed on a per user basis. The fees, which would more than double over the next few years, are costly enough to knock out some of the smaller webcasters. The CRB recently rejected arguments made by the webcasters and only decided to allow webcasters to pay royalties based on average listening hours through 2008.

SoundExchange, which is in charge of collecting royalties, feared congressional action and said it would allow smaller webcasters to keep paying the same rates through 2010, but larger webcasters would have to get used to the new rates starting in July. Webcasters were not impressed by the offer, saying it throws larger webcasters "under the bus" and ensures that Internet Radio will never compete with satellite or terrestrial radio.

With the iPhone expected to finally become available in the United States this month, Apple Inc. is reported to have requested Quanta Computer to ramp up production. Reports are circulating that Quanta has received an order to produce 5 million iPhones with delivery scheduled to begin in September.

"It is important for the Company to gain new business to sustain growth and development," Quanta said, responding to media reports adding that, "the Company will not comment on specific customer, order or any types of confidential information." The company has produced various products for Apple in the past and is the world's largest producer of laptop computers.

, analyst Matthew Kather released a survey earlier this week of AT&T Cingular stores that were queried. "Most stores expect the phone on 6/15 or 6/22, and most expect to only have a few (highest number was 40 at one store) on hand initially." Kather's report states, "Overall pent-up retail demand at Cingular stores appears very strong, with about 15-20% of the stores we contacted keeping a waiting list for customers interested to purchase it."

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said on Wednesday that he expects the iPhone to begin selling before the end of June. Many expect the launch to coincide with Apple's World Wide Developer Conference (WWCD). Jobs is scheduled to deliver his keynote on Monday, June 11.

We have all had an experience of hearing a song in a language we cant understand that grabbed our attention, and it can be frustrating not knowing what the lyrics to the song are. Apple Inc.'s iTunes has decided to take on the language barrier in a very interesting way. The service has launched a new feature called Foreign Exchange which will get two artists from different countries to translate and cover each others' songs in their native language.

Wir Sind Helden, a German electronic act will participate first with +44, an American rock act featuring Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker, formerly of Blink 182. Wir Sind Helden is covering +44's "When Your Heart Stops Beating" and +44 is covering Wir Sind Helden's "Guten Tag." The content will be available exclusively through iTunes.

"The idea is exposing people to bands they may not listen to," Hoppus said. "In America, we don't really listen to music in other languages. I think it's a cool idea to get people to open their ears to music from different parts of the world." iTunes has a presence in 22 countries.

Source:
Reuters

Microsoft Corp. will introduce an initiative on Monday to promote emerging music acts across all of its digital services. The service, Ignition, will expose new artists and their music to consumers for a period of one month. Promotion will be done via MSN, Xbox Live and the Zune Marketplace. Maximo Park, a UK band, will be the first participating act.

The first single will be available as a free exclusive download from the Zune Marketplace, while the video will be available free on Xbox Live and can be streamed through the MSN service. Microsoft will provide a custom website dedicated to the band and its activities on the zune.net site and will host online listening parties of the act's current album on MSN Music.

Microsoft is also working with the band to produce custom content including artist-created playlists and "behind-the-album" commentary. "We don't want the same thing that is going out on MTV," Microsoft director of music marketing Christina Calio said. Ignition is a result of past, successful, music promotional efforts from Microsoft.

After the Zune launch the company started sponsoring artists' tours and the Xbox Live "Artist of the Month" program gave away free video downloads, interviews and a "Game with Fame" program that lets Xbox Live users compete with artists. The new Ignition program does not replace those promotional efforts, it acts as the flagship offering.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) published a statement on its website yesterday concerning the European Commission's publication of 2006 Customs seizures of counterfeit and pirate goods. In 2006, over 23 million counterfeit CDs and DVDs were seized at European borders by customs, according to the European Commission.

The level of seizures increased 139% compared to 2005. The EC reports that over 93% of all pirated products seized came from China, a huge increase form 51% in 2005. "These statistics underscore the urgent need for the EU to step up pressure on China before the WTO. China is producing and exporting millions of pirate products around the world. This has to stop," Frances Moore, IFPI Regional Director for Europe, said.

IFPI estimates that a third of all CDs purchased in 2005 were pirate – 1.2 billion pirate CDs in total. The global traffic of pirate CDs was worth US$4.5 billion in 2005 based on pirate prices.

Source:
Press Release

Retailer HMV is experiencing strong, healthy sales of Microsoft's Xbox 360, Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3. Sales of the consoles and games are holding up during the traditionally quiet summer months. The PS3, the most expensive of the consoles, is exceeding its sales targets but the retailer hopes for a price drop to boost it's overall performance.

"Sales remain in line with expectations, occasionally even exceeding them," commented Tim Ellis, head of games for the entertainment specialist. "We're looking forward to further games releases, and when the time's right, a suitable price revision to take the console to its next level of sales."

Microsoft's Xbox 360 isn't having any problems attracting buyers yet either, despite being on the market longer than its competitors. "The console continues to hold its own and I'm sure Microsoft will know when to consider stimulating sales further via pricing," Ellis said.

As for Nintendo, the Wii console is still one of the hottest items in stores about 6 months since it launched and supply problems are being improved. "Supply is stabilizing and Nintendo is doing a very good job of keeping us updated on key developments," said Ellis.

Nintendo is set to add another few games to the Wii Virtual Console service on Monday, including Zelda II, which will bring the total number of games on offer through the service to over 100. In over six months since the console launched, the service has served about 4.7 million downloads or about 16 downloads a minute on average since November 19 last year.

Super Mario Bros, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Super Mario World, and The Legend of Zelda are the top five games to be downloaded (in order). Microsoft's Xbox 360 has well over 100 Xbox Live Arcade titles on offer, leaving Sony trailing with just a few downloads available from the PlayStation Store. Sony does not yet update its service on a weekly basis like Microsoft or Nintendo.

The Wii still remains the only home console on the market without games that offer online multiplayer however, and it is rumored he Wii's online gaming service won't be finished development until next year. "Beyond the Wii Shop Channel, all types of people are getting connected and checking out the information and entertainment options available on the Wii Menu," said Nintendo marketing VP, George Harrison.

BitComet v0.89 (latest stable) has been released, providing a whole host of GUI improvements and bugfixes. BitComet is a BitTorrent/HTTP/FTP download management software, which is powerful, fast, very easy-to-use, and completely free. It contains many advanced features for BitTorrent download and extends its leading BitTorrent technology to HTTP/FTP to accelerate downloading up to 5 - 10 times faster, or more. AfterDawn users have downloaded this item 1,540,197 times.

Download BitComet v0.89 from:
https://www.afterdawn.com/software/p2p_software/p2p_applications/bitcomet.cfm

Here's the changelog since last stable release....

• GUI Improved: add "Hide this" to context menu of peer shared torrent list, no longer display the selected torrent files
  
• GUI Improved: add "copy title" to context menu of peer shared torrent list, copy the title of selected torrent file to clipboard
  
• GUI Improved: double click downloaded torrent file in peer shared torrent list to view corresponding task in task list
  
• GUI Improved: new icon in my shared torrent file list to show the shared, but not downloaded torrent file
  
• GUI Improved: peer shared torrent list will only refresh once when typing continuously in the filter edit box
  
• GUI Improved: items in peer shared torrent list will keep selected when auto-refresh
  
• GUI Improved: no torrent file will be displayed in shared torrent list in torrent file share disabled in perferences dialog
  
• GUI Improved: the default number to show in the shared torrent list is set to "unlimit"
  
• GUI Improved: new option of socket start interval(ms) in perferences dialog
  
• GUI Bugfix: upload rate displays text error in task list if max upload rate of task is set
  
• GUI Bugfix: operation to torrent will be misplaced after set filter to peer shared torrent list
  
• GUI Bugfix: task number in history task list is not refreshed upon 0 clock at midnight
  
• GUI Bugfix: "Open BC link" in file menu does not work if task summary pane is current active window
  
• Core Bugfix: Share ratio of BT task is always 0 if only uploading without any downloading