News written by Jari Ketola (November, 1999)

Lik Sang International is offering a rather cool all-around player called Shinco 830. The player is able to playback DVD and VCD movies as well as MP3 CDs.
The player features everything we've come to expect from modern DVD players such as 10 bit D/A, Dolby Digital and DTS output etc. It's compatible with DVD, VCD3.0, VCD2.0 and even the DVCD (aka MiniDVD and SVCD). Of course the unit is also region free.
At a mere $319 the unit is more than interesting!

Disney has finally shed some light about their future plans regarding DVD releases. First of all they're planning on releasing DVDs in the future at the same time with VHS copies. It will be most interesting to see how this affects the VHS sales now that a DVD copy will be made available simultaneously. Also, unlike the current 'Limited Edition' DVDs their plans are to create a permanent DVD library consisting of 26 (animated) titles. The titles are to be realeased during the next two years, and will be available year-round. Finally Disney announced a special 'Disney Platinum Series' limited-time-only line. The Platinum Series consists of ten titles that will be released once a year starting in 2001.
The platinum series has the following titles: Snow White,'' "Beauty and the Beast,'' "Aladdin,'' "The Lion King,'' "Bambi,'' "The Jungle Book,'' "Cinderella,'' "The Little Mermaid,'' "Lady and the Tramp'' and "101 Dalmatians.'' As you can see, some of these titles are already scheluded for this christmas. It is yet unknown if the Platinum Editions are different from the ones out now.

For more information read the full press release!

RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has contacted the University of South Carolina Spartanburg about a student of theirs who was selling pirated MP3s and had turned his PC into a MP3 spreading site. Because of the copyrighted nature of the music the RIAA was reportedly ready to sue both the student and the university.

According to Frank Creighton, senior vice president director of anti-piracy at the RIAA, the RIAA was not looking for a lawsuit. They only made the university aware of the potentional liability and cost of the student's actions. "We request simply that they remove the material. We leave it to the university to decide what action to take," Creighton said.

InsideDVD will host an interview with Steve Gustafson and Mark Atkinson, two of the "Saving Private Ryan" DVD producers and broadcast it live on their website. You can send in your questions via e-mail or phone in your question live from a toll-free number that will be posted an hour before the webcast.

Steve and Mark will focus on the creative process they went through to create the DVD for this 5-time Academy Award-winning film.

You can start e-mailing in your questions Wednesday evening by sending them to www.insidedvd.com on Thursday, November 11, 1999 (Veteran's Day) at 10:00 PM EST (or 7:00 PM PST) to view the webcast and participate.

New Line is preparing a Platinum Series edition of David Fincher's Se7en. No exact details are available as of yet, but you can count on it being filled with extras (and probably a commentary track). The disc will also be an RDSL dual-layer disc (as opposed to the current movie-only flipper version).

The release date is set for March 2nd, 2000.

DeCSS, the tiny bit of software that makes it possible for anyone to copy encrypted DVD-video content, has caused a huge fuss on the Internet.

Wired.com has interviewed various parties regarding the matter, but unfortunately they weren't able to get a comment from the MPAA, whose word has alot of weight in the Hollywoodian motion picture industry.

Xing Technology Corporation, the producer of XingDVD player, has not yet commented on the matter. Xing had not encrypted their DVD decryption key, which enabled the hackers easily reverse engineer 170 new decryption keys. In essence it means that DVD format is now open. DVD-movie producers could of course remove the XingTech -encrypted key from future DVDs, but it wouldn't make any difference, since there would still be 170 more keys to use.

According to CSS license Xing Technology Corporation will be fined $1M for breaking the license terms.

Buena Vista is still holding back on releasing anamorphic DVDs. The upcoming Life is Beautiful "Collector's Series" DVD will be 1.85:1 widescreen (non-anamorphic), with English 5.1 and original Italian 5.1 soundtracks, a "Making of" -featurette, Academy Award TV-spots, and a trailer. That's not alot for a disc with a price tag of $39.95, now is it?

Of the remaining 1999 Buena Vista releases only the following are anamorphic: A Bug's Life Special Edition, The Castle, Break Up, Shakespeare In Love Special Edition, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, The Very Thought Of You and Rogue Trader.