News written by Petteri Pyyny (January, 2009)

As many of you might have noticed, our site is one of those with various "flags" located in the top-right corner of the site, meaning that our site is published in several languages (currently in English, Finnish and Swedish). Now, we're planning to extend our reach to new language areas and we are hoping for your assistance with this plan.

That being said, if you speak/write fluently any "foreign" language (namely, something other than Finnish, Swedish or English) and are willing to volunteer for our translation project, please contact us via our feedback form.

Our translation projects are typically divided into small chunks, so the workload is quite small for each participating member. Translation includes software descriptions, site navigation elements and some technical terms. The project is meant to be run by volunteers, as we can't pay for your time. But of course, we'll hand out "AfterDawn merchandise" such as T-shirts, coffee mugs, etc to those who have helped us in these projects :-) And if you think your CV might benefit from it, we can also send you a letter describing your volunteer work with our translation project as well.

Read more...

Alright, it is the time of the year when I try to wrap up all the major events in digital video and technology that happened during the past year and also to take a quick look at what happened at AfterDawn.com as well.

Blu-ray and the death of the HD DVD

For the good portion of this decade, people following our niche have been anticipating the "next DVD format" to come. That finally happened in 2006, but the eve of the high definition optical video format was partly crippled by a format war. That format war finally ended earlier this year, when Toshiba gave up with its HD DVD format, marking Sony-backed Blu-ray the winner of the war. However, the prolonged development of the Blu-ray and the following format war delayed the potential adoption of the format so much that it remains a mystery whether the format will ever be able to replicate DVD's success story.

Various net-based video services, such as Hulu have made significant gains in the United States during the 2008. As more and more studios, TV production companies and broadcast channels adopt net as one of their more significant distribution channels, such services pose a real threat to Blu-ray's future in the U.S. It should be noted that due distribution contracts, smaller market areas and various localization issues, such services are rarity in most markets and in those markets, Blu-ray is often the only reasonable option for high definition video material. As a good example, here in Finland, the most HD channels you can get from any pay TV operator, is currently 10 and none of the major broadcasting channels provide HD material whatsoever. And of course Google is taking major steps into net video as well, specially after the introduction of HD material to Youtube earlier this year.

Read more...