PgcEdit 0.5.6 beta 1 can delete all commands in a PGC, delete all commands in a domain, delete all commands in a DVD, blank out all title PGCs in a DVD and allows you to change the default colors of the GUI.

VCDEasy 3.0.2 supports more CD writers and contains a few minor tweaks.

MuxMan 0.14 adds a navigation section to the mxp files, allowing you to define all values of PGCs in all domains, including VM commands, cells/programs/chapters and much more. In addition, there are highlight streams in the content section and all 8 audio and 32 subpicture streams can now be defined using mxp or scp files.

Good news for our French readers: the French customer association UFC-Que Choisir, acting on behalf of a consumer who wanted to copy a DVD to a VHS tape in order to watch the movie at the home of his mother, has won an injunction against the companies producing/distributing the movie in question (Mulholland Drive) in the second instance. The court ruled that copy protection mechanisms are incompatible with the right to make a private copy. Obviously, the movie industry is preparing to sing their "we are doomed" song and at the same time preparing the appeal.

In a story last week, BBC reported that movie studios are seriously reconsidering the current release scheme, where a movie is only released to the home video market months after its theatrical release, despite the fact that the retail market revenue often surpasses the box office revenue.

DVD Rebuilder 0.84 should no longer create undersized files when using CCE 2.70, performs a checksum validation on the source directory to prevent errors caused by using another source in prepare phase than in encode or rebuild phase, handling of sources having a horizontal resolution of 704 pixels has been improved and the maximum bitrate calculation has been relaxed.

PgcEdit 0.5.5 now has a working preview under Linux (and potentially OS X as well) and fixes two bugs.

MenuShrink 2.1 colors the log and flags unreferenced cells, has an improved skip mechanism for "useless" menus, fixes the VTSM_C_ADT table (which could cause problems with DVD Shrink before) and fixes some other bugs.

More companies have joined the talks to unify the two high definition DVD formats: Matsushita, Panasonic and Philips.

PgcEdit 0.5.4 comes with the latest PgcEdit_preview that allows turning off of DirectDraw overlays, has an option to save menu background as PPM instead of BMP and fixes the Import First-Play/Intro/Closing clip macros that were broken in the 0.5.3 release.

PgcDemux 1.2.0.4 asks for confirmation when quitting and fixes the broken audio demux.

MyTheatre 3.26 allows you to set up recording gaps before and after a show, supports more cards, graph files loading has been improved and a few bugs have been fixed.

Mainconcept has just released v1.0 of their MPEG-4 AVC encoder, though first impressions seem to be somewhat less than stellar.

On the hardware side, there are now talks between the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray proponents to come up with a unified high definition DVD successor. I guess no potential customer would mind not having to worry about getting two players because not every movie would be available in both formats.

8x DVD+R burning is already here: the latest firmware upgrade for the BenQ DL DW 1640 does permit 8x burning on certain media. 8x certified discs are still missing though.

Two weeks ago, Intel's first dual core CPU offering was tested. Now it's AMD's turn.

Last but not least, the "DVD censorship" law (AKA the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act) has passed the US congress. I guess skipping unwanted ads, intros, warnings, etc. could also fall under this provision.

PgcEdit 0.5.3 has an option to delete all commands in the edit and popup menu, can delete commands in unreferenced PGCs via an option in the Call Cross References and some bugs have been fixed.

ProjectX 0.82.1.01 is much faster when demuxing LPCM audio, in PES demux, the sub ID of AC3 audio can be determined and a few bugs have been fixed as well.

VCDEasy 3.0.1 supports more CD writers, has an improved burning engine, comes with 2 new themes and fixes some bugs.

Yet another example how the DMCA is having a chilling effect on computing in general: image processing tools like Photoshop cannot support every digital camera to its full extent if parts of the image data is stored in encrypted form. In the end, once again the paying customer is left behind and limited in its choice of tools to edit the photos he shot.

Auto GK 2.06 no longer has the maximum quality mode (it's the same as 100% in quality mode anyway), no longer detects DV sources as hybrid and fixes a few bugs.

As you may know, the future HD DVD formats support 3 different video compression techniques. Now Warner has just announced they'll be using Microsoft's VC-1 for their HD DVD movies that should be released by the end of the year. On the other hand, the licensing problems (other companies have claimed to hold patents to technologies used in VC-1 and WMV-9 which could lead to Microsoft having to pay license fees themselves) are still unresolved, so you never know until the first discs will be released.

Apple, currently in the Blu-Ray camp, has announced their latest DVD Authoring software DVD Studio Pro 4 at NAB. Interestingly, it does support the competing HD DVD format.

Sonic, maker of Scenarist, and other DVD authoring softwares, has announced their own H.264 encoder at NAB, along with Scenarist HD, a tool to author HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray Creator, a tool for Blu-Ray disc production.

Speaking of Blu-Ray, a few more details have emerged on that format: Both Dolby Digital Plus and MLP lossless audio have been selected as optional audio codecs by the Blu-Ray association.

Last but not least, you may soon be shopping for 16x DVD±R discs even though your burner might not even be able to handle those speeds. According to Taiwanese disc manufacturers, 16x discs will make up the largest portion of shipped discs in the second half of this year, and discs made for slower recording speeds will gradually be faded out.

The latest build of the Haali Media Splitter always uses the aspect ratio setting in the Matroska container, rather than from the video bitstream.

SubtitleCreator is an open source tool to edit, create and adjust DVD subtitles that can be used in a variety of DVD authoring tools.

Fair Use 1.2 takes the VobSub subtitle size into account in the bitrate calculation, prevents sessions from being overwritten, and fixes project loading / indexing errors as well as v1.0 project import. Right now the thread does not contain a compiled full version of the 1.2 release but that should happen shortly.

HC 0.13 is faster, has an updated bitrate control as well as updated encoding profiles and an updated QLB matrix, has an option to suppress the output of the sequence end code and it fixes some bugs as well. The update applies to both GUI and batch encoder.

PgcEdit 0.5.2 is out. It contains all the changes since the first beta. The first 0.5.3 beta is also available. It has a little delay after the file requester, and the calls cross references has an option to remove VM commands of unreferenced cells and to clear the next/previous/gouppgc links.

DVD Rebuilder 0.8.3 reduces the likelihood of false positive detection and aborts in the "missing frames" check routine, contains a revamped subtitle removal routine, changes the minimum bitrate to 500 kbit/s which should prevent CCE aborts, and fixes a few bugs.

Muxman 0.13h fixes a big in 4:3 subpicture language.

Zoom Player 4.50 beta 4 can play DRM'ed WMV content even if it has DRM level 2000, improves VMR9 renderless support, has a magnetic hard docking feature (I guess that refers to docking of the GUI elements), has an advanced play list control interface and contains lots of bugfixes.

MPlayer 1.0 pre7 is the latest release of the multi platform and highly versatile media player and encoding application. While not quite the most user-friendly (commandline interface, though there are some GUIs for it), it does not rely on DirectShow filters and thus allows movie playback in a complete package that does not even require installation.

While the Blu-Ray camp is still undecided, HD-DVD will use the AACS copy protection system to keep us from making use of our fair use rights. Now they've released the first specs.

Nero has released an updated version of their Nero suite of tools. The new Recode 2.2.6.14 can write video for the PSP, supports 8cm CD and DVD media and MMV/MOD video input. The burning suite itself only contains bugfixes.

Fair Use 1.1 has a 4:3 autocrop feature, read error correction mode and can now extract subtitles to the VobSub format.

ImgTool Classic 0.91.5 final contains just the changes of the beta.

ImgTool Burn 1.2.0 remembers the source directory and closes the save image file dialog properly when pressing cancel.

Mpeg2Cut2 is another tool to cut MPEG-2 program streams (DVD, DVB, HDTV).

This one happened a few days ago but it slipped through until now: Nero, MediaTek and Ateme have announced a partnership to include NeroDigital technology into MediaTek's hardware MPEG-2/4 solutions. Both the widely used MT1389 and the MT1390 chip will be supported. I guess that will mean firmware upgrades for many players to handle NeroDigital (and generally the MP4 container, AAC audio and MP4 integrated VobSub subtitles and chapters).

Ateme seems to be more focused on the hardware market right now though: Together with Altera, they will present the first FPGA-based MPEG-4 AVC real time encoder at NAB 2005.

QuEnc 0.59 beta 4 has some changes in the rate control settings to help undersized 2 pass encodes and writes the MPEG-1 aspect ratio properly.

DVD Rebuilder 0.82.1 contains code to prevent undersized encodes using CCE 2.70.

The latest MatroskaSplitter supports Nero-style chapters in MP4 files.

How about this: our favorite 4 letter organization is filing lawsuits for filesharing in a network that they should not have access to. I sure hope judges will take a moment and consider if the RIAAs exhibit are not fruit of the poisonous tree and thus inadmissible, or if we're even dealing with a case of unlawful network access, an act for which there are stiff penalties.

Muxman 0.13g properly muxes AC3 stream with bitrates of 512kbit/s and higher.

ProgDVB 3.51.3 adds support for the GeniaTech DigiStart DVB-S card.

Ritek and CMC, Taiwan's largest manufacturers of optical media, are gearing up to produce HD DVD discs. Volume production could start as early as the 3rd quarter of this year. Not having any stakes in either HD DVD or the alternative Blu-Ray format, those companies will also produce Blu-Ray discs, but those are harder to produce and so volume production won't start until the 2nd quarter of 2006.

Take a look at the latest IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industries, or the world RIAA if you want) wishlist for the future: ISP storing more data about your online activities than required by law, giving that data up along with your identity without due cause (also known as a court order), filtering services and sites that offer substantial possibilities for illegal activities, prevent you from running any server software and prohibit you from causing excessive traffic (whatever that means). Or, any reasonable person's ultimate nightmare. I guess a camera pointed at the screen is the next step. And I wonder how an online rental service would work if my ISP cuts me off due to "excessive traffic that is an indicator of illegal activity".

Fortunately, we're not quite there yet, and there is a chance that the latest EU snooping regulation will go down the drain because it infringes on your right to privacy.

Auto Gordian Knot 2.05 comes bundled with XviD 1.1 beta 2, supports M2V input again, uses the latest DGIndex, audio and subtitle handle has been rewritten to be more flexible, transport streams with multiple video streams can be processed again and a few bugs have been fixed.

DVD Rebuilder 0.82 will automatically update your skins if they are out of date, prevents the use of adaptive quantizer matrices (they could lead to incompatibilities on certain DVD players), the number of passes in CCE Basic can no longer be changed and there are some smaller improvements and fixes here and there.

PgcDemux 1.2.0.3 has an option to not include the last cell time and audio demux now always starts at an audio frame header.

MP4 tools have finally started to mature. MP4box for instance, can split and append MP4s (the code's not perfect yet though), add chapters to MP4 files, and now changing the DAR/PAR is on its way as well.

Last but not least, as the battle over the future Canadian copyright legislation is fully underway, interesting details are coming to light. Even record label internal studies suggest that a large part of the "losses" the music industry is making is not due to music downloads.

PgcEdit 0.5.2 beta 4 has an option to load the PGN instead of PTTN into to SPRM, can save and import the color lookup table of the current PGC, supports incremental backups and there are a bunch of fixes as well.

Here's something for our Canadian readers: a recently started petition asks the House of Commons to properly consider the interests of the general public before making any changes to Canada's copyright law.

And then there's another interesting piece of software: the Haali Matroska Splitter does not only support pretty much everything you can put into a Matroska container, it also supports the MP4 container and subtitles in MP4 files.

QuEnc 0.59 beta 3 should be more stable, always applies the selected aspect ratio to MPEG-2 output, can automatically perform two passes to create both separate audio and video file, creates muxed MPEG files that have compliant PTS/DTS and SCR values, comes with a new mini DVD authoring mode and fixes some bugs.

ImgTool Classic 0.91.5 beta has a new file dialog that should open even on Win98, checks the size of the source directory, doesn't quite upon hitting escape and displays the proper help upon pressing F1.

Last month we heard the first rumors of dual layer DVD+RW discs. Now JVC has developed a dual layer DVD-RW (goes to a German article but the picture should tell you enough ;)

Auto Gordian Knot 2.02 detects the length of AVI input more accurately, the forced 4:3 output resolution detection has been improved and a few bugs have been fixed.

ProgDVB 4.51.1 fixes problems with the EPG.

BatchEncodeM2V 00013 alpha allows you to specify a maximum GOP size for a given framerate and fixes repeating lines in AVS script generation.

Last but not least, you might have heard about dual core CPUs. And unlike hyperthreading, the performance impact of having two CPU cores is quite noticeable, though not always. But at least you can multitask properly in every scenario now :)

VobBlanker 2.0.0.1 keeps the Vob ID/Cell ID sequence in the VOB layout, allows reordering of VOB ID and Cell ID sequences, unreferenced cells can be blanked rather than be deleted, the still time of blanked cells can be set to either 1 or 0 seconds, the status area of the main window is updated when loading a DVD, the initial and final menu size is shown in the main window, there is a new option to backup the VIDEO_TS folder and to make multiple backups, and a few bugs have been fixed.

VirtualDub 1.6.5 has a few new script functions, has a launcher for basic commandline-driven operations, allows multiple undo/redos for timeline edits, supports paletted BMPs, reports the dub input format to the log and fixes a number of bugs.

MenuShrink 2.0 has a new preview mode, allowing you to visually select which image to use in each mode, writes more specs compliant output, skips cells with non functional buttons and has a new panel to set the paths of the programs to be launched.

XviD 1.1 beta 2 has improved VBV support, fixes bugs in GMC and cartoon mode, improves compliance with DivX profiles and yields better quality at low bitrates.

FilmShrink 0.3.2 fixes several GUI bugs.

ProjectX 0.82.1.00 contains all the patches since the previous versions, fixes a file renaming problem, supports single URL FTP authentication, applies global PTS shift to TS input, and teletext pages are automatically terminated in demux mode if a page hasn't been properly terminated due to synch issues.

Muxman 0.13d sets the subpicture attributes in VTSI_MAT by track rather than stream, order and number.

Elecard, maker of the widely used MPEG-2 decoding filters, and a one click AVI to DVD / MPEG-4 AVC application (the codec just barely didn't make it into the last codec comparison), is being taken over by Germany's MainConcept. Mainconcept makes their own MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC encoder so it'll be interesting where the pooled resources will lead them. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the portfolio of Israel's Moonlight, whose portfolio contained many of Elecard's applications.

Good news for owners of the NEC ND-3520A drive. Within a months time, NEC plans to release a firmware upgrade to make this drive compatible with DVD-R DL discs.

Will there be dual layer rewriteable DVDs as well? A draft specification is already available.

It seems that movie download services may not be so far off after all. Both Microsoft and Sony plan to enter this business and Sony aims for their service to become the iTunes of the video world. Considering that Sony holds major stakes in the movie business (Columbia Tristar Pictures and now their takeover of MGM has just been approved), they might have to fight even harder than Apple to make this happen.

Last month's news can be found here.