RipIt4Me 1.4.13.0 is a bugfix release on top of the 1.4.12.0 version which introduced the full language name in the subtitle selection in movie only mode as well as a cancel button in the audio / subtitle stream selection dialogs. There's also a new preference to only run FixVTS on titlesets that need it.

DVDFab Decrypter 3.0.0.1 beta 4 is a complete rewrite that is better at detecting disc corruption and has a new UI.

Pioneer has announced some interesting Blu-ray plans at IFA in Berlin. Their second generation Blu-ray burner BDR-102 will support dual layer discs and read as well as write CDs. The third generation, scheduled for release a little more than a year from now, is supposed to at least read HD DVDs along with the usual write speed increases.

Speaking of Blu-ray, it appears that history is repeating itself. In the early ages of DVD discs, many players had a real beef with dual layer discs - and now the first generation of Blu-ray may face the same fate.

Just a few days after I've finally been bumped up into the headlines again, Apple's DRM has been taken down a notch, once more. August will go down as a good month for consumers and the RIAA will be all up in arms again.

And speaking of a bad month for the RIAA, another RIAA claim has bitten the dust when a woman that the RIAA was suing countersued, claiming the RIAA was using extortion tactics.

It was a big hit for ABC - now Universal Music is trying something similar: they are gearing up to give away music for free. There's obviously going to be DRM (do you think studios will learn until Joe Average tells them to put DRM where the sun don't shine?), and you'll be subject to some advertising.

The slowdowns on the forum yesterday were caused by a sudden spike in number of users when various sites linked to our FairUse4WM thread. FairUse4WM is a tool to remove Microsoft's DRM from individualized media files.

ProgDVB 4.77.2 supports the Shoutcast format in the media server and includes a reworked channel base that should be faster when dealing with a significant amount of channels.

RipIt4Me 1.4.11.0 copies IFO files directly after step1 into the Original IFOs directory, computes CRC32 faster and allows a default audio and subtitle track selection in movie only mode.

You may have to upgrade to the 64 bit version to play HD DVD or Blu-ray under Windows Vista. After some back and forth on the issue, it comes down to this: media player makers may require signed drivers (and an OS that only allows signed drivers - e.g. the 64 bit version of Windows Vista) to enable HD playback. So it will probably work like this: your brand spanking new computer with Vista will refuse to play HD DVDs/Blu-ray discs. You ask Microsoft, they blame Intervideo / Cyberlink / whomever else is allowed to make HD DVD / Blu-ray players, and they in turn will blame Hollywood. And you will have to get a different OS (besides a HD DVD/Blu-ray disc drive, a new GFX card that supports HDCP, a new screen that supports HDCP, and other new hardware if you can't get any signed drivers for your existing hardware).

RipIt4Me 1.4.10.0 fixes a crash introduced in the previous version.

BatchCCEWS 0.9.1.7 beta 5 fixes the Robshot Bach method in conjunction with CCE SP2.

Macrovision, infamous for corrupting analog video signals for centuries and more recently corrupting our DVDs and ridding the MPAA of a nuisance called DVD Decrypter, is at it again: this time it's extending the scope of the DMCA to digital recording devices - a scenario it never was meant to regulate. Bottom line, Macrovision wants digital video recorders to act on Macrovision, even though the DMCA limits the scope of Macrovision to analog devices.

RipIt4Me 1.4.8.0 contains some more debug code and fixes a crash caused by the preference's default button.

QuEnc 0.71 supports 448kbit/s audio encoding, restricts MP2 and MP3 audio encoding to 256kbit/s, contains small 2 pass ratecontrol tweaks and shows CLI parameter errors for 4 seconds.

Fox is about to enter the movie and TV episode download business. Starting in October, you'll be able to purchase full length movies for $20 a piece, starting at the date of the DVD release, and TV episodes for $1.99, the day after they first air.

Now you'll probably be thinking, for $20 I can get the entire DVD. So let's have a look: X-Men The Last Stand, $15.98 at amazon.com. 24 Season 4 (24 episodes), $48.99 at amazon.com, or Prison Break (22 episodes), $36.87 at amazon.com. So to sum it up, when it comes to movies DVDs are often cheaper, and when it comes to TV episodes, the price is about the same. But what do you get for that? They use Windows Media, you can put the content on two PCs and a portable media player, but you can't burn it and you'll need an Internet connection for the licensing. You also won't have a physical medium, no multiple soundtracks, no extras and Fox saves money since there's no packaging and no distribution cost. So, if it's cheaper for Fox and if you get a severely limited product (if you're reading this you are likely to know how to back up your own DVDs so you can play them anywhere and in any form you want), the pricetag is just way too high. Even a product that you can burn on a DVD, the price should be lower since it is cheaper for the studio to get the content out. And if you slap DRM on it, the value is severely decreased.. I'd say you have to shave off at least 50% to make it worthwhile. So, time for Fox to rethink their offering. At those prices, it's no wonder people will continue downloading stuff off P2P networks.

The Doom9 Toolbar Extension for Firefox 2.0 now supports searches.

Auto Gordian Knot 2.31 beta shows more custom audio info in the log and fixes two bugs. I also missed version 2.30 which ships with a multithreaded XviD build, the latest DGIndex and supports more audio and subtitle tracks.

RipIt4Me 1.4.7.0 can launch your favorite application after the ripping process, has a preference setting for the desired rip mode, detects DVD Region Free at startup (it can cause problems), displays the region code in the log and adds more debug information to the log to track down any problems that might occur.

VirtualDub 1.6.16 supports frameserving on the AMD64 platform, opens files with the .divx extension and fixes a bunch of bugs.

Would you buy a DVD burner that doesn't play DVD movies you can buy in stores? Probably not, yet Sony tries to sell you a Blu-ray burner that's incapable of playing prerecorded Blu-ray discs. The BWU-100A only plays your own recorded Blu-ray content - Sony cites the lack of HDCP capable graphics cards (we know this isn't true but the cards are hard to get), and playback software (they use WinDVD on their Blu-ray enabled notebook - so we know there's a software) as the reasons.

RipIt4Me 1.4.6.0 now produces a fully DVD compliant output in movie-only mode, has a mode to rip the main movie only but keep the menus functional, allows you to rip either widescreen or fullscreen version if both are available, saves the logs before opening the disc tray if desired, can abort DVD Decrypter via abort button and properly detects the drive letter Z.

AVIMux GUI 1.17.77 fixes a bunch of bugs.

ProgDVB 4.76.3 contains an updated server module.

AC3Filter 1.09a fixes compatibility issues with various video players and reestablishes the audio/video synch option.

BatchCCEWS 0.9.1.7 beta 4 's make new VAF option now properly works on CCE versions 2.50, 2.76 and 2.70 and supports the CCE SP2 trial.

After settling with Kazaa for $100 million last month, the RIAA has stepped up the pace in eliminating those pesky P2P services and is suing Limewire for not yet offering the software that filters out songs the RIAA doesn't want to be shared.

DivX 6.3 features improved performance and stability, has a new decoder with enhanced sharpening filters and better subtitle rendering and synch issues with malformed files have been fixed. The DivX Player now also supports video files larger than 2 GB and AVI 2.0 files and the video overlay is reset at the end of non DivX playback.

Side by side with the new codec, a new Dr. DivX has been released. It can delete source files after encoding, shut down after encoding and can publish encoded files to Stage 6 and last but not least there's a bunch of bugfixes.

DVDFab Decrypter 2.9.8.3 supports a couple more ARccOS corrupted discs and fixes a couple problems with ARccOS discs and DVD Shrink compatibility.

MPEG4 Modifier 1.4.1 supports OpenDML and incomplete files, can add / re-add packed bitstream, runs a lot faster, has a cancel button in the load/save window, doesn't freeze explorer when dropping a file onto the source textbox and now requires .NET 2.0.

YAMB 1.6 has an abort/cancel button in the log tab, can set the priority for commandline tasks, has a new file tagging tab, accepts negative delay values, supports splitting by milliseconds and has a chapter viewer / editor. There's also the usual amount of bugfixes.

AC3Filter 1.07a has a completely new mixer, supports DTS and DTS passthrough and features an AC3 encoder that can encode any audio source on the fly and send it out via SPDIF.

ImgBurn 2.0.0.0 has so many new features that I'll just point to the changelog as the task of breaking it down to the most important is about to make my head spin so fast that it's coming off my head.

LG has scrapped any plans to a hybrid Blu-Ray / HD DVD player. Whether this is a permanent move or whether it's just too much of a loss with the current market penetration of both formats remains to be seen.

How is that supposed to work? Movie studios have agreed on using CSS for future download to burn services. However, DVD-R/W has the location where CSS keys are supposed to be stored pre-written so no 1:1 copies of CSS protected discs can be made. Similarly, in DVD+R/W, firmware prevents those sectors from being written to. The article also mentions a new type of recordable discs, designed to more closely mimic DVD-ROM discs (the first few generations of DVD players sometimes had serious trouble playing any recorded discs, up to the outright refusal to play anything burned). But bringing a new disc type this late in the game where everybody is set on the existing discs which are widely available, I'm not sure if that'll work.

Warner music is making steps to obsolete audio CDs. Instead of the trusted old CDs they want to go for DVDs. One big roadblock remains in their way though: while you may be able to play DVDs in your living room and any halfway up-to-date PC, discmans, car stereos and the CD player in your bedroom won't be able to play the new discs.

Last month's news can be found here.