Most of you has probably already read that the MPAA has released a tool for parents to "find copyrighted material" in their youngsters computers. Running this tool (even the latest update) on a NEWLY INSTALLED Windows XP Professional reveals that Microsoft has installed 2 copyrighted music files on my computer? Hopefully at least a few parents will check the result before blindly deleting the output from this 'tool'.

PGCEdit 0.4.9.1 adds a macro to check if the DVDShrink option "Logical remapping of enabled streams" may be safely used in full disc mode, clears PGC breakpoints when a new DVD is loaded and has a bunch of new options and fixes for the burning process.

DGMPDec 1.2.0 beta 4 can demux video from VOBs and corrects a deringing problem. Forum thread.

The RIAA just won't stop finding those illegal online articles. Now heise.de, a large german online magazine, is accused of violating the Euro DMCA by providing a link to Slysoft, makers of AnyDVD. If just providing a link to a webpage and reporting that 'the safety lock is not that safe' is illegal then... Well, here's the link again Slysoft.

ProgDVB 4.47.5 is released without a changelog.
Muxman 0.11f integrated sst functions amongst other fixes.

DivX Labs has released another beta of their "Fusion" which is more of a package than just a codec. The .divx file format, which is an "extended" .avi, can contain subs and menus as well as video and multiple audiotracks and should be playable on DivX certified standalones even though the menus and subs might need a firmware upgrade. Read more about Fusion in the forum.

Gordian Knot 0.34.3 fixes the problem with undersized x264 encodes.

In the ongoing MGM vs. Grokster case MGM are now bringing in the troops and has gotten a group of major international trade associations file a 'friend of the court' brief, trying to influence the Supreme Court.

Those of you with 64-bit CPUs might be interested in the Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.

Auto Gordian Knot 1.88 deletes the temporary .wav file after creating the .mp3 and updates the included DGMPGDec to 1.1.0.
PGCDemux 1.1.0.7 fixes a bug that made PGC demuxing fail if the number of language units > 1 in the menu domain.

The MPEG LA reports that they have a dozen separate companies claiming patents in Microsofts video codec VC1. This is indeed very interesting since now Microsoft will find itself paying royalties to the other companies and all of a sudden the VC1 might not be that cheap and interesting for HD-DVD anymore. And could it be a coincidence that just this monday Microsoft stated "that it won't pursue any more appeals against an interim EU competition ruling to ship a version of Windows without Windows Media Player."? Perhaps this version will be WMVx-codec free as well?

DGMPDEC 1.1 final was released a few days ago and if you're interested in following the 1.2 beta progress check the forum.
Nero 6.6 Update Package 2 corrects a chapter seeking bug, adds analyzing and autocropping in Recode 2 as well as some transcoding fixes in NeroVision Express 3.
Subtitle Creator 1.4.3 can align the subtitles vertically and corrects a bug related to changing the font size.

Gordian Knot 0.34.1 is released but since it's under heavy development check the forum for current status and changelog.
Then there's Muxman 0.10 adding code to detect mpeg audio multi-channel extension, adding audio tracks for total of 4 and made audio multi-file. As well as fixes for the multi-file dialog, the PAL stills and more...

And once again Poland came to the rescue regarding The EU Software Patent Directive. By requesting the removal of the item from the A-list agenda the desicion is delayed once again. But be sure to read this NoSoftwarePatent statement since they might still attempt to pass the directive.

Update: The forum is now ONLINE!

The forum is still offline. It looks like the current hosts technical staff don't do much on weekends. We're sorry about all this and hopefully it'll be resolved soon.

BSPlayer 1.1 remembers the fullscreen-mode when switching the desktop mode on/off, fixes a few issues with subtitles, adds MPEG audio channel selection, restores the broken "-pan" and "-ar" commands as well as some internal and cosmetic changes.
Projekt X 0.82.0.03 corrects a "wrong frame index positioning" for idd and d2v export and adds a option to the FTP named "drop client w/o logout; never use" (except if a server won't close a connection / blocks a command reply, because data transfer wasn't completed)

Digitimes reports about a lawsuit between two major Chinese DVDplayer manufaturer and the 3C patent group (Philips, Sony, Pioneer and LG Electronics) regarding the high patent costs for Chinese manufaturers that may lead to high refunds and a huge punitive claim.

We are aware of the forum issues but they are resolved and it should be back online real soon now.

Gordian Knot 0.34 beta is out. With support for x264.
ProgDVB 4.47 has a more extensive search for plugins.
Muxman 0.9 adds a bmp decoder, a mpeg I frame encoder, supports multiple files for video and resolves some compliance issues.

It seems like the cost of DualLayer-media won't drop as much as SingleLayer and they might even be just a footnote on the path to Blu-Ray/HD-DVD.

Satellite companies are now reporting that they will move towards AVC for their HDTV instead of Microsofts Windows Media HD technology.

The US Supreme Court has set the date for the MGM vs Grokster case. MGM has already lost, both in District Court and in a appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which both based their rulings on the Supreme Court's decision in the Sony Betamax case, which determined that Sony was not liable for copyright violations by users of the Betamax VCR.

If you got a Plextor PX-716A then the latest firmware (1.04) will enable 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD+R/DL and 2x DVD-R/DL.

While the forum is offline (hopefully not for long) you might update your DGMPDec to the official 1.1.0 and make sure that your AutoGK is up-to-date (1.87 at least)

Once again the The EU Software Patent Directive is on the agenda with a meeting scheduled for monday. Once again we set our hopes to Poland!

DGMPDec 1.1.0 RC2 (the successor to DVD2AVI/MPEG2DEC) is released. More in the forum.
ProjectX 0.82.0.02 corrects some issues with demuxing, adds a bunch of options and a FTP-client.

Sonopress (a huge media manufacturing company) joins the Blu-ray Disc Association as a contributing member.

It seems that the music industry now embraces the net for distributing digital music. John Kennedy, IFPI Chairman says in this IFPI report: "The biggest challenge for the digital music business has always been to make music easier to buy than to steal. At the start of 2005, as the legitimate digital music business moves into the mainstream of consumer life, that ambition is turning into reality."

QuEnc [beta] is up to 0.59, correcting some issues with B-frames and stabilizing the code ahead of releasing 0.6.

Do you recall the ad infected WMA files? Microsoft's response is that it's not their problem. So much for fixing bugs, eh?

And here's the reason why for the two days without news: I spent every free moment last week working on a GUI for mencoder. It supports the libavcodec MPEG-4 ASP codec, x264 (MPEG-4 AVC) and the wavelet based Snow codec, and has tons of useful features: persistent profiles and jobs, a job queue similar to VirtualDub but with some additional features a VirtualDub like progress window, and you can access all the parameters x264 and Snow offer (the libavcodec MPEG-4 codec has so many options it really drives you crazy so I limited them), and advanced users can still edit the commandline to suit their needs if the GUI should not support a desired option. I hope you find it useful..

XviD 1.1 beta 1 is out. It features rate distortion mode (VHQ) for B-frames, VBV support for two pass mode, overall speedup of encoder and decoder and new postprocessing functions.

DVD Rebuilder 0.70 has been publicly released. It contains a much reworked default skin, a mode to not re-encode the video, its one pass VBR prediction code has been improved and some bugs have been fixed as well. Please note that support for CCE 2.70.x is only available in the 0.71 VIP version which has not yet been publicly released.

DGMPEGDec improvement has been resumed: DGMPEGDec 1.0.13 is already up to beta 10. More info can be found in the forum.

BatchUpdateIFO 0.9.0.6 updates audio and subtitle tables better when extra audio and subtitle channels are added.

ProgDVB 4.47.3 now looks for plugins in the program's root directory as well as the plugins subdirectory.

In in yet another instance of ridiculous patents that raise the question of current patent systems do not require a complete overhaul with actual experts deciding upon granting or refusal of a patent, and a low cost way to challenge patents, Altnet, a P2P company specializing in licensed media distribution, is claiming money from other P2P operators for a patent granted to Altnet. The patent in question uses a hashing mechanism to uniquely identify files. I can still lively remember hashing algorithms from college, and hashes have been used for decades to ensure a downloaded file is valid and legit (MD5 hashes are commonly used in the open source world).

Shinco was the first one, but other Taiwanese and Chinese consumer electronics manufacturers might follow their lead and dump DVD players in favor of some home-brew format with lower royalties. As Philips continues to take legal action and preventing players from manufacturers who do not pay the DVD royalties into the EU and US, those manufacturers might see EVD or FVD as a good alternative.

NEC's latest model has hardly hit the stores, but preliminary specs for their next model, the ND-3530A, have already leaked. You can look forward to 8x DVD+R DL burning within a reasonable timeframe. The drive is also able to read dual layer DVD-ROM discs and DVD+RW discs at 12x.

VirtualDub 1.6.3 supports DirectShow audio pass through and capture in capture mode, improves the capturing performance, supports noise reduction, field swap and luma squish during capturing and fixes many bugs in the capturing department as well.

For a small overview of what was hot at this year's CES, check out mrbass' report. One thing he missed: Philips demonstrated 8x DVD+R DL burning at their booth.

Auto Gordian Knot 1.86 has better audio detection in file mode, handles PCM audio better, displays the video PID upon loading a transport stream, the AutoGK Assistant has been integrated into the program (and can be accessed by pressing Ctrl-F9) and there are some minor GUI fixes.

The new Nero packs are out. There's no changelog yet, but hopefully the latest AVC encoder based on the core I used in the codec comparison is now integrated in Recode2.

While EVD isn't doing so good in China, especially considering there's already a bunch of alternative formats, the first Chinese player maker, Shinco, has decided to get out of DVD player production and only produce EVD players in the future.

Is the MPAA about to seriously join the RIAA in their constant whining about decreasing sales (well, CD sales were up in 2004, but as you know, statistics can show many things ;)? According to Video Business, cash flow in the DVD business was up by 8.5% in 2004 compared to 2003. This is much lower than the 30% reported in 2003. So it seems, that the market is getting more and more saturated, and people actually bought the discs they wanted to have on DVD. If you think about it, it was only a matter of time - you can only sell so many copies of a movie people already have on VHS. Plus, with large retail chains getting into the DVD business, prices have become lower over the years. So I think this may also be a major drivers why Hollywood is so keen on the upcoming high definition DVD formats - they can sell us the same product yet again.

An updated version of the x264 VfW codec is out. It is based on a new encoder core which improves speed and quality and there are a bunch of cosmetic fixes as well. And if you prefer mencoder for x264 encoding, here's a GUI that exposes all the codec's options.

While Sigma has already announced their next generation chipset, chipsets on the 8620L chipset, which was announced a year ago, are still missing in action. KISS has just delayed the introduction of the DP-600 series yet again, so the I-O Data AVeL LinkPlayer is still the only standalone player based on that chipset to support high definition MPEG-2/4 and WMV9 video.

DivX Fusion is out. Now you'll be able to make your own comparison, and see where DivX6 is heading.

There's also yet another pre-release of AviSynth 2.5.6 dated January 6th.

PgcEdit 0.4.7 can remove the last PGC of the LU in the current domain or current title domain, checks for incorrect number of VOB IDs, the SPRM option has been removed from the GUI of the command editor and two bugs have been fixed as well.

On the high def DVD front, one of the major problems of Blu-Ray is that it's much more sensitive to scratches than its HD DVD counterpart. Disk maker TDK, known for their scratch-resistant recordable DVDs, has now pledged to make Blu-Ray disc more resilient so that they can be used without a cartridge (current Blu-Ray players still need to have every disc in a cartridge).

And in another bit of CES news, the first TV makers now start using DVD decoding chips to make TVs decode MPEG-2/4 and WMV9 directly.

We'll still have to wait almost a year, but the HD DVD supporting studios have already announced a first title lineup for the HD DVD start (I know it's German, but all the film titles are in English ;)

Interestingly enough, while Universal is part of that HD DVD start lineup, their minority stakeholder and former owner company Vivendi Universal has also joined the Blu-Ray Disc Association, along with Electronic Arts. EA claims they'll be using Blu-Ray for upcoming projects. Considering their DVD-ROM track record, I have some doubts about that, especially considering what crappy videos we still have to watch in titles like NFS (which besides Command&Conquer is the only EA titles I play). It really wouldn't hurt using DVD-ROM and DVD quality video, now would it? So why should things get better, especially considering that the gaming industry is notoriously conservative when it comes to changing the support media.

Also at CES, DivXNetworks announced DivX6, to be released in March. Along with improved coding efficiency comes integrated subtitles and menu functionality (like you know from DVD) and multichannel audio. So far the audio format used is not known, but the AVI container is going to be used (compatibility to existing DivX devices will be preserved). DXN claims that DivX6 will offer the same quality at half the bitrate of WMV9 for 720p content. Now, there was a serious decoding problem with WMV9 in my last codec comparison (that strangely enough went away when I uninstalled all the codecs and tools I had to install for the comparison), so I cannot really say if DivX 5.9 was better than WMV9, but they have just 2 months to live up to their claims (seeing the results from December 19th tends to cause some doubts..)

Owners of the Plextor PX-716 might enjoy this: the latest firmware upgrade, to be released later this month adds 6x DVD+R DL burning, 8x DVD+R writing and improved 16x media support. 6x DVD-R DL support will be added in March.

It's official now: despite P2P, CD sales have gone up 2.4% in the US in 2004, and sales of pirated CDs have also reached an all time high. Perhaps going after the people who make pirated CDs might be more beneficial than going after your own clientele?

As if the DMCA weren't bad enough, the BSA is now joining the lobbying to get even stricter laws passed. Their first goal is to extend the "get ISP subscriber data without due course (AKA a judge's order)", because some judges just don't want to fall in line with the RIAA and MPAA and their attempts to go after music and movie downloaders.

And last but not least, Apple is being sued for breaking anti-competition laws by not allowing other music players to play songs purchased via iTunes. While chances of success are somewhat slim, it raises the question what will happen in the future the media conglomerates would like to see and that I personally can only entitle DRM hell. I'm sure you've all heard the "what if your car would only run on one brand of fuel and would only be compatible with certain roads?" analogy.

The chip galore has definitely begun: 2 days ago, STMicroelectronics announced a single chip settop box solution supporting High Definition AVC and VC-1(WMV9) video and two simultaneous MPEG-2 streams.

Sigma Designs' SMP860 series supports AVC, WMV9, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 at 1920x1080 30p (I presume MPEG-4 here means MPEG-4 part 2 AKA ASP, which would make it the first chipset to really support everything (I bet they don't do 3 point GMC though, as usual)). Multiple streams at the same time are also supported, as long as the chip can keep up with decoding (there's a high end member of this product line geared at decoding multiple high definition streams - though there's no mention if that means multiple MPEG-2 streams or multiple AVC streams). The usual audio formats are supported as well: AC3, WMA, MP2, MP3, AAC (no mention of HE AAC), and DVD audio.

Microsoft is also making inroads to the consumer electronics market with their audio formats. Pioneer has announced 4 new receivers that can all handle WMA and WMA Pro, up to 7.1 channels. The S/PDIF inputs now also support WMA(Pro) so you won't need 4 analogue cables from your PC to the receiver.

Burn a dual layer DVD in 15 minutes? It will happen in Q3 when 8x drives and media will be available. Disc manufacturers like Verbatim are already gearing up to ship samples to recorder manufacturers,

DVD Decrypter 3.5.2.0 supports various types of copy protection via corrupt disc structure, supports bitsetting on NEC, Plextor and AOpen burners, supports multimonitor configurations, has a modified burn engine that relieves stress from the I/O subsystem while burning the lead-in, the write retries have been reintroduced and a few bugs have been fixed as well. To see that various smaller changes and what bugs have been fixed, check out the official changelog.

With CES coming closer, we'll see many new and exciting gadgets. For instance, Pioneer's A09 burner writes DVD±R DL discs at 6x, DVD+RW at 8x, DVD-RW at 6x and DVD±R at the usual 16x. Now if only dual layer disc prices came down to acceptable levels..

In the meantime, Verbatim has started shipping samples of 4x certified DVD-R DL discs to burner makers, so I guess official 4x capable dual layer discs are not too far off. Verbatim will also be making both HD DVD and Blu-ray discs, but we'll have to wait longer for those.

Taiwanese disc maker Ritek will have their 4x DVD+R DL as well as HD DVD-R and HD DVD-RW discs on display at CES.

Last but not least, while not featured in the last codec comparison, one of the most promising potential candidates for "next time", x264, is now available in a VFW version, so you can use it in VirtualDub, without having to dig through a gazillion of ffdshow VFW options. Alternatively, I wrote a small GUI for mencoder that exposes all the x264 options.

How about a standalone DVD recorder that not only knows how to encode to MPEG-2, but also supports DivX? LSI Logic's new DiMeNsion 3 is the first DivX certified single chip DVD recorder that not only plays DivX content, but also records to the DivX format. The chipset can also handle SACD and DVD Audio.

And speaking of chipsets, Sigma's EM8620L can handle DVD up to full HDTV resolution (1920x1080), WMV9 up to 1440x1080 and MPEG-4 ASP up to full HDTV resolution as well. The chipset will be used in upcoming players such as the KISS DP-600. The press release I got also mentions the DP-608 to support H.264 and NeroDigital. But, if it really does that, it has to use another chipset because the EM8620L can neither handle HE AAC audio, nor H.264/MPEG-4 AVC.

PgcEdit 0.4.6 has an Info -> Go To Calling Command function (description makes absolutely no sense to me but it sounds cool, doesn't it?;), the menu button viewer now displays the video in the proper aspect ratio, there are various enhancements and small bugfixes in the menu button viewer and trace mode, the PGC editor now displays the proper number of buttons and bug in the play all title has also been fixed.

QuEnc 0.59a will only accept YV12 input and fixes a bug in interlaced mode (the TFF flag).

Muxman 0.8 fixes a hanger when building movies longer than 2h16.

The Blu-ray vs. HD DVD battle is getting more and more serious. There'll be numerous devices on display at CES later this month. Amongst others, Philips will have a combined Blu-ray/DVD recorder for PCs. And speaking of the upcoming DVD formats, IEEE Spectrum has an article on the copy protection system that will be used on HD DVD: AACS.

QuEnc 0.57 has an improved multiplexer, can encode only the video from a source containing both audio and video, and has a secret Snow mode (Snow wavelet codec output).

Here's the latest RIAA trick: adware infested WMA files. Instead of downloading a song, you download something, that thanks to a loophole in Microsoft's WMA DRM makes ads pop up on your screen. Needless to say that neither Microsoft, nor the ad companies involved who did not okay such practice are thrilled about this latest development. It does give the RIAA claims about what you can catch from using P2P services some merit though, but if it's them inserting malicious content, does that still count?

Last but not least, something I forgot yesterday: If you haven't already checked out, the latest codec comparison has only been out for a few days.

Happy New Year everybody. Once again, I'd like to thank the people who provide and run the servers, as well as the 200 odd people to have made a donation in 2004. And of course you, for visiting my humble abode. I hope you'll be even more numerous to visit my site in 2005.

Frameserving over the network? It is possible using that latest Premiere and AviSynthEx plugins from videotools.net. Premiere Pro 1.x and TMPG Xpress are now also supported.

Will 2005 be the year where we'll see widespread use of corrupted DVDs just like we already face in the audio CD department? Tool makers seem to be keeping up with the movie studio's latest shenanigans. Slysoft has just released a new AnyDVD beta that is not fooled by Sony's latest incarnation of ArccOS.

Last month's news can be found here.