VirtualDub 1.9.4 fixes a bunch of bugs.

VLC 1.0.1 adds extra caching for files on network shares, supports Apple remotes and media keys on Mac OS X and fixes a bunch of bugs.

Those are the numbers the RIAA doesn't like to hear - according to the Chief Economist of PRS Music, a UK royalty collecting group, the total music revenue in the UK has gone up 4.7% since 2007. While record sales are down, sale of concert tickets have increased considerably and make up for the loss in revenue. So much for doom and gloom, eh?

Not that it matters much for the rest of the world, but China's own version of HD DVD seems to be doing rather well despite Warner being the only Hollywood studio to support the format (the rest stand behind Blu-ray).

ProgDVB 6.11.2 has a new dialog to adjust subtitles and contains engine API and OSD optimizations.

Champagne all around for the copyright industry in Korea as the new copyright law which includes three strikes measures goes into effect today.

ProgDVB 6.11.1 supports the DVBWorld BDA card and contains many fixes for other devices.

In yet another example why DRM is a really bad idea - Amazon wiped bought and paid for ebooks from Kindles (their ebook reader) after it found out that the seller didn't have the rights to sell the book. Imagine you'd buy a book from a reputable store, and the book turned out to be illegitimate and now somebody from the store would enter your home without your permission and take the book back and give you a refund - unthinkable. Yet in the wonderful world of DRM, it takes one click and the content is gone, even though Amazon's terms of service say the books are yours forever.

ProgDVB 6.11.0 has a GUI OSD for blank windows and improvements in the channel list.

Looking for a cheap Blu-ray drive for your PC? Lite-on's $59 drive might just fit the bill.

BDSup2Sub 3.9.6 has a close option in the file menu and allows horizontal moving of subtitles.

I doubt it'll manage to change the MPAA's collective minds on P2P technology, but researchers in Norway managed to stream a full 2K resolution film directly into the movie theater.

VLC 1.0 has finally been released. Here's a list of all the features it has.

So the RIAA wants everybody to believe that if music is available for free nobody will pay for it. Then how come the first track of Moby's latest album is Moby's best selling single on iTunes even though you can download the song for free from Moby's website? People paying for what they could have for free? Could it be that those people are more about the artists than the RIAA will ever be?

And more bad news for the industry in Spain - not only is three strikes not on the menu, but course have repeatedly found that non profit file sharing is not against the law - so it will be tough for the industry to go after P2P sites like they intended when they didn't get their three strikes wishes.

ZoomPlayer 7.0 RC1 is out and it has a massive changelog.

VirtualDub 1.9.3 has options to only display one of the panes and to autosize them, supports 3D hardware accelerations in filters (right now for invert, warp sharp, blur, blur more, brightness/contract, deinterlace and resize filters).

Sorry for the long news blackout - my offline life kept me pretty busy, but of course I have a news rundown for you.

Software wise we've had a new release of BDSup2Sub which disabled fixing invisible subtitles by default, changes the cli for parameters you can turn on/off and adds the default background color handling to the min time textfield.

ProgDVB has been updated twice, with the latest version 6.10.2 bringing fixes in the media server, XMLTV, recording and other unspecified functions and the previous release also only bringing bugfixes.

DVD43 4.1.1 is better at handling DVDs with bogus files.

MKVToolnix 2.9.7 allows you to configure the list of common languages, splits the preferences dialog into several tabs and fixes a number of bugs.

BD Rebuilder 0.24.02 fixes a bunch of bugs.

Avidemux 2.5.0 now uses plugins for audio codecs, audio devices and video filters as well as the x264 and XviD encoders, uses scripted wizards which should make make them easier to expand, uses an updated ffmpeg library and there are various fixes and enhancements as well.

DivXFix++ 0.32 has also been released - it supports a few more codecs.

Then the usual shenanigans from the copyright industry: Three strikes is currently off the table in Spain as the government wouldn't endorse the endeavor. Instead, the copyright industry is focusing on going after Bittorrent sites for now.

Three strikes is still on the table in France, where the government is feverishly trying to get around the constitutional roadblocks - expect a vote on an amended text by July 20th.

Then some news on the Pirate Bay trial: First of all, there won't be a retrial due to the judge's membership in pro copyright groups. Then comes the news that the site has been sold to a Swedish software company called Global Gaming Factory X. What they really intend to do with the site remains somewhat of a mystery - statements by all parties still leave a lot open to debate, but I suppose it's safe to say that the site will undergo some interesting changes as the new owners will try to recoup their investment somehow, and as a publicly traded company, they'll try to reduce their exposure to lawsuits. And hot on the heels of these news come allegations of insider trading by the buyer.

Then some news on the retrial of Jammie Thomas-Rasset: Her lawyers wows to appeal, and one the artists whose work she was convicted of sharing issued a strong statement against the greedy actions of the major labels.

Now here's one interesting tidbit: if you want to buy ads that air during a TV show, those that run online will cost you more. A sign of things to come?

If only they'd have come to their senses 10 years ago: Former RIAA boss Hilary Rosen isn't the only one to have come to the realization that they blew it with Napster - the current head of the British equivalent - the BPI - is now agreeing with her.

Finally, the AACS LA has significantly lowering licensing fees for Blu-ray discs to encourage smaller productions make their way to Blu-ray, and Big Cable in the US is starting experiments with paid content delivery over the Internet.

Older news can be found here.