ShrinkTo5 2.04 can remove region codes, has an improved DVD reader as well as improved support for correcting corrupt DVD structures, and there are settings to improve quality.

DGMPGDec 1.4.7 RC3 fixes yet another DTS/AC3 detection problem.

Pioneer is shipping the first Blu-ray Burner, the BDR-101A. It burns BD-R(E) discs at 2x, DVD±Rs at 8x, DVD±RW at 4x and dual layer discs at 2.4x/2x. The burner is quite expensive - 880€ - and cannot handle CDs at all.

China is the last country to fall in line with MPAA and RIAA - starting July 1st, they have their own DMCA style legislation.

DGMPGDec 1.4.7 RC2 fixes DTS/AC3 detection problems for certain TS types.

AVIMux GUI 1.17.6 uses a separate thread for muxing, allows highlighting of files in the source list, the Page Up/Down buttons can now be used to move files and streams, a default filename can be chosen and a bunch of bugs have been fixed.

VirtualDub 1.6.15 has no new features but fixes a bunch of bugs.

DGMPGDec 1.4.7 RC1 fixes an MPEG-1 video demux problem and a problem that would cause long delays before the start of play/preview with certain transport streams.

PVAStrumento 2.1.0.17 names split files differently so that Cuttermaran won't load the audio of different cuts simultaneously and fixes multi language audio problems with Premiere streams as well as output file naming problems in batch mode.

ProgDVB 4.72.8 comes with an updated media client and server.

libavcodec, and thus ffdshow is going interlaced: To catch up with x264 libavcodec now supports mbaff decoding.

Microsoft has released a standalone version of their VC-1 codec, and a script that serves as a commandline VC-1 encoder with AviSynth input support.

It was to be expected: After Blu-ray, HD DVD is getting region coded as well.

And while we're at the subject, AACS will include Macrovision to prevent analogue copies. Since the first HD DVD players are already out, it remains to be seen how these two decisions will affect existing HD DVD players and the Blu-ray players that are to be released in the coming weeks.

Buy a movie online, download it and burn it onto a DVD? With today's broadband connections it's an interesting prospect and the porn industry has already launched such a service. Now the same business model is being used for independent films.

Net Neutrality has been given another chance with the House Judiciary Committee approving the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act.

And across the big pond, our lawmakers have found new and innovative - and insane - means to fix the EU budget: slap a tax on text messages and emails. Looking at my monthly cellphone bill I have to ask: am I not already paying VAT for text messages? After all, there's VAT on the amount of the whole bill and each SMS costs money, so.. I'm sure we'll hear that the email tax will help curb spam soon enough.

myTheatre 3.36 supports USALS, allows audio selection during file playback, supports the Digiwave 103g remote control, no longer displays subtitles out of the visible area in widescreen mode, uses the latest TechnoTrend library thus supporting newer TT based cars, and last but not least two bugs have been fixed.

Is the MPAA playing dirty again? Torrentspy, a torrent search engine against which the MPAA has filed a lawsuit earlier this year, is suing the MPAA for hiring somebody to break into their systems and steal confidential information which was then used in their own lawsuit against Torrentspy.

The Helix project has produced a new MPEG-4 AVC decoder. So far it can handle the Baseline and Main profiles.

Speaking of AVC, interlaced encoding might soon become an option in x264.

DGMPGDec 1.4.7 beta 12 has an option to force proper parsing of audio when using non DVD streams.

The lawsuits against Sony for their rootkit DRM software has come to a conclusion. Those who bought an affected CD can exchange it against a copy without the XPC software and get a small cash payment along with free album downloads.

Last but not least, AMDs latest processor generation was launched yesterday. Unfortunately, the X2 series hasn't come very far in the year since their inception.

DVDFab Decrypter 2.9.7.9 supports yet another variety of ARccOS.

Nic has updated his WMV encoder WMNicEnc to support the new VC-1 codec from Microsoft. You can get the codec by installing the WMP11 beta, or downloading the beta, opening the exe file with Winzip (or another compression software), and extract and install the wmfdist11.exe file.

PVAStrumento 2.1.0.16 displays an error summary in case of errors in the output file, supports .avr and .mdd input, guesses audio and video stream data placement if a TS contains no tables and fixes AC3 synch problems.

DGMPGDec 1.4.7 beta 11 can handle MPG files recorded by the FusionHDTV RT Gold 5 card.

ProgDVB 4.72.7 has been released - without a changelog so far.

An update on Australian Fair Use: as far as recording radio and TV broadcasts are concerned, timeshifting applies only to one consumption and such recordings may not be shared by anyone. I guess the question now becomes: will recordings have to self-destruct after having being watched? More details on Australia's copyright reform can be found in a press release by the Attorney General.

VobBlanker 2.1.1.0 allows multiple cuts at the cell level, can cut cells in the menu domain, has some additional shortcuts in the main menu, there are error checking routines when writing files. In addition, angle stripping has been improved, the angles are now detected from the PGCs in the IFO, the auto blank operation now keeps PGCs with a duration longer than 95% of the longest one and there are some bugfixes as usual.

DGMPGDec 1.4.7 beta 9 can demux DTS audio from transport streams.

Windows Media Player 11 has been released as a beta. What makes this newsworthy is that it comes with Microsoft's VC-1 encoder. You can find more details about VC-1 and how to use the new VC-1 encoder in the forum.

It was to be expected: the music industry has started suing satellite radio stations. They claim that XM Radio's device that allows timeshifting (something which has been possible ever since the introduction of the good old audio tape decades ago) violates copyright. The labels ask for $150'000 per song recorded and I'm sure you're wondering just how exactly this doesn't fall under the RICO act and when they're going to buy off enough members of congress to pass a law to prevent any kind of radio and TV recording and send us back to the technological dark ages - except that for real shackles we'll have digital ones, otherwise known as DRM.

In related news, BusinessWeek reports on another industry's fears of modern recording devices: the advertising industry is screaming bloody murder about DVRs because they think the devices are used just to skip commercials. TV executives, in this case, are on the other side, claiming DVRs drive more people to watch TV because it frees them from a predefined schedule. Let's not forget though that your favorite TV station is lobbying to pass the broadcast flag and unreasonably extend their control over broadcast within the WIPO broadcast treaty. I guess DVRs are all right as long as everything they record is DRM protected, right?

DGMPGDec 1.4.7 beta 8 can dump audio and video PTS/DTS timestamps encountered during a save project operation.

PgcEdit 7.0.1 beta 4 can leave the seamless flag of the layer break cell as is, has an improved VOB asynch check, titlesets not referenced in any IFO can be automatically moved to a special folder and there are the usual bugfixes.

FujiFilm is the next disc maker to start releasing Blu-ray media. Starting in June, you'll be able to get single layer BD-R and BD-RE discs from FujiFilm.

Now this is totally unrelated to DVDs but it shows why telcos are so afraid of net neutrality and want to charge you more to access popular services: Using skype, you can now call any regular landline phone in the US and Canada - free of charge. Certain Internet providers have already started blocking services like Skype because they cut into the revenue stream. And if you look at these numbers reported by Yahoo, those companies sell you big pipes but in fact can only sustain a fraction of bandwidth used before their nets collapse. So if you start using your fat pipe, even if it's only online radio, but worse if it's something like a TV show that can now be streamed from ABC - you're cutting into their revenue stream and that's why they want to charge hefty premiums to deliver the actually bandwidth they're selling to you.

Fair use is coming to Australia: Once the copyright reform has been passed, recording TV shows and transferring music from CDs to MP3 players will no longer be illegal. Of course there's a catch in the form of increased powers for the police when it comes to P2P services.

Sony has introduced yet another homegrown format: AVCHD marries AVC video and AC3 audio in a MPEG-2 transport stream. The whole thing is aimed at camcorders so the storage medium will be a 8cm DVD.

ProgDVB 4.72.5 includes some changes in the BDA module and contains the usual bugfixes.

This is surprising: The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is asking for changes to British copyright law to legalize ripping your own CDs (which currently is not legal in the UK, believe it or not). But, how surprising is it really? It's the same organization that's suing filesharers and that helped push the British DMCA. And with the DMCA in place, the changes in copyright law would have no effect since in the eyes of the industry, circumventing copy protection for personal use is copyright infringement anyway.. so the mere act of copying would be legal but the whole thing would be made illegal even before you get to ripping the CD as the second you touch copy protection you're violating the law...

The opposition to the new French copyright law have found some prominent support: presidential candidate Ségolène Royal sees right through the industry's attempt to sabotage its own customers. Regardless, the industry has won yet again and the French Senate kicked out the interoperability clause out and replaced it with a tame regulatory commission which may, when asked, request that information to facilitate interoperability be handed out. But, I suspect we'll see industry lapdogs in that commission so the whole thing may still look like something on paper, but effectively it's a dead end. Now Senate and House have to find a compromise before the law goes into effect.

While French collection agencies are amongst those unhappy about the new copyright law, their counterparts in Germany are just as furious about changes the German government plans to make to collection regimes in Germany. Collection agencies are generally more useful for creatives that don't have big contracts - so there's quite a few content creators behind those agencies. In fact, a group of 3 such agencies even formed an initiative to support private copying back in 2002 - with that it's no surprise that the music and movie industry wants to completely abolish private copying and get rid of all levies and replace it with a DRM regime.

An XviD certification for your standalone? Apparently, that's in the works. Unlike the DivX certification, the upcoming XviD certification won't cater to chipmaker interests and cover the complete MPEG-4 ASP featureset. Details about the program should be available on the XviD homepage in the coming weeks.

Here's a tendency that I find scary: Wired puts it like that: Spot a bug, go to jail. It sounds ludicrous but unfortunately it isn't. While you must not be scared to be prosecuted if you find a bug in MeGUI and other software you can get from this site, the same can apparently not be said about any software and there are vendors that rather sue people for disclosing bugs than working on fixing them. But, it's not so surprising to me when I see vendors sometimes charging hundreds if not thousands of dollars to be able to open a case - regardless of whether it turns out to be a bug by the vendor or a waste of their time (in the latter case you can't really object to having to pay.. but in the former it's quite something different).

Now I know why DVDs from Amazon sometimes look like they've been mauled by a dog. It's because of Lucky and Flo - the worlds first dogs trained to sniff out DVDs. Apparently, the whole finding pirate DVDs versus legitimate DVDs isn't working that well yet ;)

I've previously reported on the EU snooping initiative and on plans in the US to do the same. Now, information has come to light that the whole thing has been in effect since 2001. Unlike what has been previously admitted, the NSA snooping didn't stop with phone calls where one end was a suspected terrorist - but in fact call detail records of all calls made using 3 out of 4 major US providers were stored. When confronted with the information, the government argued that such activities are necessary to protect Americans from terrorist attacks. How knowing when and how often you call your grandmother helps protect against terrorists is beyond me though.

DVDPlanner is finally available to everyone. Zeul's (you might know him from NuMenu4u) DVD Authoring software is available in two versions: a free version limited to only two audio streams, 4 subtitle streams, will not support DTS audio and there is no PGC command editing in the GUI and no subpicture timestamp editing either. Just like with Muxman, making a donation will give you access to the PRO version with more features.

ZoomPlayer 5.0 Technology Preview 6 contains an enhanced media library interface, supports large skins, improves media playback across all versions and Microsoft DRM support.

Warner is entering the online distribution market as well: They have teamed up with the makers of BitTorrent to distribute films and TV shows online. But as usual, they don't quite get the point: while finally waking up to price realities in China (remember the $1.50 DVD), a movie download will cost as much as a DVD. While we cannot comment on quality yet, you'll be limited to playback on the computer you made the download (in other words: heavy DRM), the movies will only be available when the DVD is out, and the studio has zero distribution cost because P2P is being used. So.. less value for the same price - why am I not surprised? Dear Hollywood execs: a product that costs you less and is less valuable to the customer must cost less or people will find alternatives that correspond more to their liking (as in cheaper and less restrictive).

Internet broadcast has been excluded from the latest draft of the Broadcast Treaty, but that's about the only good thing that can be said about the industry sponsored treaty. Let's have a quick look at what's wrong with that treaty and why it negatively affects all of us: Article 6 forbids the retransmission in any form. That includes streaming of a broadcast in your own house (imagine having multiple TVs tuned to the same program, it makes no sense that the same stream goes over your Internet link multiple time). Article 7 strips us of the right to record a broadcast. So if you aren't at home, you just missed your favorite show - so say good-bye to any recording devices right now. Article 14 and 15 are essentially the DMCA all over and I think it's obvious how bad an idea that is.

Say hi to yet another connector type to connect your PC to your screen: DisplayPort. After DVI, and the entertainment industry favorite HDMI (which is smaller than DVI, has audio and is hardly available in unencrypted form anywhere - unlike DVI), we've had UDI and now this. DisplayPort is supported by Dell, HP and Lenovo (ex-IBM) so it's not to be taken lightly. DisplayPort basically adds more bandwidth than DVI (but there's dual link DVI that drives my Dell 30" display and does a damned fine job) and of course it can be "upgraded" with copy protection.

There's a new build of the VobSub capable MP4box which allows exporting VobSub tracks as an MP4 file, supports the delay parameter of the idx file and fixes incorrect subtitle colors.

Nero has launched a free AAC audio encoder that does two pass encoding and supports all AAC extensions (HE, PS). The encoder is already supported in BeLight and will soon be integrated into MeGUI.

Cuttermaran 1.67 beta2 can extract a single cut from the cutlist, can duplicate a cut, allows to set an aspect ratio for the cut in and cut out picture, has an optional scrollbar in the current frame, can be closed automatically after processing, exports chapters in Ogg format and fixes a few bugs.

DVDX 2.5.1 fixes nLame DLL issues.

While players and prerecorded discs have been delayed, Sony has quietly launched their single layer recordable Blu-ray discs. The dual layer variety will be launched next month.

Another one falls under the RIAA's assault: P2P operator FreePeers - which operates BearShare - is paying the RIAA $30 million and will introduce filtering to prevent sharing of files the RIAA does not like to be shared.

It certainly won't come as a big surprise to anyone reading this, but it's now official: the German arm of the IFPI (that's what the RIAA is in the US) has gone on record to say that they'd rather get rid of private copies (which are legal in Germany and many other countries - and the industry is well compensated by levies on recorders and blank media) today than tomorrow. Their alternative: DRM everywhere. So forget about making a bunch of copies of Lion King so that when your kids scratch a copy, you can just give them the next. In the wonderful world of RIAA and MPAA, if your disc becomes scratched, you have to buy another one at full price. And if your computer crashes, you have to buy another one because they tie your licenses to specific devices.

After the first debate on copyright law in the French senate, the situation looks just as grim as expected: Minister of Culture de Vabres - while supporting the interoperability clause that MPAA and RIAA are trying to nuke - introduced a measure that would make the industry's job easier in suing people by not requiring that they prove a certain person was using a certain ISP account to download illegal material - so if you accidentally leave your WLAN open or your neighbor cracks your WEP encryption, they can sue the owner of the account, not the person that actually committed copyright infringement. Industry lapdog Thiollière introduced his change requests to abolish the interoperability clause, along with his counterpart from the socialist party, Michel Charasse. Not only that, but a socialist (where has the world come to if socialists suck up to big business), but according to him, those that dare criticize the Vivendi Universal clause - a clause which could be used to make a lot of existing open source software illegal - are fundamentalists. While I'm not much into namecalling, I can't help but feel that for such people, the label corporate whore would be appropriate.

I'm wondering why there's no global centralized effort to stop the WIPO broadcast treaty, but at least the EFF is doing something in the US: let your elected representatives what you think - they might just try to exercise some influence on the US WIPO representatives.

By the way, those companies that try to push through treaties like the above, currently face up to 14 lawsuits for antitrust violations when it comes to digital music. Just like you exercise a certain skepticism towards convicted felons, our politicians and negotiators should do the same towards organizations that have been previously been found guilty of price fixing.

Last but not least, CBS has launched a streaming channel called Innertube. It's free, though ad supported and will host a bunch of programs that I have never heard of. How about CSI, NCIS and Without a Trace?

DGMPGDec 1.4.7 beta 7 shows a proper error message when you're trying to load a non D2V Source via MPEG2Source and fixes the running time display when parsing a project file.

First it was HD DVD, now the Blu-ray delays have begun as well. Sony and Co. will postpone the Blu-ray launch from May 23rd to June 20th.

It was about time: after crying whole oceans about P2P, the RIAA is finally taking a closer look at commercial piracy - the area where they can rightfully claim that they are losing serious money.

The empire strikes back: While having passed the French National Assembly with a DRM circumvention clause, the copyright industry has found some lapdogs in the French Senate. Today, the Senate starts debate on the law, and they have found a major ally in Michel Thiollière. One of the amendments he proposes completely drops the interoperability clause that was the single highlight in an otherwise customer hostile and industry friendly law. Thus eucd.info is organizing a march against the new law in Paris this weekend and it's time to start contacting your elected representatives. Agissez maintenant, il sera bientôt trop tard!

If the industry plays the game, so can we - that seems to be the motto of Net giants like eBay, Amazon, Google and Yahoo. They've found some allies in congress to launch the Network Neutrality Act of 2006. Will it get past the big telco companies and their paid for representatives in Congress?

A song comes to mind when I read about that: Cry me a river. The MPAA paid a consulting fee three million dollars to conduct a study and come up with a number on how much money they lose due to piracy - all forms thereof. According to the Wall Street Journal, that number is $6.1 billion a year, a lot higher than the MPAA's own estimates. Naturally, it's hard to trust a study from that source - especially considering it's much higher than what even the MPAA claims, and supposedly, the study actually makes the difference between a pirated copy by somebody who'd have bought the movie if it were cheaper. Of course, considering the prices in China, it's quite likely that a lot more people would get a DVD if it cost $2 instead of $20-30.

Now it's official: iTunes will remain a $0.99 shop and you won't have to shell out $2.49 for top titles any time soon.

Now it's officially here: ABC's ad supported TV shows. If they are serious about cutting down download of HDTV rips, they better rethink their US only policy because right now there's a lot of English speaking folks that has to rely on free US proxies and the potential for performance degradation they bring, stick to P2P or nothing at all (well, there's the delayed and dubbed crap all over the world but in my eyes that's really no offer at all).

Forget about net neutrality, but if the copyright industry wants something, they know how to get it done (so it seems tech companies need some learning in the lobbying and buying politicians department): the current revision of telecommunication legislation contains a passage to outlaw digital radio recording devices. So it seems they're coming from all sides right about now, trying to catch those members of congress on the wrong foot and sneak through a bill that most definitely hurts every single radio listener and only benefits the labels.

FixVTS 1.25 updates the number of titlesets in the DVD, no longer clutters up the log file with an unlimited amount of pack replacements and fixes two bugs.

Napster is back with free music. But being owned by the industry, don't expect the good old days. Rather, there's a flash based web application (thus compatible with all browsers and operating systems that support flash), that streams any of the 2 million songs in Napster's catalog to you - up to 5 times. And, quality is apparently lower than the WMA songs you can buy from Napster.

The Daltons have invaded Geneva again.. they're obviously not sharing the infamous last name and didn't just break out of prison again, but bandits come in different forms: the Committee on Copyright and Related Rights - part of the World Intellectual Property Organization WIPO - is meeting again in Geneva with the goal of introducing a 50 year copyright protection for broadcast content (both traditional broadcasts and Internet based broadcasts) and of course, a complete ban of copy protection circumvention for broadcasts. Besides the usual organizations that fight broadening of copyright law to the detriment of paying customers and academic institutions, even intel is opposed to the treaty.

MP4box now supports VobSub subtitle muxing and creates files compatible with every subtitle capable NeroDigital player.

ProgDVB 4.72.4 adds support for the TechnoTrend USB DVB tuners.

It should've been out by now but we're still waiting for Microsoft's Windows Media Encoder Studio Edition. The application will finally bring VC-1 for some hands-on testing.

Coming up with a more than double layer Blu-ray disc is apparently not so simple. TDK initially meant to simply glue multiple double layer discs together, they have succeeded doing the same with single layer units. So the new solution consists of increasing the capacity of a single layer from 25 GB to 33 GB. It remains to be seen if any regular Blu-ray player will be able to handle these discs.

Last month's news can be found here.