TMPG 1.251 shows CD sizes in the project wizard in MB instead of minutes, the DirectShow input reader only accepts PCM audio input and there are a couple of bugfixes.

Earlier this month, the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) took place in Amsterdam. There is a very interesting report on this convention at Hydrogenaudio, focusing on new video technology like Nero Digital and H.264.

4 days ago, AMD launched the first consumer 64 bit CPU. DivXNetworks has since announced to ship a special version of the DivX codec and the Dr. DivX encoding application that is optimized for the new CPU. The new application is to be bundled with CPUs. At this point, it is not yet known whether this special version will actually lead to faster encoding. DVD-Recordable.org has an interesting article on the MPAA's take on P2P applications. They are going as far as to indoctrinate school children that P2P tools are bad (of course the industry would turn that into "stealing is bad", but we've all been taught that even before we enter school, have we not?). Last but not least, the German magazine PC Welt has a report on the state of the DVD recordable industry, based on news and talks with drive and media manufacturers at the currently ongoing Computex fair in Taiwan. Here's their gist: DVD-R/W is not going to be around on the long run because the plus camp seems to be more convincing and has the edge on recording speed. In fact, while the DVD forum has yet to sign off 8x DVD-Rs, 8x DVD+R drives are already being sold, and not by any brand, but Plextor, king of CD burners. Furthermore, 12x DVD+R burners should be out by Q1 2004, followed by 16x DVD+R burners later in the same year. And while dual layer DVD recording is feasible, it might never enter the market because the technology is too expensive, and DVD successor technologies are not too far off. On a personal note, I have visited a media manufacturing plant 2 months ago and spoken to the product manager. He told me that in his business, people were rooting for the plus format as well, because it's cheaper to manufacture. Considering that plus media are still somewhat more expensive than their minus brethren, selling plus media is quite a lucrative business.

ImgTool 1.00.9 allows dragging and dropping of the DVD root directory, has improved erase handling for rewriteable media and contains some bugfixes.

Owners of the KISS DP-450 and DP-500 DivX enabled DVD players might want to check out the latest firmware, which features improved DivX3 playback, fixes a DVD playback bug and allows multiple content type on the same medium.

And this one is a bit older bit nevertheless interesting: BMG is introducing copy protected audio CDs (or rather: music discs because they don't adhere to the audio CD standard) in the US. Unlike what is available in Europe so far, the US discs allow a certain amount of freedom to the customer. The copy protection mechanism by SunnComm blocks access to the regular music data on a PC, but offers DRM protected WMA files, which can be burned onto an audio CD three times and even be emailed to friends (they can play them 10 times). While this is a step in the right direction, giving the consumer some freedom, it's still far away from giving the customer reasonable fair use rights.

Last but not least, the capture guide has undergone a major overhaul.

As the Taiwanese Computex fair progresses, we see more and more 8x DVD burner announcements. BenQ's offering, the DW800A is a bit slow in CD writing (24x/12x for CD-R/W respectively), however, it appears to write both DVD-R and DVD+R at 8x, and the RW DVDs at 4x respectively. Asus has announced a very similar drive, the DRW-0804A, which has the same tech specs. And while we're on the topic of DVD burners, the first region free firmware for the Pioneer A06/106 burner has been released.

In other news, we have the first case of the RIAA suing the wrong people: they had to drop their million dollar lawsuit against a 66 year old Mac user (note that the filesharing tool that supposedly was used only works on Windows PCs). Hopefully, this will eventually lead to the reversal of the Verizon decision which allows the RIAA to get ISP subscriber data without due process, thus reversing one of the most fundamental bases of our legal system: the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

Media Player Classic 6.4.6.5 is a bugfix release.

Yesterday marked the release of the first consumer 64-bit processor line: the AMD Athlon 64. While it does not clearly outperform the Intel counterpart in most tests, it is nevertheless a very interesting CPU. What I found most interesting in the Anandtech review, was that they mentioned that AMD used to dominated DivX encoding tests when using NVIDIA cards, but the picture had changed now that ATI cards were used. I thought this was never the case, but if it is, I'm glad I have used NVIDIA cards exclusively so far ;)

Remember the 64kbit listening test announced a while back? The testing period has come to an end and the results are in now. Without spoiling the excitement, so much can be said: No codec can live up to the "128kbit MP3 quality at 64kbit" promise.

With the first 8x DVD+R burner being on the market already, it was only a matter of time until true 8x media production started. According to DigiTimes, the major Taiwanese manufacturers will begin volume production of 8x DVD+R discs (and possibly 8x DVD-Rs as well as soon as the standard is finalized) in October.

Last week, US senator Sam Brownback has introduced a digital rights bill which require DRM labeling, restores the "innocent till proven guilty" paradigm by rendering the current RIAA subpoena practice unlawful (ISPs will only have to divulge customer data if ordered to do so by a judge) and which helps to protect certain fair use rights (notably the right to resale, something which is currently almost impossible with existing DRM mechanisms) with respect to digital media (however, the bill doesn't specifically mention the preservation of THE fair use right: being able to make copies of legally obtained copyrighted works).

In other news, the RIAA is once again up to their usual bully tactics, this time suing P2P network iMesh.com.

Gordian Knot 0.28.5.3 beta supports the latest version of decomb.dll and dgbob.dll, supports the DivX5.1 last past option, allows a language selection when the program is started for the first time and it contains some bugfixes.

Sony has been showing their 8x DVD burner at the WPC Expo in Japan. Its technical data is comparable with the Plextor burner, meaning writing CD-R/Ws at 40x/24x, DVD+RW/-R at 4x and DVD-RW at 2x. No model name or price has been set yet. And while we're at it, Pioneer has released a new firmware for their A06/106 burner. The changelog is not mind-blowing and includes the usual readability and writeability improvements.

Link2 v1.0 improves Premiere compatibility and should be faster than previous releases. MaestroSBT 2.4.3.5 has an SSA version check, can export as text dialog, supports MPEG-1 audio for audio synching, 16:9 compensation and escape characters, a tool to check for overlapping titles in DVD chapter points has been added and the script output can be split to one file per DVD segment.

For a change, the movie industry is making some news these days. Paramount and Fox have sued a handful of companies selling DVD backup software, amongst them Tritton Technologies, maker of the 2nd DVD backup tool to be available in retail.

And Anandtech has a review of the first 8x DVD burner: the Plextor PX-708A

ImgTool Classic 0.90 B7 creates a list file when splitting images, properly deletes temporary logfiles and the unknown error should be gone.

If you're waiting for Nero Digital, a thread in the forum might contain some interesting unofficial information.

eXtreme Movie Manager 2.0 allows adding and deleting covers in the covers manager, deleting all fields of an entry and the number of exportable covers has been increased.

Philips has announced a portable DVD player and recorder, the JackRabbit 4. It is a regular 4x DVD+R burner with the usual specs for such a device (4x/2.4x DVD+R/W, 16/10x CD-R/W). The device can also be used as a portable CD or DVD player. And a follow-up on the RIAA lawsuits: a consortium of P2P operators has offered to pay the settlement fee for the 12 year old that ended up in the RIAA's crosshairs. In a statement to the press, the president of Grokster said "These people give Joe Stalin a good name". Phew, it seems as if not everybody is afraid to speak their mind after all. Last but not least, the Euro DMCA has had its first victim: long time market leader in CD copy software, CloneCD is no longer sold in stores throughout Europe, and its parent company will sell the rights to the program to Slysoft, the company distributing AnyDVD. Hopefully, some corners of the world will never be touched by consumer hostile laws like the DMCA.

ImgTool Classic 0.90 Build 6 comes with the latest mkisofs build, limits the volume ID to 32 characters and allows splitting of the image file into 1 GB chunks.

Picking up where we left today, the RIAA has settled their first lawsuit for $2000 and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (one of the only organizations that really care about your rights online) has an article why the RIAA amnesty is a sham. Oh, and Microsoft is trying to push their WMV9 format as an industry standard. Apparently, they have turned over their source code to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, a standardization organization.

Pioneer has announced their first external DVD burner, the DVR-S606. It is based on the A06 but has both USB2 and Firewire interfaces.

And if you have kids, don't think you can escape the RIAA's revenge. They're not even stopping from suing 12 year old girls. I wonder when we'll se the first subpoena for a newborn.

ZoomPlayer 3.20 beta 3 has been released. As usual, you can find the changelog in the Inmatrix forums.

DVD2One v1.3.0 has a new join mode allowing you to put content of multiple discs on one DVD±R (or to put a flipper disc onto one DVD±R disc), offers a default for audio and subtitle selection and the size estimation should be more accurate in variable ratio mode. Decomb 5.0 has been released almost a week back and almost nobody seems to have noticed. The new version is more powerful but also has a different syntax.

In the your rights online section we have the RIAA offering amnesty to repenting filesharers and a ridiculous DMCA lawsuit being thrown out of court. Furthermore, Universal music has decided to slash CD prices by 30%. Now we're almost entering reasonable areas. Hopefully, other studios will follow down that road and retailers will actually lower prices themselves. Personally, I think a $10 CD is much more attractive than the current pricing (and let's not forget that the RIAA members have been found of price fixing earlier this year).

Philips has announced a new technology to increase picture quality when playing back video on the PC. The TrimensionDNM (Digital Natural Motion) is a motion compensation mechanism used to elimination motion judder or trembling in the picture. It is the same technology as employed on high end TVs today. They have a demo application and a few sample clips available for you to see the effect of the technology with your own eyes and it looks like you could use the test application on your own files as well.