MyTheatre 3.30 supports DVB subtitles, improves support for Twinhan PCI cards, accepts PIDs in both hex and decimal form, properly shows the signal quality when using SkyStar2 cards, can start in fullscreen mode, supports the AirStar and CableStar cards and fixes a few bugs.

The MPAA is trying it again: this time they're trying to sneak in the broadcast flag via another amendment to a completely unrelated bill: the budget reconciliation bill. Now what was that about the wooden horse in Troy? Anyway, it's time to call your senators and congressmen and congresswomen right now to alert them to the MPAA's latest dirty trick.

Last but not least, the RIAA's threats against filesharing networks have another victim: after WinMX and Limewire caving in, the parent company of eDonkey is also throwing in the towel. However, since today's P2P networks are largely decentralized, the eDonkey network won't die because of this - there are plenty of alternative clients available for this particular network.

Want DivX6 Pro for free? DivXNetworks is celebrating their 5th anniversary and they're giving away the DivX Create bundle for free, just today.

DVD Rebuilder 0.95 ensures better compatibility between the free and the professional edition, needs fewer passes for OPV encoding prediction and fixes a couple of bugs. If you're a first time user, the full installer might come in handy as well.

Will we soon see cheaper recordable dual layer DVDs? Digitimes reports that the Taiwanese leaders in the recordable DVD market - Ritek and CMC - are stepping up their dual layer production.

So much for HD DVD for Christmas in the US: After announcing that no players would be available for Christmas in Europe, the HD DVD launch has also been delayed in the US as well. The first players and discs are now scheduled for February/March.

Will SIM locks soon be the least of our problems when it comes to cellphones? The Trusted Computing Group, comprised of organizations that want to lock down our PCs so that we no longer can do what we want, but what the copyright industry wants us to, now plans to "make our cellphones secure" as well. Naturally, secure is strictly a matter of point of view, isn't it, and the point of view of a customer less and less frequently matches the one of the content industry.

The same could also happen to flash memory. Sandisk is about to introduce SD cards that you can no longer use to transfer files freely. How far until the day when we're told we're not allowed to share our own photos and holiday videos anymore?

Last but not least, THG has an interview with a Microsoft representative, which outlines why Microsoft put its weight behind the HD DVD format.

Scenaid 1.7.0.7 should no longer produce missing subtitles when using Scenarist, and contains some minor script updates.

The HD DVD format just got two illustrious backers: Microsoft and intel.

Auto Gordian Knot 2.18.1 includes a new XviD build that shouldn't cause any problems on any CPU type, and comes bundled with the final DGIndex 1.4.4.

DVDFab Decrypter 2.9.5.0 has an improved ArccOS detection and removal engine and supports a newer version of ARccOS.

DGDecode 1.4.4 final has been released. It allows the use of the home and end keys to access the [ and ] buttons respectively.

I've previously reported about studios thinking to shorten the period between theatrical and DVD release. Now directory Steven Soderbergh has teamed up with Mark Cuban to deliver a simultaneous release of the movie Bubble in theaters, the HDNet Movies cable channel and on DVD.

The music industry has reacted to Steve Job's accusation of being greedy. Warner music group CEO Edgar Bronfman calls the "one price fits all" model unfair to the artists, and inappropriate for customers. And he's unhappy about the iTunes service selling iPods and wants a piece of that pie as well. Well, there you have it folks, they want a bigger piece, even though their profit per song is already higher with iTunes than when selling CDs.

AVIMux GUI 1.17.3 fixes a few bugs.

Should you be able to play legitimately bought CDs in your computer? The Finnish representative of the IFPI - the worldwide association of the music industry - thinks not. According to him, playing your CD in a PC is a privilege, not a right, and those that cannot play their CDs should buy a proper player. Now that's funny, since all those CDs with copy protection actually do not correspond to the audio CD standard, but are a bastardized version that some players can handle, and some cannot. If you look closely, you won't find the regular audio CD logo on these discs anymore, because Sony and Philips could sue for discs sold that do not conform to the specs (but Sony has been taken over by the industry long ago and is only a shadow of the company that used to sell MiniDisc players as the perfect accessoire to take your CDs on the road). So, you do not need a proper CD player, you need a player that can handle discs that violate every spec as a result of the music industry's attempts to take away rights most of us have taken for granted since we were big enough to make our parent's stereo make some noise. Many of us even pay for the right to make private copies via copyright levies on blank media, and media players. Obviously, the industry likes to take that money and it wouldn't occur to them that they should give it back if they try to make their product uncopy-able.

Perhaps Mr. Kyyrä was getting a little hot headed because their US subsidiary, the RIAA, was just thrown out of court in one of the few cases of their mass lawsuits where the defendant decided to take her chances with the courts.

DGIndex 1.4.4 RC2 is resilient to field order changes and properly reports colorimetry.

AutoGK 2.18 forces the DivX HT profile in ESS compatibility mode, supports m1v input, uses the latest DGIndex and XviD builds and fixes DV handling.

ProgDVB 4.56.2 supports BDA compatible cards, has an updated MediaServer and includes a few bugfixes.

Here's another example on how the big media conglomerates try to hook into your devices to control how you watch their content: with TiVo's latest update came the function to automatically erase recorded content after a certain date, and to prevent you from transferring recorded content to any other device. I was sure we'd see DIVX again as it pretty much represented the holy grail for the industry (complete control over content, leaving the user no right at all other than to pay up), and I'm seeing more and more of these tactics. With hacking being considered almost as bad as terrorism, wouldn't this kind of unauthorized use of a foreign computer system also meet the standards for hacking? I very much doubt that any of the already affected users authorized the deletion of their recorded content.

MeGUI 0.2.2.5a no longer demuxes all audio track when you just selected two, and uses a different method of launching DGIndex.

Here's yet another HD DVD format: China has once again opted for their own alternative, even though EVD so far has been more of a flop than anything else. While using many of the characteristics of a HD DVD, the Advanced Audio Video Coding Standard - AVS - will be used instead of MPEG2/4 and WMV9, which all cost quite a bit of money to license.

BeLight 0.22 beta 8 includes several updated options and bugfixes.

MeGUI 0.2.2.5 allows the deletion of intermediate files and output of aborted jobs, supports faac for AAC encoding and no longer keeps created d2v files open.

Another one of those. I've previously reported on video decoding acceleration by GFX cards, and we all know that very little has happened and what's available only works using very specific filters and players. Now here's another ATI paperlaunch: Their Avivio platform, powered by the upcoming generation of ATI cards, should not only accelerate various kinds of video decoding (up to MPEG-4 AVC), but also help in capturing and encoding. I'll be impressed once the commandline x264 encoder gets a speedboost by that ;)

The battle about music download pricing goes on, with Apple's boss now calling the music studios greedy for wanting more money per song. Heck, $0.99 a song is darned greedy for a product of lesser quality than a CD, no physical support, and virtually no distribution cost.

VobBlanker 2.0.1.0 can strip subtitles, has a global option to fix internal VOB pointers globally or when replacing titles, can save frames from the preview dialog, can start playing the video automatically when a preview dialog is opened, can copy color palettes when replacing PGCs, copies audio and subtitle tables and status when replacing PGCs, can show the number of BOV buttons in titles and check/update STC discontinuity flags in PGC playback tables. Furthermore, there's a long list of improvements, changes and bugfixes.

I've finally gotten around to compiling ProjectX 0.90 pre. I've upgraded to JDK 1.5 so you'll need a 1.5 series JRE to run this. Considering all the improvements Java 1.5 offers, it's well worth upgrading.

Macrovision strikes again: this time, the Mac based Mac The Ripper was in their crosshairs. But as with DVD Decrypter, there are plenty of alternative download possibilities, like this one. But if the author was forced to sign the same agreement Lightning_UK was, I doubt we'll see any more versions of this tool as well. That makes yet again a strong case why software that the industry doesn't like because it enables us to do what they don't like us to do, needs to be open source so one blow cannot kill the tool. And it also raises the question yet again: why is Macrovision taking action just now, so close to the launch of their RipGuard copy protection (likely another perversion of the DVD specs)? Could it be that they are afraid that if it gets broken, the movie studios won't buy into it?

Speaking of an industry that doesn't want you to freely manipulate legitimately obtained content, the RIAA is at it again - this time trying to cripple digital radio. Here's a list of their demands: recordings must be 30 minutes or more, cannot be divided into individual songs, no fast forward, the recording must be tied to the recording device (so you can't play it on your car, portable MP3 player, your bedroom DVD player, etc.), and no machine triggered recording must be possible. So, basically they want to do away with all the rights Congress established in the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act. If you find those measures as outrageous as I do, here's what you can do: join the EFFs effort to get in touch with lawmakers and shut this unacceptable attempt at our rights down before it can get off the ground.

Along with the approval of 8x DVD-R DL and 16x DVD-RAM as reported yesterday, the DVD forum has also approved the 1.9 version of the HD DVD-R DL specs, and thus dual layer HD DVD recording will be available much closer to the launch of the format than it was for DVD.

DGMPGDec 1.4.4 RC1 allows the right arrow key to be used to single step in play/preview mode, runs fix D2V automatically and fixes the broken AC3 decoding for tracks 2 - 8.

BeLight 0.22 beta 7 support dimzon's plugin framework, includes an AAC PS preset, supports unicode and contains a couple of fixes.

SubRip 1.40 beta 2 can automatically fill in the best guess for a yet unknown character and fixes a few bugs.

PgcEdit 0.6.1 beta 12 has a function to replace the current VTST domain with an imported one, which comes in handy when importing a reauthored domain.

ProgDVB 4.56.1 includes an updated PidRecorder and Geniatech card module and includes fixes for teletext subtitles and the channel scanner.

VCDEasy 3.1.0 can autorotate still images, includes better support for MPEG audio files, supports more recorders, can perform more compliance tests for MPEG files and fixes a few bugs.

Not long ago, the DVD+RW alliance announced their final specification for 8x DVD+R DL recording. Now the DVD forum has once again catched up and finalized the 8x DVD-R DL specification along with the 16x DVD-RAM specification. Just in time for the launch, Pioneer completed their DVR-110 series of DVD burners, which of course supports 8x DVD±R DL recording, along with the usual 16x single layer recording. Depending on which model you get, the drive can also write DVD-RAMs, but only at 5x.

DGMPGDec 1.4.4 beta 4 can display up to 500 PIDs when detecting PIDs, no longer filters out m1v files in the input dialog and fixes two bugs.

If you're interested on VobBlanker, you probably already know this, but there have been 9 betas since the last release and you can find the latest one here.

And this one is rather old, but Nic has written an AviSynth filter that can handle almost any type of audio, including 6ch AC3 and DTS: NicAudio.

Auto Gordian Knot 2.17 uses the most up-to-date DGIndex, RemoveGrain and vsfilter, ignores the menu VOBs in IFO encoding mode, improves auto-naming of output files and last opened directory persistence in IFO mode and the installer enables the colorcorrection and detect 4:3 hidden options by default.

SubRip 1.40 beta 1 has a reworked GUI, uses a language and character map file that can be edited in Word, allows filling the character matrix with entire UniCode ranges and it can open bitmap sequences from DVDSupDecode.

PgcEdit 0.6.1 beta 9 allows the use of the create new cell function in any PGC and contains some fixes in this function.

DVD Identifier 4.1.0 supports Blu-Ray recording speeds, classes and versions, contains some updates in the manufacturer database and other minor overall improvements.

ProjectX 0.90 pre contains all patches from the 0.82.1 line of code and includes some internal changes. I currently have no SDK installed but I'll provide a compiled binary shortly.

ProgDVB 4.56 has a new module called PidRecorder which can record data from PID, has a new device TS reader allowing ProgDVB to process TS files, includes fixes in the channel scanner and the media client / server and other important fixes.

BeSweet 1.5 beta 31 supports a new set of commandline options for dimzon's BeSweet plugins.

MKVToolNix 1.5.6 removes aspect ratio from AVC tracks and puts them into the container AR field instead and it fixes a couple of bugs.

NuMenu4u 2.0.23 fixes three bugs.

That didn't take long: dimzon has created an faac plugin for BeSweet allowing direct -> AAC/MP4 encoding from any input format BeSweet supports.

ratDVD 0.76 has a plugin to use ISO images as input, has a new playback filter with improved compatibility to the Microsoft DVD Navigator, and it fixes some bugs as well.

AVI Mux GUI 1.17.2 allows more control over cues creation for MKV output, has more drag&drop functionality in the chapter editor, supports mkvmerge compatible xml file output, supports hard-linking for matroska output and fixes a few bugs.

ProgDVB 4.55.2 contains an updated Pinnacle module.

The DivX Ultra certification was just unveiled, and now we already have the first certified chipsets.

MenuShrink 2.3 allows preview of all cells having more than 1 I-frame, puts the overall DVD size into the log, does not process IFO files when you press abort, warns if the wrong video format is found in the PGC cell times, computes the cell playback time from scratch, and no longer resets audio streams if audio was flagged to be kept and a cell was kept animated.

MaestroSBT 2.5.4.0 supports Toshiba output, allows footage timing for film subtitling, supports Ultech USF scripts and the UYC bitmap format, can separate subtitles if they are 1 frame apart, renders the subtitles faster and fixes a few bugs. The software has also gone open source - volunteers are more than welcome.

DGMPGDec 1.4.4 beta 3 always loads the ini file from the directory where DGIndex resides and the error handling for bad d2v files has been improved.

There is an alternative to using the Nero DLLs to encode AAC using BeSweet now: dimzon has created a BeSweet plugin for the Winamp AAC encoder. Perhaps that'll open the door to an faac plugin with MP4 output shortly?

ScenAid 1.7.0.6 fixes a bug preventing subtitles from being scripted when using Scenarist.

DGMPGDec 1.4.4 beta 2 has cli parameters for the minimize and hide options.

BSPlayer 1.36 has basic support for the VMR7 renderer, improved support for playing locked files, the player will stay in desktop mode when a movie has finished, the aspect ratio won't change in frame step mode anymore, external subtitles can be used even when embedded subs are present at the same time and a couple of bugs have been fixed.

AviSynth 2.5.6 RC1 is out. It has a few new options in the DirectShowSource plugin, a few new functions and a bunch of bugfixes as well.

DGMPGDec 1.4.4 beta 1 has an improved manual, grays out audio menu options depending on the selected audio output method and fixes two bugs.

MeGUI 0.2.2.4 now supports aspect ratio signaling in MP4 / MKV output in OneClick mode, as well as in manual modes (if the AR has been configured in the codec setup).

The DVD+RW Alliance is not only working on faster burning speeds, they also want to present their final DVD+RW DL specification by the end of the year. 2006 should be an interesting year for recordable media with the final touches on DVD recording and the first blue laser based recorders.

Apparently afraid to lag behind Blu-Ray in terms of "anti-piracy measures" (taking our rights away would be a more fitting term, but it's obviously not so PR friendly ;), the HD DVD backers are now working on means to prevent you from recording what's on your TV screen when watching a HD DVD. Geez..

What has happened for the rival DVD recording standards DVD-R and DVD+R, might also lie ahead for the upcoming HD DVD formats: Samsung and LG have unofficially confirmed that they're working on drives that can handle both HD DVD and BluRay discs, to be available as soon as March 2006.

Speaking of Blu-Ray, I had a sudden flashback to early days of DVD. I've previously reported on Blu-Ray's copy protection, and how new discs could modify your player to block playback of certain discs, or even completely disable your player. However, it seems the studios backing Blu-Ray want to go even further and equip every player with an Internet connection, so they can remotely be disabled if you've been tinkering with your player. I've always suspected the studios behind the infamous big brother format DIVX would try again, and by the looks of it, that second try is BluRay. With an Internet connection, verification checks if you're entitled to play a disc is only one very small step away, and then we're right back to DIVX, which forced you to get the studio's OK to play any disc, and allowed them to keep a complete record of your viewing habits, along with blocking you from taking movies you paid for to watch them over at your friend's house (sounds awfully familiar if you've been looking at the state of digital music lately). Thinking back to the DIVX days, which studios were its major backers? While Disney was initially in the DVD camp, its DVD offer was very lackluster and they released more titles to DIVX as well as releasing those earlier than their DVD counterpart. 20th Century Fox, the second major studio to back Blu-Ray, has been a DVD holdout pretty much until DIVX died. Only Paramount, who was also somewhat late to jump on the DVD bandwagon (but who is rumored to have tipped the scales in favor of DVD and was the main reason DIVX died due to lack of studio support), is in the HD DVD camp, along with Warner and Universal (though the latter also supported DIVX - but maintained balance in its releases). The other major exclusive backer of DVD, Sony, finds itself in the other camp this time, and is preparing to make a significant investment into BluRay with their upcoming PlayStation 3 gaming console.

Considering all that, I'm happy with a 30 GB discs, using AVC as the video codec, over a 50 GB disc that gives the studios the ability to snoop on me, and mess with my hardware.

KISS, the now Cisco-owned maker of DVD players infamous for missing deadlines, has announced another NeroDigital certified DVD player. The DP-700 will be the first to play NeroDigital AVC content (and thus also any other MPEG-4 AVC content put in the MP4 container, like x264).

Verbatim has announced their own scratch-proof line of DVD that will be extended to HD DVD and BluRay as those types of discs come available. They will also release 8x certified DVD+R DL discs this month, to be followed by 12x and 16x capable dual layer blanks in the second quarter of 2006.

And risk breaking my own record for the longest news, since people keep asking about DVD Shrink, here's the full scoop.

There's an updated GKnot Rippack, that contains up-to-date versions of all programs, minus DVD Decrypter, which has been removed. I've already adapted the guides to include a download link for that application.

ShrinkTo5 1.5.2 fixes some problems in the encoder GUI.

Today's release of the Haali Media splitter fixes WMV9 support.

ProgDVB 4.55.1 has an updated media client/server module and contains some stability fixes.

Toshiba has just announced at Germany's IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung - International broadcaster's exhibition) that HD DVD players for your living room will only be available in Japan and the US for Christmas. European users will have to live with the recently announced PC-based drive, which ships with HD DVD playback software from Nero.

Speaking of Nero, they will release Nero 7 on the 10th of October. The new version includes an application to create 5.1 and even 7.1 soundtracks, and the premium release should be able to burn HD DVD and Blu-Ray discs. There is no confirmation yet that the new release will include ateme's MPEG-4 AVC high profile encoder.

DivXNetworks has launched its new certification program at IFA. DivX Ultra certified devices fully support DivX6, including menus, chapters, subtitles, multiple language tracks and meta tags. There is no information yet if the Ultra certification will include major missing features from lower-end certifications: QPel, GMC and multiple consecutive B-frames. Even the DivX HD profile does not include QPel and GMC. While the benefits for the latter are somewhat dubious, QPel can definitely help at low bitrates, and I don't buy the official reason why these features are not supported (not necessary for the high bitrates for HD content - but what about people playing their lower resolution content on those devices?) - imho it's simply a move to please existing certified chipmakers that are still not all able to deliver proper support for these features.

Another of Microsoft's proprietary formats can soon be played on Linux, and alternative media players: Microsoft's multimedia streaming format NSC has been successfully reverse-engineered by Jon Johansen.

DVD-RAM is once again catching up to the other two DVD formats, and will offer 16x recording starting in 2006.

First off all, sorry for not posting any news yesterday, but for 24h now I've been experiencing major problems with my DSL line. My router regularly looses the DSL signal and has to reconnect. I have not had a problem free hour for the past 24 hours and at times, my traffic zeroes out every 10 minutes :( You're lucky to even see this as having connectivity is like playing the lottery for me at this point.

DGMPGDec 1.4.3 fixes erroneous force film warnings for MPEG-1 files, fixes improper handling of the right arrow button and fixes the load project functionality.

FairUse Wizard 2.0 supports MPEG-4 AVC and VP7.

The latest Haali Media splitter has limited video size and aspect ratio change support for ordered chapters (if that description makes sense to me, let me know) and removes garbage from the start of MP3 tracks in AVI mode.

In a month, the first HD DVD drive will hit the marketplace. NEC's HR-1100A will retail for €500 and read HD DVDs at 2x and DVDs at 8x. A HD DVD writer will follow next January.

The New York times has run an interesting article on movie piracy a few days ago. One of the most interesting points is that at this point, studios really have no proof that a taped copy of the latest blockbuster circulating on the Internet has any significant effect on revenue. So, one has to wonder why they are going after file sharers, rather than those that actually make money off their products: bootleggers.

In a similar story, Home Entertainment - a UK based video rental chain - is also blaming bootleggers for a decline in revenue.

DVDFab Decrypter 2.9.3.8 fixes crashes when getting DVD information.

<keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to upload this>

Last month's news can be found here.