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tsMuxer
1.7.6 can open Blu-ray playlist files and fixes some bugs.
eac3to
2.40 shows the frame count for TS/M2TS demuxing and remuxing,
has an option to check for container corruption, only shows the
title listing if there are at least two titles and automatically
selects the title if there's only one, has improved audio delay
detection as well as an option to specify the log filename and path
and there are some bugfixes as well.
DVD43 4.3.1
is better at handling DVDs with corrupt UDF tables.
SlySoft is once again one step ahead of the studios: Not only should
the latest
AnyDVD HD release finally do away with that pesky region code
on Blu-ray discs even when the disc uses BD-J, but they already
support the next set of AACS keys.
ProgDVB 5.14.3
supports channel logos.
H264info
alpha 0024 introduces a lite version which has all logging code
commented out and should be considerably faster than the standard
version.
The PC looks like it's the second Blu-ray player to handle BD-Live
is the PC - Cyberlink has announced an upgrade for the end of the
month and by the looks of it, even for PowerDVD 7.3
And speaking of the other BD-Live player - the Playstation 3 -
it is finally getting
DTS-MA support as well with an upcoming firmware.
And speaking of Blu-ray - I recently went to the largest CE store
in the region (and one of the country's largest stores at that)
and was on lookout for high def. The HD DVD presentations were gone,
as were the hard and software. They had 5 different Blu-ray players,
starting with the $399 Sharp (a profile 1.0 player), and ending
well above $1000. However, not a single Profile 1.1 player in sight,
except in the gaming section of course, but the PS3 costs almost
$200 more than the Sharp. And as far as discs are concerned - now
that the promotional Sony stand is gone, I was able to locate two
(yes, 2) prerecorded discs, and at the price of a whopping $47 a
disc (and at the other end of the store they sell the latest DVDs
for $17 a pop) Blu-ray has a long way to go - at the very least
we need regionfree players so you can import those $20 discs from
Amazon (like I've been doing.. with the BOGOs I must've paid less
than $20 a disc for my entire Blu-ray collection). And still, Sony
claims Blu-ray will command 50% of the market at the end of the
year. Looking just at the top 20 titles (and keep in mind that
there are plenty more DVD titles released every single week than
Blu-ray titles), BD held just 4% last week (and HD DVD had 36% of
the high def market - these fluctuations seem weird except when
you consider the 96 to 4 ratio.. with such small numbers, a few
thousand titles can make a notable dent).
The HD DVD return ball is rolling faster and faster with both
Amazon and Wal-Mart joining in.
In other tech news, ISPs are once again indirectly admitting that
they're selling way more than they can provide. The latest admission
comes out of UK
ISPs bitching about BBC's iPlayer - an on demand IPTV service
by the BBC. Wouldn't it be nice if we could make them pay for their
false advertising - and I don't mean writing off a couple months'
fees.. but forking over the management bonuses altogether for fraudulently
selling something you know you cannot possibly provide.
Those pesky New Zealanders! How dare they defy the mighty US copyright
cartels and actually
implement the WIPO treaties the way they were formulated in the
first place (explicitly giving signatories the rights to define
exemptions to the anti circumvention clause). It also rather specifically
targets region coding - so when are studios going to give that one
up? The bill is still copyright industry friendly, even though the
industry will paint this as another one that allows piracy to grow
rampant.
Moving west to Australia, the industry is stepping up efforts to
have ISPs disconnect subscribers for P2P users. Although, at the
moment, ISPs would even have to disconnect the Police since a recent
audit found that hundreds
of machines are used to share films. Then again, in this case,
the officers could put themselves in jail if they want to be really
accommodating to the industry.
And Australia isn't the latest battlefield in the crusade against
their own customers - fortunately,
in Norway, ISPs are not likely to cave to the pressure and gave
the MPAA a piece of their mind: In a constitutional state, the police
and prosecuting authority have the job of investigating and indicting,
not lawyers and communication engineers.
And in another setback for Big Content, the European
Parliament has rejected plans brought by industry advocates which
would have criminalized filesharing. Of course, there's always
ways to bypass the Parliament and railroad measures through other
means - it wouldn't be the first time they've done that.
In Germany, even though Parliament passed another law favoring
the industry, the
beneficiaries are already complaining. They'd like to extend
the whole "get the name and address of an IP address to sue
the owner" mechanism to extend to trivial cases, and are not
happy at all that the cease and desist amounts (in Germany, a C&D
can come together with a hefty - and often borderline fraudulent
and always way too high - bill that you are supposed to pay even
if you comply with the C&D order) have been limited to 100€
(those could be tens of thousands of Euros before - so it's basically
the same extortion racket the RIAA is currently running in the US
- people settle because they're afraid of heftier fees if they go
to court - and many cannot afford to go to court).
Big Content is even targeting China, though they're not going directly
after the users yet - their
latest case is against search engine Baidu for linking to illegitimate
MP3s.
Last but not least - if this idea takes off, you could basically
close colleges and put everybody in jail. Forget about P2P, here
comes the attempt to copyright
lecture notes. So, how much will I have to pay for taking notes
during 4.5 years of college lectures? Or go off to jail right away?
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