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September 30, 2004
HD-DVD Standard Earns Approval
Rewriteable version of the next-gen DVD format moves closer to mass production.
The DVD Forum has approved the physical disc specifications for the rewritable version of HD-DVDs (High Definition/High Density-DVDs), taking the format an important step nearer to mass production.
At a meeting in Taiwan on September 22, the association approved version 1.0 of the HD-DVD-RW physical specification, which covers a single-layer disc with a capacity of 20GB, Junko Furuta, a Toshiba spokesperson says.
Version 1.0 is the key specification that allows manufacturers to consider mass production of a product involving new technologies.
The association also approved version 0.9 physical specifications for the HD-DVD-R (recordable) disc at the same meeting. The HD-DVD-R discs will be single-layer 15GB capacity discs, Furuta says. Version 1.0 is expected to be approved by the association in February 2005, Yoshihide Fujii, president and CEO of Toshiba Digital Media Network Company, said at a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
The organization approved version 1.0 of the physical specifications for HD-DVD-ROM discs in June this year. HD-DVD-ROMs will be single-layer, 15GB discs or dual-layer, 30GB discs.
The physical specification defines the physical properties of the disc such as the number of layers and capacity. The application specifications, which define how data signals are written into the structure of the discs, will be decided before the end of February 2005, Furuta says.
Format Battle Brewing
The approval is the latest step between two major formats which are battling to replace DVDs with optical discs that store much more data.
Opposing the HD-DVD format, the Blu-ray Disc format is backed by Sony, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic), Mitsubishi Electric, Philips Electronics, Pioneer Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, TDK, and Thomson Multimedia.
Toshiba, along with Memory-Tech, NEC, and Sanyo Electric said earlier this month they were forming an association to promote the HD-DVD format.
Sanyo announced in August that it will produce components and players for HD-DVDs. Sanyo cited the HD-DVD format's ease of manufacturing compared to the Blu-ray. The company became the third major Japanese consumer electronics company to opt for HD-DVD, joining NEC and Toshiba. Memory-Tech is a DVD disc maker.
Last week, Sony Computer Entertainment said its upcoming PlayStation 3 games console will be compatible with the Blu-ray Disc format.
Toshiba expects to start commercial sales of HD-DVD players and recorders in the final three months of 2005, with players to cost under $1000, according to Furuta.
The DVD Forum is an association of over 220 consumer electronics, entertainment, software, and related companies that determines DVD disc specifications. At the meeting in Taiwan it also approved four audio codecs for HD-DVD, Furuta says.
Category : Industry News
Posted by dvd software at 02:42 PM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2004
MSN Ends Hotmail's Free Outlook Access
Microsoft has decided to restrict free users from using Outlook and Outlook Express for Hotmail. This is going to be reserved for paid users only. The reason given for restricting the WebDav access of Outlook and Outlook Express is to prevent spammers from abusing the free service.
Hotmail users now will have to sign up for one of two MSN Hotmail subscriptions to gain Outlook access—either MSN Hotmail Plus for $19.95 a year or MSN Premium for $99.95 a year.
Category : Internet
Posted by dvd software at 09:37 PM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2004
Travel by Train
This is an excellent train travel guide for North America.
Category : Internet
Posted by dvd software at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2004
Ahead Pushes Nero Digital Format for DVDs
Deal with ESS Technology will add support for Ahead's variant of the MPEG-4 video format on DVD players.
Ahead Software and ESS Technology announced a major development this week for Ahead's Nero Digital video format. ESS will incorporate Nero Digital support into the next version of its Vibratto chip. ESS chips power the digital video processing in many consumer electronics DVD players. Players featuring the new chip will begin appearing later this year.
The Nero Digital format combines the MPEG-4 video standard with MPEG-4 AAC audio. The resulting file size is greatly reduced compared with the standard MPEG-2 DVD-Video used in DVDs today--up to 10 hours of Nero Digital video can fit on a single-layer DVD, as opposed to just 2 hours of standard MPEG-2 video.
Until now, Nero Digital worked only on a PC. If you encoded a compilation disc of your favorite over-the-air TV show recordings in Nero Digital, you couldn't watch them on your TV using your DVD player.
Smaller File, More Content
As noted, the benefit of Nero Digital is the ability to compress more video onto a single DVD--up to 5 two-hour movies on one DVD. In addition, unlike competing MPEG-4 video options, Nero Digital supports features consumers now consider standard on DVD videos (which use MPEG-2)--including chaptering, subtitles, and multilingual soundtracks.
Ahead is the maker of Nero 6 Ultra Edition, a PC World Best Buy pick earlier this year in our roundup of DVD/CD burning suites. The update of Nero 6 Ultra Edition due in October will let you encode video (using ReCode) and transcode video (using NeroVision) to Nero Digital format. (Ahead codeveloped Nero Digital with Ateme, a French company with expertise in video and signal processing.) "Nero Digital is not just for now and today. For next-generation DVD, we need H.264--and we will have support for that format in the next few weeks in Nero 6 Ultra Edition," says Udo Eberlein, president of Ahead. H.264 is the next evolution of MPEG-4; Eberlein notes it uses a better quality encoder than H.263. Nero Digital currently employs H.263; when the new version of Nero Digital comes out, it will continue to support the older format, and add support H.264 as well.
H.264 has gained much momentum lately, with companies that support either HD-DVD or Blu-ray Disc announcing support for the codec. HD-DVD and Blu-ray are the two blue-laser optical formats competing to succeed DVD.
Improved Compatibility
Chips that support Nero Digital can read any video content encoded using one of the many variants of the MPEG-4 standard. Unlike earlier video compression standards, the MPEG-4 standard has a fundamental "container," or core set of programming instructions, that defines it. This allows programmers to make improvements to the standard while retaining backward compatibility with earlier iterations.
However, audio playback support will vary. Take the example of DivX, a competing MPEG-4 variant that uses MP3 audio. Since Nero Digital supports AAC, and not the lower-quality MP3 audio, a DivX-encoded disc would be able to play back audio only if the DVD player had its own support for MP3 audio. (Many DVD players use chip sets like the Vibratto II, which supports MP3 playback.)
Eventually, MPEG-4 playback support will be more prevalent in DVD players. But for now, support is limited--and often limited just to DivX. "We're trying to get a new solution out that's better than old ones, but that doesn't entirely neglect what the old ones are doing," Eberlein says.
Part of the compatibility problem arises from the variations between MPEG-4 encoders. "There are different flavors of MPEG-4. We're trying to clean up this mess with Nero Digital, to ensure maximum compatibility," says Eberlein. "In terms of competing with DivX, they've had a lot of trouble with their compatibility between versions. The burden [of knowing] is ultimately on the consumer's back."
Nero Digital will support all standards of MPEG-4; according to Eberlein, the company is the first to market with a codec that can handle any MPEG-4 file. "At the end of the day, we're not confining the user to just Nero Digital," he says.
By partnering with ESS, he adds, "we think we'll be able to reach a large number of CE devices by providing a bridge between the CE manufacturers and Nero."
Category : Industry News
Posted by dvd software at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)
Blog Writing
After started this blog for 5 weeks, I always feel lacking the right words, maybe I need to build my vocabulary first.
I did some vocabulary test just now, the result isn't cool.
Category : Miscellaneous
Posted by dvd software at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2004
Funny Author Names on Amazon
B3ta compiled a list of unfortunatley named authors :-).
Category : Fun
Posted by dvd software at 06:38 PM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2004
Converting Analog Tapes to DVD
Here are a detailed guide about converting video tapes to DVDs, for more information about video tape backup, please refer other two articles: Video to DVD and Digitized Memories.
Category : DVD Articles
Posted by dvd software at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)
September 22, 2004
Google Planning Own Browser
NY Post reported Google recently recruited half-dozen leading developers from Sun and Microsoft, which suggests Google will launch its own web browser. Google also has registered the domain name "Gbrowser.com."
Google will very probably cooperate with Mozilla, there was a bug report in Mozilla's bug tracking system (not public any more):
This is a duplicate of a private bug about working with Google. So closing this one.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 213362 ***
That would be great if Google is planning a new browser, they never failed to bring innovations so far. Some time ago there were also speculations that Google was making other software: a desktop search tool and an instant messenger after Google acquired hello.com.
Category : Google
Posted by dvd software at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2004
Dual Layer DVD Recording
A helpful reader pointed out my error about dual-layer DVD disks (DVD9), here is an article which helps me understand dual-layer DVD recording.
Category : DVD Articles
Posted by dvd software at 10:55 PM | Comments (0)
Star Wars DVD Box Set Released
CNN reports that George Lucas is releasing the Star Wars DVD box set early on September 21, 2004 due to piracy concerns. Lucas had intended to release the box set of the original 3 movies after Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was released. However, he mentions that due to piracy concerns the profits are being eaten up and there might not be a market for the films at that time. The box set contains the changes that Lucas has made from the original releases. CNN also reports on the top 5 major changes. Lucas is quoted as saying that he never intends to re-release the original 3 movies in the first CNN link.
I'm not a star war fun, actually didn't watch them at all. My very little star war knowledge comes from the web server names in my company, such as "r2d2", "yoda", etc. - These names don't make any sense to me.
Fortunately, later we started following "Matrix" and "Lord of the Rings", which I'm very familiar with and won't fail to spell :-).
Maybe movies apply to the rule: you missed once, you missed all!
Category : Entertainment
Posted by dvd software at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2004
I Found Some Of Your Life
A blogger claimed he found a digital camera card in a taxi which stored 227 pictures. He publishes one picture per day, pretends to be one of persons on the pictures and narrates their lives.
You are unknown to me.
Your camera's memory card was in a taxi; I have it now.
I am going to post one of your pictures each day.
I will also narrate as if I were you.
Maybe you will come here and reclaim this piece of your life.
This is an interesting blog, although I'm not sure if it's true. Maybe we can tell from the habit of using digital camera - usually take two or three pictures for the same occasion.
Category : Blog Issue
Posted by dvd software at 05:08 PM | Comments (2)
September 19, 2004
Sony Gains in Fight for New DVD Standard
The New York Times reported: "The purchase of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by a group led by Sony will not only give the company an enormous film library but also considerable power in its fight to set the format for the next generation of digital video discs.
The transition to the new discs, which are not expected to be widely available until next year at the earliest, could generate billions of dollars in royalties to the developers of the technology that runs them. Sony, as part of the Blue-ray Disc Association, a consortium of major electronics makers, is at the forefront of efforts to develop the new technological standard."
As a major consumer electronics company, Sony could also reap the benefits of selling the new generation of disc players the new format would require. Sony's success in the standards battle is far from certain, though, because the rival HD DVD group, led by Toshiba and NEC, is championing its own format.
By buying MGM's studio and its library of movies, industry experts say, Sony is trying to tilt the long fight over the new DVD format in its direction.
Both consortiums say their new discs will hold four to five times more digital video and audio data than the DVD currently on the market, enough to store the high-definition programs and films that are slowly making their way to the consumer market.
The HD DVD group, which is showing off its technology to Hollywood studios this week, contends that its new discs are cheaper to make and more compatible with existing DVD technology. The Blu-ray group, which includes Panasonic, Philips and Samsung, however, says that its discs have the advantage because they offer superior images, among other benefits.
The key to resolving the tug of war between the two groups, experts say, will depend on the Hollywood studios because they provide most of the content that will go on the discs. The studios also have a huge stake in the change to the new technology because they now make more money from DVD sales than from box office sales. They also lose millions of dollars a year from pirated DVDs.
But with the exception of Sony's own movie division that includes the Columbia and TriStar studios that naturally back the Blu-ray format, the movie studios have so far avoided backing one standard despite intense lobbying by both the Blu-ray and HD DVD groups. By buying MGM, Sony will be adding another studio to the list of Blu-ray backers, and a catalog of 4,000 movies that could be issued exclusively in the Blu-ray format.
"It further tips scales that were already tipped toward Blu-ray," said Ross Rubin, a consumer electronics analyst at the NPD Group.
Executives close to Sony said that bolstering its position in the battle of DVD formats was one of several important factors in its decision to pursue MGM. Indeed, the management of Sony of America helped sell the idea of bidding for MGM to its Japanese parent in some early internal meetings by promoting "the Blu-ray angle," the executives said.
Still, the executives noted that the Blu-ray format was "only one reason" for pursuing a bid for MGM. The executives cited a litany of other financial and strategic reasons for the deal, including being able to exploit MGM's films on Sony's other platforms like its PlayStation game consoles and even its cell phones, which it makes through a joint venture with Ericsson.
A spokeswoman for Sony declined to comment.
Sony, though, faces several risks in buying MGM. By building a large film library, which makes up an estimated 17 percent of available film titles, Sony could end up threatening the same studios it is trying to win over to the Blu-ray group. Sony, intentionally or not, may give the appearance that it is willing to start producing Blu-ray discs on its own, regardless of what the HD DVD group does, or what the studios want.
The studios and retailers do not want two formats because that would confuse consumers, and may mean having to produce two sets of DVDs for each film release.
Sony "can pose a more credible threat to launch on their own," said Tom Adams, the president of Adams Media Research in Carmel, California. "On the other hand, Sony of all companies has been badly burned by having new technologies launched in two formats." Sony was the big loser in the battle over the video cassette format, with VHS becoming the dominant format over Sony's Betamax.
Indeed, if the studios sense that Sony and the Blu-ray group is pushing its format too hard, it may benefit the HD DVD group.
The other studios could try to counter what they see as Sony's growing influence by backing the opposing format, industry analysts say.
Category : Industry News
Posted by dvd software at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2004
Backup DVD-9 to DVD±R
There are many DVDs released on dual-layer disks (DVD-9s), which can't be directly copied to recordable DVD since dual-layer recordable discs aren't out yet.
The new guide - Backup DVD-9 to DVD±R with Free Software - will show you how to backup an entire DVD-9 to a single DVD±R disk with DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink, both of them are excellent and free software.
Category : DVD Articles
Posted by dvd software at 12:16 AM | Comments (2)
September 17, 2004
Google Look in 1999
The image above is all the hardware Google used back in 1999. Now Google has well over 10,000 servers that crawl (go out and find Web pages) and index the Web.
Category : Google
Posted by dvd software at 02:44 PM | Comments (0)
September 16, 2004
PageRank Checksum Algorithm
I'm not going to talk about the magic here, just a little background. If you don't know what PageRank(PR) is, read below. You can check the PR by installing Google's toolbar, it enables you to search with Google on any websites, also includes a popup blocker, a very useful tool even if you don't care about PR.
Google's PageRank checksum algorithm was hacked several months ago. What can people do with it? According to my understanding, webmasters can use it to display the PR of a web page(view example), before the hack came out, the only way to see PR is installing Google's toolbar, but it only has Windows version, many Linux/Mac webmasters have to install Windows just for it.
Google noticed the hack and changed the algorithm recently, interestingly Google is not as lucky as before, it was hacked immediately after the change, maybe it got the attention from talented hackers. I'm sure Google has many very gifted engineers, what will they do? Let's see.
By the way, I really can't understand one thing about Google - they still haven't released it's toolbar for other systems (Linux, Mac) or other browsers (Mozilla, Firefox), it's a shame for Google IMO.
------------------
What is PR (Page Rank)? (from search engine FAQ)
PR, or Page Rank, is a number assigned by Google which represents to relative importance of a web page.
The PR for a web page can vary between 0 and 10. PR is assigned to individual web pages, not to websites.
PR is calculated using a complex secret formula which seems to be under constant change. In general, the more web pages that link to your web page, the higher the PR of your page will be.
Category : Google
Posted by dvd software at 11:51 PM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2004
DVD Backup with Free Software
This tutorial will show you how to backup any DVD using nothing but fully functional free software, and achieve the same results as using commercial software. You will be able to backup the entire DVD or just the main movie only.
Category : DVD Articles
Posted by dvd software at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)
Gmail Invite Bug
Just now I tried to send a Gmail invite, after clicked the "Send Invite" button, got an error message: "You don't have Gmail invites left", but the control panel shows I have four. The second time gave me another error message: "Server error, please try again later". The third time, Google got it right and told me: "You have 1 invitation left". I hope the person who received the invite doesn't mind if he got three.
P.S. I'm accustomed to using the word "invite" as noun since Gmail came out :-).
Category : Google
Posted by dvd software at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2004
DVD Authoring Guide
Added a complete DVD authoring guide - how to create high quality Anime DVD's from MKV, OGM, and AVI files, and a lot more. It explained every DVD authoring aspects in details:
Category : DVD Articles
Posted by dvd software at 10:14 PM | Comments (1)
Database Forums
Database Technology
Database - General Database discussion.
Database Theory - Discussing advances in database technology.
Object-oriented - Object-oriented paradigms in database systems.
OLAP - Analytical Processing, Multidimensional DBMS, EIS, DSS.
Database Software
DB2 - Problem resolution with DB2 database products.
Microsoft SQL Server - Microsoft's SQL Server and related products.
PostgreSQL - Discussion of open source Database software PostgreSQL.
MySQL - Discussion of open source Database software - MySQL.
FileMaker - Technical discussions about FileMaker.
Informix - Informix database management software discussions.
Microsoft Access - MS Windows' relational database system, Access.
Pick Database - Pick-like, post-relational, database systems.
Paradox - Borland's database for Windows.
Ingres - Issues relating to Ingres products.
Berkeley DB - The Berkeley DB libraries.
Pervasive - Pervasive Software client/server development.
Progress - The Progress 4GL & RDBMS.
Oracle Database
Oracle - General discussion of Oracle database.
Oracle Server - Oracle database administration/server topics.
Oracle Tools - Oracle software tools/applications.
Oracle Misc - Other Oracle related topics.
Category : Miscellaneous
Posted by dvd software at 02:04 AM
September 13, 2004
Future of Music Technology
IEEE Spectrum magazine is running a feature article on the state of music and current digital formats. They point to an interesting phenomenon in the digital music world that Steve Jobs emphasized as well: for the first time in music history, the next big format was not about better quality (SACD and such) but about better portability (MP3). 'It was only five years ago that the music industry was facing a civil war over the next-generation disc-based music format -- the successor to the wildly successful CD. At that time, hardly anybody doubted that the music would be encoded optically on a round plastic disc the size of a CD.'
Category : Industry News
Posted by dvd software at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)
Video Anti-Piracy Technology
NDS, STMicroelectronics and Thomson announced on Friday they will develop new encryption technology to foil video piracy, a $3.5 billion problem for broadcasters and movie studios.
The anti-piracy technology, known as the secure video processor (SVP) platform, is designed for media companies to protect their content from unauthorized copying and redistribution.
Category : Industry News
Posted by dvd software at 10:55 PM | Comments (0)
Email Forums
Email Servers
Sendmail - Discussion of the first and widely-used message transfer agent (MTA) - sendmail.
Postfix - Postfix attempts to be fast, easy to administer, and secure, while at the same time being sendmail compatible enough to not upset existing users.
Exim - Exim is a MTA developed at the University of Cambridge for use on Unix systems connected to the Internet.
qmail - Discusson of another new MTA - qmail.
General Email Discussions - General discussion of Email server configurations.
IMAP - Discussion of Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP).
Email Clients
Pegasus Mail - A free, standards-based email client suitable for use by single or multiple users on single computers or on local area networks.
Pine - Pine stands for Program for Internet News & Email - is a tool for reading, sending, and managing electronic messages.
Mutt - A small but very powerful text-based mail client for Unix operating systems.
Eudora on Windows - Discussion of Eudora for Windows.
Eudora on MAC - Discussion of Eudora for MAC.
Windows Email - General Email discussion on Windows.
Category : Miscellaneous
Posted by dvd software at 02:15 AM
September 12, 2004
Blog Entry Link
You may have noticed that I modified the blog entry link, the default link text is the post time, now I use the post title as link text. The main benefit is search engine ranking, when user searches the title, this blog will be ranked higher on Google or other search engines.
Category : Blog Issue
Posted by dvd software at 10:26 PM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2004
Gmail Notifier for Trillian
Although Google doesn't like third-party Gmail tools, new notifier still comes out, You've Got Gmail is a Gmail notifier plugin for Trillian Pro.
By the way, I still have a few Gmail invites, leave your email address if you need one.
Category : Google
Posted by dvd software at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)
Why Google So Successful
...Google's biggest asset is just the general way they run the company and solve problems. So far no one can compete with them there.
- You can't be bought (well, not like other search engines at least). You can't buy your way into natural rankings. As long as natural rankings can be bought, the search engine cannot be relevant. So from that regard they are going to be more relevant.
- They solve problems programatically, so they scale better (Yahoo for example has a staff of people that manually look at and filter sites from the index. Not practical if you ask me.) Google instead tries to actually understand the page algorithmically for spam filtering. Of course neither method is 100%, but Google's method scales better because computers are cheaper than staff.
- Google innovates, while other companies try to mimic what Google does. PageRank was revolutionary when it came out, Google answers, the Google API, Google News, Google Catalogs, Google Local, Orkut, etc.
- The things Google doesn't invent, they do better... Froogle, Google groups, Image search, Gmail, translation, etc.
- Things they acquire, seem to be the best of breed.. Blogger, Picasa, etc.
- Google as a company encourages free thinking and innovation from their employees (all employees spend one full day per week working on whatever personal project they feel like)...
By Shawn, very good points!
Category : Google
Posted by dvd software at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)
Make Blog Links Open in New Window
Blog often links to external web pages, it's better to open the link in a new window and keep the visitors stay on your Blog. I don't want to add the html code "target=_blank" every time I insert a URL, it should be possible by modifying the movable type templates.
According to my last post: Movable Type Templates, I searched MT support forum and found the thread, but this thread only works on old versions, you should follow it if you use MT 2.x.
In MT 3.x, I found all the JavaScripts moved to a central file "mt.js" under the root directory, open the file and find the following line:
setSelection(e, '<a href="' + my_link + '">' + str + '</a>');
Modify to:
setSelection(e, '<a href="' + my_link + '" target="_blank">' + str + '</a>');
Then upload this file to your web server, it will add "target=_blank" automatically when you insert a URL.
Category : Blog Issue
Posted by dvd software at 12:09 AM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2004
Digitized Memories
Videotape's quality will be fading away when you watch or just store them, converting into digital media, such as CD or DVD, is a very feasible solution now, the new article "digitized memories" explained the procedure in more details.
Related article: Video to DVD
Category : DVD Articles
Posted by dvd software at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2004
Blogs may be good for business
Blog is getting hotter and hotter, the following text are from an interesting article on USA Today.
- As a Web site. For a consultant, freelancer or very small business, a blog may be a free way to get a Web site fast. Just post your business description or resume and give out the blog Web address to prospective clients or customers. You can have this up and running in less than a half-hour (15 minutes if you don't add photos).
- To create a stronger personal connection with customers. Most of us in small companies have strong personal ties to our customers, but if you conduct business primarily on the Web or over the phone, a blog might be something to try.
- To share images with clients. Many small businesses need to send or share photos, artwork, diagrams and such with clients. Some customers don't want to receive large graphics files as e-mail attachments. A blog lets you upload them to the Web.
- To develop a following. If you are an expert in a specific field, it's possible your blog will develop a following of devoted readers. This is certainly true in technology, but it's possible if you've got expertise in any specific area, and you're willing to add new entries to your blog regularly.
Category : Blog Issue
Posted by dvd software at 01:44 AM | Comments (0)
September 08, 2004
HD-DVD: One Format Only Campaign
I have post a few entries about next-gen DVD format - High-Definition DVD, the main two competitors are blu-ray and HD-DVD. High-Definition DVD products will come out early next year, if the format war continues, the silly thing could happen: you have a blu-ray DVD player, but you can't enjoy your favorite DVD because it's HD-DVD format.
Here is a website dedicated to one format campaign, "The purpose of the HD-DVD: One Format Only! Campaign is to convey what we believe is a very important message, on behalf of DVD consumers everywhere, to the Hollywood movie studios, the consumer electronics manufacturers and all the members of the DVD Forum. That message is simple:
We believe that in order for any high-definition video disc format to be successful, all of the various parties involved MUST agree upon a SINGLE, unified format before making any such format available to consumers."
Category : Industry News
Posted by dvd software at 06:40 PM | Comments (0)
September 07, 2004
Cheap DVD Drives
There are some very cheap DVD burners online, they are called OEM (original equipment manufacturer) drives, which are originally produced for another manufacturer other than end users. You can get it with unusually good price, but you also take some risks:
1. No bundled software.
2. No tech support and firmware updates.
Excerpted from the article: The Perils of Non-Retail Drives.
...Beware of unusually low prices, or oddly worded ads. Some sellers might not call a drive an OEM, or they might say it's an OEM drive with a warranty--but that doesn't mean you're getting the manufacturer's warranty...
Category : DVD Articles
Posted by dvd software at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)
AnyDVD Released New Version
AnyDVD just released a new version today, there are no big updates though.
- Fix: Stability problems
- Fix: CSS Key Edit Dialog
- Fix: Possible hang of Plextor Writer
- Change: Improved behaviour of RPC1 Drives with Windows 2000 and Windows XP
- Change: Increased Process Priority
- Some minor fixes and improvements
- Added Polish language
- Updated languages
Category : DVD Software
Posted by dvd software at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)
September 06, 2004
Blu-ray Disc To Support MPEG-4, VC-1
Blue-laser disc format's standard adopts new video codecs.
The Blu-ray Disc Association has added the MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1 video codecs to its specification for prerecorded Blu-ray Disc media, it says this week.
Blu-ray Disc is one of two High-Definition DVD formats vying to become the de facto optical disc standard for high-definition video.
As a result, the two codecs will form part of version 1.0 of the BD-ROM logical format, which is expected to be finalized later this year, says Richard Doherty, Panasonic Hollywood Labs' managing director of Blu-ray and professional A/V (audio/visual). The logical format specifies the way in which content is stored on the disc. The physical format, which concerns technical specifications for the disc itself, was already approved in July this year.
VC-1, the proposed Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers standard, is based on Microsoft's Windows Media 9 codec, and was previously called VC9, says Doherty. MPEG-4 AVC is based on the H.264 codec.
Greater Flexibility
Greater Flexibility
All Blu-ray players will be required to support playback of MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1, in addition to MPEG-2. The main advantage of requiring two codecs to the specification is it allows greater flexibility to content providers to pack more content on a disc. This is because the newer codecs are more efficient at compressing data than the MPEG-2 codec that's used with the rewritable Blu-ray Disc format and so allow more video to be stored in the same amount of space.
In the case of a 25GB single-layer Blu-ray Disc, about two hours of video encoded in MPEG-2 at a data rate of between 23 megabits per second and 25 mbps can be stored, Doherty says. MPEG-2 is used in DVD-Video and the first generation of the rewritable version of the Blu-ray Disc format. In contrast, the two new codecs can achieve an equivalent quality of video at about half the data rate and so expand the 25GB disc's capacity to up to 4 hours, he says.
"There are other advantages to having two compression techniques," Doherty says. "Moving forward, the technologies can have competition to help drive down licensing fees and improve picture quality."
HD-DVD (High Definition/High Density-DVD), the main competitor to Blu-ray Disc, has already made the two codecs part of its standard for prerecorded discs. In June companies supporting HD-DVD trumpeted this as one of its advantages over Blu-ray Disc.
"With this adoption, all that [advantage] is gone," says Doherty.
Adoption of the advanced codecs in future versions of the BD-RE rewritable format depends as much on technology as standardization talks, says Doherty. High-definition broadcasting in Japan and the U.S. uses the MPEG2 format, and current recorders put this broadcast data stream directly onto the disc. Using one of the two new codecs would mean real-time hardware transcoding, and that's too difficult to do in a consumer-level machine at present, he says.
Blu-ray Disc comes from a group of 13 companies led by Sony and also including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic), Mitsubishi Electric, Philips Electronics, Pioneer Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, TDK, and Thomson Multimedia.
Category : Industry News
Posted by dvd software at 08:41 PM | Comments (0)
September 05, 2004
Recordable DVD
We often see very similar DVD format terms, such as DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, do you know what's the difference between them? Check out the DVD FAQ entry if you are confused : What about recordable DVD: DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD+R?
Category : DVD Articles
Posted by dvd software at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)
September 04, 2004
Englisch Vokabeltrainer
I just found a very powerful vocabulary software for German speakers.
Vokabeltrainer Englisch
Lernen soll Spaß machen. Dieses Ziel haben sich die Programmierer von Vokaboly gesetzt und daher auch Spielelemente in ihren Englisch-Vokabeltrainer eingebaut. Ansonsten erinnert das Lern-Grundkonzept an die Vokabelkästen aus alten Zeiten, als noch nicht in jedem Jugendzimmer ein PC stand.
In der Vollversion sind 11.000 Vokabeln enthalten. Dieser riesige Wortschatz ist in acht Bücher unterteilt, die vom Grundwortschatz 1 bis zum Buch GRE für den GRE-Test reichen. GRE steht für Graduate Record Examinations. Das sind standardisierte Tests, die jeder ablegen muss, der sich für akademische Postgraduierten-Programme in den USA bewirbt.
Category : Miscellaneous
Posted by dvd software at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)
September 03, 2004
Windows Media Player 10 Review
Paul Thorrott reviewed Windows Media Player 10: "...Windows Media Player 10 is a huge improvement over previous Windows Media Player versions, though it still falls short of the competition in a few key areas... Windows Media Player 10 is free and requires Windows XP (any edition), but not any other Windows versions..."
Another review by Thomas Hawk: "I wrote my Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 Review today the first day the software was released and one of the first reviews on the product. I basically give it good marks but there are definiately some things that they can still improve upon."
You can download Windows Media Player 10 on microsoft's website, but again it's for Windows XP only.
Related DVD FAQ: How do I get the Microsoft Windows DVD player application to run?
Category : Industry News
Posted by dvd software at 11:27 PM | Comments (2)
September 02, 2004
DVD Authoring Truths
Here are some tips for DVD creation:
- Analog videos (analog 8 mm and VHS) must be converted to digital format before they can be burned to DVD. Video-capture devices (internal or external) can connect your camcorder or VCR to your PC. Some capture devices even perform the conversion in hardware. Others ship with conversion software.
- Digital video camcorders that can also read analog tapes (typically 8 mm) perform the conversion on the fly and send a digital stream directly to your PC.
- USB 1.1, which has throughput of about 11 MBps, is not fast enough for high-quality video capture. High-quality video (30 frames per second with 24-bit color at a resolution of 640 by 480) requires throughput of at least 210 MBps to maintain quality and not drop frames. USB 2.0 works at speeds up to 480 MBps and FireWire (IEEE 1394) can run at 400 MBps.
- You'll need lots of free hard drive space to work with digital video. Even if you use one-step DVD-creation tools, the software will cache the video on your system's hard drive before burning the DVD. Two hours of high-quality digital video usually takes up nearly 4GB of hard drive space.
- Digital video tapes hold one hour of high-quality video. 8 mm analog tapes are typically two hours long and VHS-C analog tapes are usually one hour long.
- Most consumer DVD authoring and burning products can fit just one hour of high-quality MPEG-2 video onto a DVD.
- Most DVD authoring tools allow you to record to DVD at lower bit rates (which means image quality is likely to be somewhat reduced), so you can fit up to two hours of video on a DVD.
- Many set-top DVD players cannot play DVDs that have been written at lower bit rates.
- Don't be confused by one-step or automatic DVD-creation software promises. They can do their work with little user intervention, but the time it takes to encode video and burn a DVD can be quite lengthy. Encoding, compiling, and burning a one hour DVD can easily take two hours.
- Many set-top DVD players will play DVD-R discs only, not DVD-RW or DVD+RW discs. Check the manufacturer's Web site for details since this information is not always listed in the manual, especially with older models of players.
Category : DVD ArticlesPosted by dvd software at 10:43 PM | Comments (1)
Gmail Invites
I have a lot of Gmail invites, just leave your email address (better with first/last name) if you need one.
Category : GooglePosted by dvd software at 05:25 PM | Comments (1)
September 01, 2004
High-Definition DVD Discussion
There is a discussion running on Slashdot.org about High-Definition DVD, it started from a news - Microsoft Codec Required For Blu-Ray Players, the more interesting thing is it got many informative comments about Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Maybe later I will compile some comments into an article.
"According to ExtremeTech, the Blu-Ray Disc Association (which consists of many big names, like Sony, Philips, and Pioneer) has decided to mandate Microsoft's VC-1 video codec. With HD-DVD incorporating Microsoft's patented video codecs as well, what will happen to the state of media players on Open Source?"
Category : Industry NewsPosted by dvd software at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)
High-Definition DVDs Prepare for Battle
Here is another insightful article about the next-gen DVD format High-Definition DVD : High-Definition DVDs Prepare for Battle
Related Article : High-Definition DVD
Related DVD FAQ entry : Will high-definition DVD or 720p DVD make current players and discs obsolete?
Category : DVD ArticlesPosted by dvd software at 07:24 PM | Comments (0)
Video to DVD
The new article - Video to DVD explains how to transfer VHS tape to DVD without PC, what should you care about, how to copy protected videos, some tips to get best video quality, compares several different options including "mail it in" service, also recommends some DVD recorder products.
It worths the effort if you want to backup your priceless memory, such as your wedding ceremony video, but you may not want to archive your "the Graduate" movie, because you can't improve the video quality, it's better to buy DVD release for favorite movies, IMO.
Related FAQ Entries
How do I copy my home video/film/photos to DVD?
Can DVD record from TV/VCR/etc?
How can I record from DVD to videotape?
Category : DVD ArticlesPosted by dvd software at 12:38 AM | Comments (0)