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17 Jan ' 14:31
1/17 Just popping back up for a minute - it's been a very busy week. Unlike in the past they really made us work this time round..
It hasn't been a good week for big content: their first trial against a BitTorrent site tracker (OiNK) in the UK resulted in a not guilty verdict, the French authority in charge of disconnecting people from the Internet for copyright infringement has been found guilty of copyright infringement themselves and the online music price fixing case against the RIAA label has been reinstated.
And, after all the crying about losing money to piracy, guess what happened - revenue from movie theaters is up 10% in 2009 over 2008 despite the financial crisis. So, dare I ask if we really need to have three strikes, laws against camcording, etc. if people still spend their hard earned dollar on movie tickets despite the latest CAM release never being too far away?
Remember the HD-DVD/DVD combo discs? Well, they're back, almost... instead of the now defunct HD-DVD side they simply sport a Blu-ray side.
SMPlayer 0.6.8.3430 bundles the latest SVN release of SMPlayer with the latest multithreaded build of mplayer.
ProgDVB 6.31.1 uses the NIT information in the channel scanner.
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11 Jan ' 23:49
1/11 As announced, I have to leave again for a bit today - if time allows I might post some news in the forum during the week or just updated the page on the weekends when I'll hopefully be able to go home.
In the meantime, finally for once I can write about a band I've actually seen live - in a move that will undoubtedly displease the recording industry, Swedish band Rednex is releasing their latest single not through traditional, industry approved, but instead through fan approved means: The Pirate Bay. And to further aggravate the matter, their take on where the music industry is headed is certainly not in the line of Big Content ;)
And I know it's repetitive, but we need to keep calling them on their shenanigans - so while Rupert Murdoch has recently gone on a crusade against content aggregators and dissed Fair Use, now that his Fox News network is being sued for copyright infringement, suddenly the defense is that mockery of a concept called Fair Use...
ProgDVB 6.30.3 contains a reworked time correction mechanism for EPG, allows recording of subtitles in TS format and fixes crashes that occurred when using the mouse wheel.
DGNVDec build 2001 moves field operation options from DGIndexNVto DGDecodeNV/DGMultiDecodeNV, fixes backward steeping by GOP for program streams, fixes lockups when serving MKV files and navigating near the end of the file, contains some performance improvements and an up-to-date documentation.
Finally, I could start listing all the new gadgets announced at CES last week, but let's sum it up in one sentence (at least as far as Blu-ray is concerned): profile 2.0 seems to be the standard now, players are booting up faster than ever, most players get some kind of Internet connectivity used to stream a variety of content, and then there's 3D.
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08 Jan ' 10:18
1/6 Happy New Year. It took me a little longer to get back on the horse than I anticipated, and I have to leave again for 3 weeks shortly, but after that I should be around a lot more.
So let's recap what has happened in 2010 so far, hopefully in chronological order:
First of all, France's three strikes law went into effect - that is, almost: Unless the national privacy watchdog signs off, the party at RIAA/MPAA central cannot start.
DGDecNV build 2000 fixes random access for MPEG-2 program streams and fixes reversed fields in the info dialog.
Then we have the beta test of a new input method for x264 - the new input method allows to open almost any file without AviSynth and can handle variable framerate content without timecode file.
Haven't we hard that being called managed copy before? Just before CES opens its door, the MPAA members have come up with yet another layer of DRM - the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, or DECE, should allows us to play content on any device. That is, as long as it remains wrapped in DRM and each device has to get authorization from the mothership to be played. Now why does that remind me of DIVX? By the way, Disney is not on board - they have their own little DRM party called KeyChest.
BD Rebuilder 0.31.06 now uses B-frames for the high speed option, changes the default CRF values to approximate quality on extras, updates to the latest build of x264 and fixes some bugs.
DivX hasn't been on top of things for quite a bit now - the advent of cheap, AVC capable hardware came before they were ready for it. Now they're trying to get back on top with DivX TV
Finally, plans for 3D Blu-ray have already been announced but here's the logo for it, and after adding support for BD-Live, online video sources, LG is also adding harddisks to their latest Blu-ray player lineup. Will players soon dub as a small NAS?
12/31 -
02 Dec ' 18:18
12/02 Finally the DNS-worries are over and everything is back to normal! The forum is now at it's normal address: http://forum.doom9.org
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01 Dec ' 00:53
The forumserver isn't dead, it's just got a new IP and until doom9 pops up from his vacation you have to use http://85.230.118.136
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28 Nov ' 00:04
11/27 The forumserver isn't dead, it's just got a new IP and until doom9 pops up from his vacation you have to use http://85.230.118.136
Sorry for this,
Swede -
21 Nov ' 12:00
11/21 Today marks a first for me - both as far as this site is concerned and as far as my personal life is concerned: In a few hours, I'll leave for a 6 week holiday. I've never been on a holiday for so long (the longest was 4 weeks if memory serves right), and you can imagine what missing a whole week due to the flu meant to an already overbooked calendar - I was working my butt off this week and barely managed to pack my bags (planning what to do will have to come in the airplane and once we get there).
I think I set up everything so that I'll have Internet, but at best I'll be posting some stuff to the news forum. Of course you're all invited to participate as well - many eyes see more things and I was bound to miss certain things in recent weeks as the things were getting more and more hectic as the date of my holiday approached.
11/20 Big content seems to have some royal followers now - the Queen herself has announced plans for what could well turn out to be a three strikes law in the UK
ProgDVB 6.24 has a new OSD menu, supports 16APSK modulation and C-band stacked LNBs and contains the usual amount of bugfixes.
11/18 DVD Rebuilder 0.31.02 no longer uses ffms2.dll as backup for ffdshow, has some checks for required software prior to encoding, configures ffdshow as the preferred codec for DirectShow and uses the latest release of x264.
ZoomPlayer 7.0 has a right click option to close the navigator in fullscreen mode, has some new settings that define what happens if playback of a playlist is complete / which playlist is assumed to be the main movie when playing a Blu-ray discs / adjust subtitle synchronization / automatically hide the control bar and some more interface improvements.
11/16 BDSup2Sub 3.9.9 has an application option, has an auto FPS and a set / clear forced flags CLI switch and fixes some issues. 11/15 DGDecNV 2.0.0 beta 3 has a revised scrambled audio detection, implements force film mode for MPEG-2 and fixes crashes when upscaling streams with soft pulldown. 11/13 You think the MPAA's response to piracy is reasonable? How about shutting down an entire municipal WiFi network because a single user was caught downloading a movie? 11/12 Ugh.. got home from my business trip and I fell sick in the airplane. Now you know the drill nowadays with flu symptoms - you'll be masked up and asked to quarantine yourself. So here's me reporting back still weak from my own personal quarantine zone.
Can it be? A legitimate movie streaming site with the backing of major Hollywood studios? Sweden's Voddler promises just that and has attracted a large audience.
11/4 DGDecNV 2.0.0 beta 2 fixes a crash when indexing certain AVC streams. 10/30 -
23 Aug ' 23:11
8/24 FYI, I'm going to be away for the next three weeks - by now thanks to modern technology accessing the Internet isn't an issue, but posting news is - so people keep visiting the forum's news section as there won't be any news posted here except on weekends. 8/23 ProgDVB 6.12 has new functions to access channels over the Internet. 8/21 DivX 7.2.1 is out - no changelog yet though.
The Pirate Bay - which might not be around in its current form anyway at the cutoff date - will be blocked by Irish ISP eircom starting September 1st. I guess it's time to switch ISPs right about now if you've used the site in the past..
8/20 DviXFix++ 0.33 adds a cli play mode, supports various older Microsoft media video codec types and fixes a bunch of issues. 8/19 DivX Plus HD is coming to a NEC player near you soon - NEC's EMAA series of chipsets for Blu-ray players and high definition TV settop boxes will not only be able to play Blu-ray and HDTV content but also DivX Plus HD (MPEG-4 AVC video and AAC audio in an MKV container) 8/18 AviDemux 2.5.1 re-enables various video and audio encoders that were disabled in version 2.50, uses up-to-date ffmpeg libraries, contains various improvements for various codecs and there are some improvements in the GTK+ interface as well.
We all know that these days, getting access to copyrighted content prior to its official sanctioned release (by the RIAA or MPAA) is going to happen inevitably - it's just that sometimes, the source of the leak comes from unlikely source - the artists themselves: the latest RadioHead track to leak into P2P networks was actually leaked by the artists themselves. The band noted that they hoped the fans liked their latest work ;)
8/17 In what is certainly going to give the RIAA some sleepless nights (trying to figure out a workaround), an Austrian court just ruled that the music industry cannot get subscriber information from P2P users that are using a dynamic IP address (because the provider has no rights to save the association between subscriber and IP address). 8/16 ProgDVB 6.11.8 contains improved transcoding and other changes and fixes. 8/15 Just in case you haven't noticed - political affiliations play no role in politics when it comes to copyright law - Hollywood might be left, but their guys in congress are just as much pro copyright as the big business friendly right - so it should come as no surprise that Obama's department of justice comes down on the RIAA's side of the 1.92 million ruling against Jammie Thomas-Rasset.
And in what is going to be a serious headache for the RIAA, the singer of the band Morrisey asks fans not to buy their latest "release" since all the money earned will go into the pockets of their label, and the band won't make any money of it. Yeah, it's really all about the artists, isn't it?
New business models are generally bad, right? At least that's Fox'es take on the Redbox DVD rental service in the US. Apparently, 1$ is just too little (even though it's none of their business how much a rental service charges) so Fox has instructed their subsidiaries to delay new releases for the outfit for at least 30 days. And, Warner has just joined the party. How dare they charge whatever they feel will make them a profit without asking us to approve the amount of such a charge?
Expect to see more Disney Blu-ray releases that come with a DVD options- according to Video Business, the Blu-ray + DVD option is here to stay at least through 2010.
Is Australia joining the ranks of copyright industry friendly nations? according to the Australian EFF chapter, that's exactly what the latest governmental proposal (dubbed Telecommunication Interception and Access Amendment Bill of 2009) in copyright reform is all about.
Then we have Canada under an constant onslaught of US sponsored attempts to pass a more copyright industry friendly copyright legislation. Currently, the Canadian government is holding public consultations on copyright reform, so if you live in the great (white) north, it's time to visit the Canadian Coalition for Electronic Right's website and send their pre-made letter voicing concerns about the direction the current consultation is taking to the government - being on a US watchlist is actually a good thing when it comes to copyright law so make sure your country stays there.
Finally, the poor artists that are cheated out of their money have once again sided with those dirty pirates - Swedish Artist Magnus Uggla has gone on record saying that he'd rather be "raped" by The Pirate Bay than receiving virtually no payment for the "legit" music service Spotify. So, it's all about the artists, right? Then what's the company line of the artist doesn't fall in line?
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13 Aug ' 19:14
8/14 MKVToolNix 2.9.8 sports a considerable speedup in processing of large files in the header editor and there are many bugfixes as well.
It's about time I mention multiAVCHD again - the last two revisions saw one-click HD DVD authoring and a real-time transcode preview.
Finally, Lenovo's Q700 series makes for an interesting HTPC - featuring a 2.5GHz Core2 Duo CPU along with an Intel GMA X4500 GFX chip which should be just enough for Blu-ray playback (though personally I much prefer the nVidia 9400M series.. you get CUDA and all). There are but two problems: no Blu-ray option, and unfortunately, the guys with the 30" behemoths are left out in the cold again (I'm not aware of any device to implement HDMI in the version that can handle 2560x1600 - Dell claims my screen can, but there's no GFX card to actually try it out).
8/13 ac3Filter 1.63b has a command line interface for the ac3config utility, comes with a Swedish translation and fixes a few bugs.
DivX has been busy these days - they've released the first beta of their AAC encoder, along with the second beta of their commandline AVC encoder.
Finally, the same judge who killed Napster (you already know what's coming next, right) has followed up the temporary injunction against Real's RealDVD with another preliminary injunction (did the first one run out?) that keeps the status quo (so RealDVD still cannot be sold). You gotta love the "Ukrainian hackers" (Greg.. my gut and my spellchecker says that's with an i after the first a.. the country is called Ukraine) bit.. did we all of a sudden forget that RipGuard and ARccOS both have and continue to be beaten only days after the studios come up with yet another way to mess up perfectly good DVDs?
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12 Aug ' 04:37
8/10 Toshiba is definitely moving to make Blu-ray players - they're now trying to join the Blu-ray disc association 8/8 ProgDVB 6.11.7 supports Diseq for KWorld PCI and fixes the remote control for Compro and Geniatech cards. 8/6 Remember On2? Their VP series of codecs didn't perform too badly in past codec comparisons (it's just slow.. ), so here's wondering what will happen once it sails under the Google brand 8/3 ProgDVB 6.11.6 supports the Kworld USB 365 card and fixes some important bugs. 8/1 ProgDVB 6.11.4 contains a completely reworked autoupdate function and download / import of XMLTV and JVT tables as well as improving the channel list.
How would you like to get your Blu-ray on several weeks before the release of the corresponding DVD? Paramount is doing just that with the upcoming "Dance Flick"
Suing The Pirate Bay seems to be all the rage these days - the latest attempt comes from Italy.Finally, the second P2P trial is over - and the verdict will make the RIAA very happy: guilty and the defendant has been ordered to pay $675'000, or $22'500 per song. Not quite as outlandish as the result of the Jammie Thomas retrial, though still way out there.
7/31
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