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23 Aug 2009 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 2009 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 2009 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 -
04 Jul 2009 13:04
7/4 Sorry for the long news blackout - my offline life kept me pretty busy, but of course I have a news rundown for you.
Software wise we've had a new release of BDSup2Sub which disabled fixing invisible subtitles by default, changes the cli for parameters you can turn on/off and adds the default background color handling to the min time textfield.
ProgDVB has been updated twice, with the latest version 6.10.2 bringing fixes in the media server, XMLTV, recording and other unspecified functions and the previous release also only bringing bugfixes.
DVD43 4.1.1 is better at handling DVDs with bogus files.
MKVToolnix 2.9.7 allows you to configure the list of common languages, splits the preferences dialog into several tabs and fixes a number of bugs.
BD Rebuilder 0.24.02 fixes a bunch of bugs.
Avidemux 2.5.0 now uses plugins for audio codecs, audio devices and video filters as well as the x264 and XviD encoders, uses scripted wizards which should make make them easier to expand, uses an updated ffmpeg library and there are various fixes and enhancements as well.
DivXFix++ 0.32 has also been released - it supports a few more codecs.
Then the usual shenanigans from the copyright industry: Three strikes is currently off the table in Spain as the government wouldn't endorse the endeavor. Instead, the copyright industry is focusing on going after Bittorrent sites for now.
Three strikes is still on the table in France, where the government is feverishly trying to get around the constitutional roadblocks - expect a vote on an amended text by July 20th.
Then some news on the Pirate Bay trial: First of all, there won't be a retrial due to the judge's membership in pro copyright groups. Then comes the news that the site has been sold to a Swedish software company called Global Gaming Factory X. What they really intend to do with the site remains somewhat of a mystery - statements by all parties still leave a lot open to debate, but I suppose it's safe to say that the site will undergo some interesting changes as the new owners will try to recoup their investment somehow, and as a publicly traded company, they'll try to reduce their exposure to lawsuits. And hot on the heels of these news come allegations of insider trading by the buyer.
Then some news on the retrial of Jammie Thomas-Rasset: Her lawyers wows to appeal, and one the artists whose work she was convicted of sharing issued a strong statement against the greedy actions of the major labels
Now here's one interesting tidbit: if you want to buy ads that air during a TV show, those that run online will cost you more. A sign of things to come?
If only they'd have come to their senses 10 years ago: Former RIAA boss Hilary Rosen isn't the only one to have come to the realization that they blew it with Napster - the current head of the British equivalent - the BPI - is now agreeing with her
Finally, the AACS LA has significantly lowering licensing fees for Blu-ray discs to encourage smaller productions make their way to Blu-ray, and Big Cable in the US is starting experiments with paid content delivery over the Internet
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23 Jun 2009 18:15
9/24 They're only threatening in Norway but they already mean business in Ireland: the Irish Recorded Music Association is suing two ISPs for not interfering with what their customers are doing and since they refuse to disconnect people the industry suspects of filesharing.
Is is election time in Germany - and the music industry has found some new friends - the conservatives. If blocking websites instead of shutting them down and prosecuting their operators wasn't enough, and if adding violent games to that block list still wasn't enough, here's the last straw: three strikes. Never mind that that part has been ruled unconstitutional in France and never mind that the EU parliament repeatedly voted overwhelmingly against a framework that would allow such legislation - we want to cut those dirty pirates off. Then there's only the matter of pressuring the highest court into submission so they don't dare to rule the same way like their French counterpart..
9/23 So the music industry has apparently discovered a new business model: if selling ringtones for outrageous prices (you're not allowed to sample your own CDs after all you dirty pirate) wasn't enough, now they claim that your ringtone is a public performance and you should be paying extra for it.
When it comes to piracy, the industry likes to say copyright infringement equals theft - even though the law clearly makes a difference. But then when it comes to reselling those things that are like stolen CDs, suddenly online and offline become two very different animals. Can they make up their minds already?
9/22 BDSup2Sub 3.9.4 contains a workaround for interleaved VobSub streams and adds tooltips for most GUI items.
The latest beta of neuron2's nVidia accelerated decoder tools now honors pulldown flags and fixes bugs in random access of MPEG program streams and TS streams.
BD Rebuilder 0.23.02 fixes a problem that could cause oversizing, uses the latest x264 build and contains some other minor fixes and corrections.
MakeMKV 1.4.4 supports multiangle Blu-ray discs, fixes MKV compatibility issues and improves handling of complex mpls files.
Once again, it's not the obvious suspects to make the first move in trying to abuse invasive government data collection for their own use - in Austria, it's not the music industry that demands access to the data gathered under the EU snooping directive, it's the Association of Austrian Newspapers. Wait a tick.. actually the music industry did come first.
6/21 In the wake of a record verdict for the music industry, at least some artists get that this whole thing has been blown way out of proportions.
Meanwhile, at Growlaw, they ask what if today's copyright law existed way back - how many of the world's literary masterpieces still have been written?
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20 Jun 2009 08:07
6/20 Is this what it takes for Blu-ray to really take off? Enter the $99 Blu-ray player. It's only profile 1.1 but what did you expect as long as 2.0 isn't mandatory?
1.9 million USD - that's the RIAA's latest favorite number. It's the amount of damages awarded to them in the retrial of the first P2P trial in the US. That amount comes from 80'000$ damages per song shared (24 in total). If you think that number is completely out of whack (and there's no way the defendant will ever to be able to pay it), you're not alone. The defense will appeal and one of the arguments is already known: they're going after the constitutionality of the statutory damages (damages that have no relation to the actual damages that the plaintiffs incurred - if we take $0.99 as the price of one song, 1.939 million people would have to download one of those 24 songs (and have no intention of paying for it if they couldn't get it for free) for the labels to lose that amount of money). Apparently, there's prior case law on just that topic - and if you think about it, 80'000 times the value of the content, and for something done without any financial motives, does seem just a little bit excessive. And on top of that, also this time around, the jury wasn't told the plaintiff needed to prove that dissemination actually took place (so that somebody actually downloaded those songs in the shared folder)
That didn't take long - didn't I say it's a matter of time until Germany's Internet block list is to be expanded beyond its original aim? It took one single day, ladies and gentlemen, though I'm a bit surprised that the first attempt wasn't made by the copyright industry - instead conservative German politicians want to block violent content. Unfortunately, since there are elections later this year (makes you think why we got the whole child porn agenda just now, doesn't it?) and since the teenager who ran amok and killed 15 people last March just happened to play a round of Counterstrike, politicians immediately forget common sense and look for an easy target to blame. After all, it's obvious and scientifically proven that playing Counterstrike will turn you into a killing machine, right ;) As horrible as it is to lose somebody in such a tragedy, there's no excuse to put blame where it doesn't belong - any psychologist worth his/her salt can tell you that such actions cannot be attributed to one single source - it's a combination of many factors that make up the whole.
6/19 The popular Popcornhour media streamer is coming out in a second generation model: the C200 is powered by the latest Sigma Designs chipset and handles pretty much every format you throw at it - including Blu-ray if you add a drive to the unit. The unit should launch in July (August in Europe), no price has been set and there's no information yet as to whether Blu-ray ISOs are also supported and about the region code capabilities of the unit. But make it play those ISOs and region free and my A100 is going to retire and I'll finally have a Blu-ray player in the living room.
Is Internet cutoffs without due process coming back to New Zealand copyright law? The government is looking at reworking the controversial section that was scratched shortly before the law went into effect. To do that, they're consulting multiple parties, but curiously absent are ISPs and any subscriber advocates - so effectively it'll come down to a choir championed by the copyright cartels singing Vive la France. How can any law be fair and balanced if you don't have all the interests at one table and they all have the same amount of influence?
Yesterday, the UK's "Digital Britain Report" has finally been revealed. It is all about expanding Internet access, higher speeds and another major section of interest: copyright law. As expected, there's no three strikes but instead ISPs should forward copyright notices from rights holders and there's the potential of technical measures against filesharing. On top of that, ISPs are supposed to keep records on file sharers, to be turned over to the industry when they intend to sue one (provided they get a court order)
Finally, under the guise of protecting the children, Germany is following such stand up nations like North Korea or China to censor the Internet. A secret list (and no oversight) of websites to be blocked is to be created and then all ISPs have to block access to those sites. The list of supposed to only contain child pornography, and those that pushed the agenda claim the law contains safeguards that would prevent sites containing other content to be added to the block list, but I bet you that within a month, we'll see the first attempt to include other kind of content - most likely sites that the copyright industry would like to see blocked (so on top of that list will be The Pirate Bay). And since the block is done on a DNS level, all you need to do is use an out of country DNS server to circumvent the measure - and even though the law contains some last minute additions that require that an attempt is first made to take the offending site offline, but since the whole thing is secret, we'll never know if this will really lead to more people who abuse children and put their "exploits" on the net will actually be brought to justice. And, to really show the law is more about pulling the curtain than to get that kind of content off the net is the fact that if a site is added to the list, the hosting company is not even informed (you'd think it's in everybody's interest to take down kiddie porn immediately).
Pro industry legislation that screws over the regular folks seem to be all the rage these days (and have been for a while) at least if technology and copyright is concerned. Here's one that's decidedly pro consumer and the industry will be screaming bloody murder about it: Eric Massa's Broadband Internet Fairness act, which would require regulatory approval of any usage based billing for broadband access. In other words, ISPs would have to justify to the FCC why they want to impose massive price hikes when cost per user when cost has consistently gone down over the past years (so making a case would prove rather difficult and hence expect fierce opposition by the pro cap lobby).
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18 Jun 2009 03:07
6/18 Japan just fell in line with other copyright industry friendly countries - the latest amendment to their copyright law makes downloading of content uploaded without the authors consent illegal, although enforcement is a bit tricky as the user needs to know that the files were illegally uploaded.
From the "I want my cake and eat it" department: if they're not busy calling traditional radio a form of piracy, they want the FCC to investigate those pirate stations for not participating in piracy (ehm, not playing the music of artists that support taxation of radio stations (that money would go to the labels of course.. no, I swear that has nothing to do with it, it's all about the artists)
So, the music industry is being decimated by piracy, or so goes the industry's favorite argument for stricter copyright law. Less money means less incentive for artists to create art is the argument. So, how come the number of albums released since Napster made online copyright infringement easy has more than doubled?
Besides cutting people off from the Internet without due process and suing their customers, the RIAA also loves the idea of ISPs blocking any content the industry doesn't approve of. So, their latest move comes in Norway where they are threatening to sue the largest ISP Telenor - you have 14 days to block the site or we'll enter your ship you dirty pirate enablers is the line they're using. Telenor's response: that would be like if the postal service opened all letters, read them and decided which ones to deliver - needless to say that this wouldn't be such a bad idea either.. so you can catch pirates using good old fashioned technology, too ;)
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17 Jun 2009 09:54
6/16 That's going to throw a wrench into the music industry's lawsuit machine in Italy - a recent ruling in Rome says that an IP address isn't sufficient to identify who was really sharing content.
Is Napster 2.0 (AKA flat fee subscription to download as much as you want) finally making an appearance 10 years after it should have? UK's Virgin Media is poised to launch just such a program later this year - so far they have Universal Music on board.
Finally, ars reports on the World Copyright Summit. The agenda in itself would indicate that they're really looking ahead, yet the "New Visions for Creative Industries" remain thin whereas the rest (you know, enforcing copyright and the likes) got all the attention.
6/15 BDSup2Sub 3.9.2 contains another workaround for corrupt VobSub streams. 6/14 BDSup2Sub 3.9.1 allows editing of imported DVD palettes, improves the color editing dialog and stores alpha cropping/minimum merge time and PGC palette export settings in the ini file.
And a correction regarding the news item from the 10th: there has yet to be a ruling as to whether the Pirate Bay judge was biased - the statement is only the opinion of the court that convicted the defendants.
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13 Jun 2009 15:43
6/13 BDSup2Sub 3.9.0 can import and export SUP/IFO, supports opening SUB/IDX files via SUB file, has store/next/previous buttons in the edit dialog, supports keyboard accelerators for most menus, exports target palette to PGCEdit format and the used sources are packed into the JAR file.
I'm sure you're all as sick and tired of hearing lobbyists whine about how downloads are killing this and that content industry - it's much harder to argue that people simply spend money elsewhere. That is, unless you come armed with a nice little graph like this one which just give you an idea that people are simply spending money elsewhere.
After the initial shock, the French government is charging ahead with their three strikes law - except that after the third strike you won't be cut off from the Internet after all since that was ruled unconstitutional. Instead of using the special tribunal where you're guilty until proven otherwise, they want to use "specialized judges" to have a final say. I wonder if that means those judges get their salary from the entertainment industry (properly laundered of course). Meanwhile, the opposition is asking that the whole law is scrapped.
Meanwhile, on a EU level, while the EU parliament has repeatedly voted against any three strikes legislation, the council of ministers is still not giving up on the idea (didn't I tell you they would ignore the elected representatives?) and want to bring up the whole stupid idea yet again.
Finally, ISPs that sell a lot more then they can handle in the UK serve as the best example why we need network neutrality - unlimited package that limits your downloads to 256kbit/s during peak hours? Geez. And remember that the last mile makes up more than 80% of the total cost - so once you get that fibre to your home, how much traffic you generate matters very little to your ISP - interconnects between POPs and uplink capability are easily expanded whenever necessary.
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11 Jun 2009 15:23
6/12 SupRip 1.16 improves handling of languages that have accents below letters.
Seeing is believing - that's the way I approach video quality - and according to their press release, so does German codec maker dicas who just announced that their encoding metrics for AVC content mean 30% less data rate at the same quality. I wonder if that's compared to x264 with the proper settings or to a certain encoder from that fruit company that managed to sell boatloads of phones purely on design and never mind the fact that the feature set lacks behind the rest of the industry by several generations (no it's not June 19th yet and yes I have not only one but two ;)
Shock and disbelief - but they remain undeterred. After all, the Constitutional Council only throw out 10% of the three strikes legislation. Or did they? Wasn't the whole thing about not having to go to a court of law and considering the accused guilty until proven otherwise. If you take that away, isn't the whole thing like a civil case on copyright infringement? And so, the "good little soldiers for the RIAA" (oops.. they say copyright but I I have an involuntary reflex that cuts right through the disguises ;) will keep on fighting on behalf of the industry.
Some time, it can be a good thing to live in Europe but not be part of the European Union. While the European Union passed extensive snooping laws that gave past dictators and despots to turn in their graves from envy, Norway is quite serious about online privacy - 3 weeks and then ISPs have to erase all data. How long do you think it'll take for the industry to find a good little Norwegian solder to bring forth a law to correct this "situation"?
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