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For the last year or so, the MPEG LA has been trying to get all the various Blu-ray Disc patent holders to come together and create a joint license. According to their most recent press release, the group has made significant progress in identifying licensing terms.
MPEG LA announced today that the fourth meeting of essential Blu-ray Disc(TM) patent owners, currently consisting of 18 companies, was held in New York on February 6-7 for the purpose of creating a joint license providing fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory access to essential patents, as an alternative to negotiating separate licenses. Significant progress has been made in identifying licensing terms for Blu-ray Disc(TM) products such as players, recorders, drives, software, recordable discs and prerecorded discs. Participating companies include CyberLink Corporation; Dell Inc.; Hewlett-Packard Company; Hitachi Ltd.; Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.; LG Electronics Inc.; Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic); Mitsubishi Electric Corporation; Pioneer Corporation; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.; Sharp Corporation; Sonic Solutions; Sony Corporation; TDK Corporation; Victor Company of Japan, Ltd.; and Warner Home Video Inc.
Additional patent holder meetings are planned, and work on the joint license will continue. More information can be found here. Add a comment

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Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro @BCCHardware
CORSAIR Flash Voyager 8 GB USB 2.0 Drive @Futurelooks
OCZ Technology ProXStream 1000 Watt Power Supply @Tweaknews.net,Overclockers Online
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gamer Case @Bigbruin.com
JVC LT-46FN97 46'' 1080p LCD HDTV @I4U
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Foxconn GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB Overclocked Edition @HardwareZone
Lite-On SH-16A7S @Overclockers Online
Thermaltake Lanbox Computer Case @Tweaknews.net
In Win F430 Xtreme Series ATX Gaming Case @Bigbruin.com,ThinkComputers.org
Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth Headset @BlueTomorrow.com
Spire Swirl Computer Case @Tweaknews.net
Foxconn N570SM2AA-8EKRS2H nForce 570 SLI Motherboard @Redaktion ocinside.de
Cooler Master X Craft 250 and 350 Hard Drive Enclosures @Bigbruin.com
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ @HardwareZone,BCCHardware
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ESS Technology has reportedly sold its HD-DVD and Blu-ray technologies to the Hong Kong-based electronics distributor, SiS Holding Ltd., for $13.5 million. The agreement includes the sale of certain tangible assets, licensing of related intellectual property and the transfer of associated employees.
Digital video processor vendor ESS Technology Inc. has sold its HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc DVD technologies and related assets to SiS Holding Ltd., a Hong Kong-based electronics distributor, for $13.5 million, ESS said Friday (Feb. 16).

ESS (Fremont, Calif.) said it would cease operation of its camera phone business and pursue licensing of its image sensor technology and patents. The company said this action would reduce operating expenses by roughly $2 million per quarter.
If you'd like to read more, head on over to EETimes. Add a comment

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PowerColor X1550 512MB @Overclockers Online
ThermoHawk 200 IR Temperature Meter @ASE Labs
Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 @BCCHardware
Spire SwordFin PC Case @ThinkComputers.org
CORSAIR HX 620W Power Supply Unit @Futurelooks
Alienware Area-51 7500 Desktop PC @I4U
MSI P6N SLI Platinum (NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI) @HardwareZone
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At one point, AACS seemed like an impenetrable wall. Lately though, its looking more like swiss cheese. Earlier this week, a person going by the name arnezami on the Doom9 forums discovered that volume keys could be extracted using what he calls a processing key. With this information, it would be possible to decrypt all HD DVD movies without needing to know the volume key first.
The author of the AACS bypass attempt code, whose screen handle is arnezami, described the process of locating the media key as a matter of creating a control program that slowed down the playback of an HD DVD disc, searching for changes in critical locations in memory. Once those changes are made, playback halts, and the changed memory contents are tested for a sequence of bytes that can be validated as a media key.

From there, arnezami needed a volume ID - a sequence which, when combined with the media key, could yield the VUK. In a bizarre twist, he learned the volume ID was actually guessable, at least for one disc: It was a decimal-encoded permutation of the production date of the disc (9/18/06).
While the AACS LA has acknowledged these hacks, they have yet to revoke any device keys. Even if they do, it probably won't set back people like arnezami very long. If you'd like to read more, head on over to BetaNews. Add a comment

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Rivet Fashion Wrap & MP3 Accessories @TechZone
A-DATA PD7 1GB Flash Drive @ChileHardware
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Pioneer Elite 60 inch PureVision Plasma HDTV PRO-1540HD @I4U
GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB @HardwareZone
Altec Lansing inMotion iM510 Travel Speakers @BCCHardware
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nVidia GeForce 8800GTS 320MB @TweakTown
Jabra Bluetooth BT325s Bluetooth + MP3 Headset @BCCHardware
NZXT Zero Computer Case @Tweaknews.net
A4 Tech NB 99 Battery Free Wireless Mouse @Futurelooks
ECS AMD690GM-M2 Motherboard @TweakTown
BFG 8800 GTS OC 320MB Graphics Card @I4U
XFX 8800 GTS 320MB XXX Graphics Card @I4U
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HDMI connections have been available on HDTV's and other consumer electronics products for a number of years. More recently, HDMI has made its way to the PC market. According to a press release sent out by HDMI Licensing, LLC, more than 50 HDMI PC products are currently available.
HDMI Licensing, LLC, theagent responsible for licensing the High-Definition MultimediaInterface(TM) (HDMI(TM)) specification, today announced the rapidpenetration of HDMI into the PC market with more than 50 HDMI PC productscurrently available, including nearly two dozen desktop and notebook PCs,families of HDMI PC monitors from major manufacturers and a broad range ofmotherboards and graphics cards with HDMI outputs.

HDMI is the de facto standard digital interface for HDTVs and high-definition (HD) consumer electronics products. HDMI is also currently theleading interface for PCs intended for HD content usage, includingconnection to HDTVs and HD video camcorders.
If you'd like to read more, HDMI Licensing, LLC's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment

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While many people, including myself, were excited when CyberLink released PowerDVD Ultra, the software has had its share of problems when playing back Blu-ray and HD DVD titles. According to Engadget, some PowerDVD Ultra owners have gone as far to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
As Cyberlink's support forums show, however, not everybody's been rewarded for their patience (and hundred bucks), with a number of reports cropping up of playback problems with both high-def formats on systems that Cyberlink's own system adviser says meet the necessary requirements. The main problem appears to occur with those using an HDMI or DVI-to-HDMI connection between their video card and display device, with the video reportedly only playing for a few seconds before throwing up an "Error 0103" message stating that the player couldn't be initialized. While there's reports of the problem dating back to shortly after the software's release in late December, there's so far been no fix for the issue and no word from Cyberlink on when one might be coming.
While I've run into my share of problems with PowerDVD BD and Ultra, my experiences aren't nearly as bad as some of the ones on CyberLink's forum. If you'd like to read more, head on over to Engadget. Add a comment
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  3. Hardware Reviews - 2/5/2007
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