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Verance Corporation today announced the immediate availability of its audio watermark technology for licensing by manufacturers of Blu-ray and HD DVD players and components. The licenses provide access to technical specifications, implementations, and intellectual property rights necessary for the inclusion of the Verance audio watermark detection within their products on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis...It will be interesting to see how well Verance's audio watermark technology works. If its anything like AACS, it will be cracked or bypassed in no time. If you'd like to read more, Verance's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
AACS LA, LLC (http://www.aacsla.com), the cross-industry consortium that is providing the content protection architecture for use in next-generation optical media formats (including HD DVD and Blu-ray), identified the Verance audio watermark technology as an element of its content protection solution and approved the use of Verance watermark on AACS-protected pre-recorded HD DVD and Blu-ray discs in February 2006. AACS is expected to release final license agreements requiring the inclusion of VCMS/AV detector technology in HD DVD and Blu-ray players in the coming months.
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Amazon.comInc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced the1,000 HD DVD Indies Project, designed to lower the barriers to entry forfilmmakers to produce and distribute movies in the HD DVD format throughthe innovative manufacturing-on-demand technology of CustomFlix, a part ofan Amazon group of companies. Jointly sponsored by Amazon and Microsoft,the project will provide free authoring and setup services for up to 1,000selected indie titles.It will be interesting to see how this pans out. If indie film makers take advantage of this project, it just might be what HD DVD needs to jump back in the lead. Full details can be found here. Add a comment
"This collaboration with Microsoft is a great opportunity forindependent filmmakers to reach Amazon customers with their films via theHD DVD format," said Peter Faricy, vice president of music and movies atAmazon.com. "By working together with Microsoft and leveraging the provenCustomFlix DVD on Demand model, we can lower the barriers to entry forindependent filmmakers and dramatically increase the selection we offer ourcustomers."
The project will be spearheaded by CustomFlix, which will bring as manyas 1,000 feature-length independent films to Amazon customers using theCustomFlix DVD on Demand technology, which produces and ships DVDs only asthey are ordered. This model greatly improves the cost structure forindependent filmmakers by eliminating the need for costly inventory.
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Apple TV @I4U
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BlueAnt SuperTooth Bluetooth Handsfree System @The TechZone
Cooljag 92-Cu Intel/AMD Heatpipe CPU Cooler @Tweaknews.net
Eagle Tech Consus T & M Series SATA-IDE Enclosures @Madshrimps
ECS PN2 SLI2+ nForce 680i SLI Motherboard @Futurelooks
Nexus Morpho Premium Aluminum Case @Tweaknews.net
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Philips Lite-On Digital Solutions (PLDS), a joint venture between Royal Philips Electronics and Lite-On IT for the production and marketing of optical disc drives (ODDs), aims to be among the top two ODD suppliers in the world in terms of shipment volume, according to general manager Charlie Tseng for the Optical Disc Drive Business Unit of PLDS.The article also points out that PLDS has had some troubles integrating the engineering staff at Philips, BenQ and Lite-On IT. Now that they've created a cohesive team, they're expecting the business to take off. If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes. Add a comment
Lite-On IT took over BenQ's 49% stake in Philips BenQ Digital Storage, the predecessor of PLDS, for NT$260 million (US$7.8 million) at the end of 2006 to complement its own resources, according to industry sources in Taiwan. Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS) is currently the world's largest supplier and OEM/ODM maker of ODDs, with its 2007 shipment volume estimated to be 80 million units, the sources said.
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Using the Ethernet ports found on all Toshiba HD DVD players, and thecurrently available firmware update, once connected to the network, userscan download bonus features, as available, from a movie studio's server.This data is then saved in the player's persistent storage and can beaccessed by the user. In addition to downloading new bonus features, someHD DVD discs may even include locked prerecorded content which can beunlocked with a downloadable key from the studio's online server.Toshiba plans to release another firmware update in September that will enable 1080p/24 output on the HD-XA2 and HD-A20. More information can be found here. Add a comment
In addition to downloading content, HD DVD users also have the abilityto upload content and interact with content providers. For example, withthe award winning title, "Blood Diamond" from Warner Home Video, users canparticipate in interactive polls. After providing feedback, results aredelivered back to users via the HD DVD player.
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Toshiba is sticking with the $299 price-point for its bottom-line HD DVD player after seeing a sales jolt when it introduced the lower price in May as part of a limited-time offer.With more affordable Blu-ray players on the way, its going to be an interesting holiday season. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
The company said during a press event in New York Thursday that promotional prices introduced in May on its two lower-priced players would go into permanent effect July 1.
The entry-level HD-A2 player will stay at $299 and the HD-A20 at $399. The top-line HD-XA2 remains $799.
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Primera Technology, Inc.(r), the world's leading developer and manufacturer of CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc duplication and printing equipment, and TitleMatch Entertainment Group(tm) (OTCBB:PCLI), an innovator of on-demand content distribution, today announced they will be the first companies to publicly demonstrate a completely functional and fully-integrated DVD On-Demand(tm) solution that includes Qflix(tm) copy protection from Sonic Solutions. The demonstration will take place at the Entertainment Supply Chain Academy's (ESCA) Digital Supply Chain Developers Conference, July 27-28, 2007, in Los Angeles, California.With complete TitleMatch DVD On-Demand systems starting at $4995, you'll probably start seeing them in retail outlets very soon. If you'd like to read more, the entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
TitleMatch DVD On-Demand service is a new burn-on-demand service for retailers that allows customers to purchase DVD movies and home entertainment directly from a touch screen. Customer-selected content is automatically recorded and printed using a Primera Bravo-Series Disc Publisher for immediate delivery at point-of-sale. The TitleMatch service expands product availability in the retail channel and eliminates physical inventory.
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Warner Home Video looks to be pushing the launch of its dual-format high-definition disc, Total HD, into 2008, from the second half of this year, as was originally planned.While Warner does not give an explanation for the delay, its possible that they're waiting to see who wins the format war. If Blu-ray titles continue to outsell HD DVD, there might not even be a need for Total HD. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Studio VP of sales and planning and operations Dan Miron said at a session during the Entertainment Supply Chain Academy conference here today that Warner will release its first titles in Total HD in early 2008.
Separately, Warner senior VP of marketing management Steve Nickerson said the studio hasn't yet set a launch date but acknowledged it's unlikely it will be in the fourth quarter.
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SanDisk has not determined a price yet. However, they plan to released the cards later this year. More information is available on their website. Add a comment
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today announced that it is has begun sampling 6- and 8-gigabyte (GB) microSD High Capacity (microSDHC) flash memory cards to major phone manufacturers and mobile network operators (MNOs) for testing and evaluation. The new cards are ideal for the growing number of feature-rich multimedia handsets that bring together phones, music players, hand-held computers, digital cameras and more. An 8GB microSDHC card can store more than 2,000 digital songs, or more than 5,000 high-resolution pictures, or up to 5 hours of high-quality MPEG 4 video.
