CD DVD Duplication Replication News - DiscBurn

With DVD burner prices dropping, the days of DVD-ROMs are numbered

DiscBurn — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 03:00:00 +0000

With channel players clearing out their inventory, prices for 16x DVD burners have recently dropped 7-10% to below US $30 in Taiwan's retail market, and they are now only slightly more expensive than DVD-ROMs.

The channel has been aggressively clearing out inventory of DVD burners piled up during the low season in the second quarter, as 18x Super Multi DVD burners will be launched in the second half of the year, market sources explained.

The latest price drops mean that DVD burners have seen their prices drop more than 90% since they were first volume produced about two years ago, the sources indicated. Prices for 1x DVD burners were as high as NT$15,000 when they were launched in 2004, the sources noted.

The sources said the quick drops in DVD burner prices are expected to accelerate the phasing out of Combo drives and DVD-ROMs.

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Jamesland Studios was founded and built by a music...

DiscBurn — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 15:00:00 +0000

Jamesland Studios was founded and built by a musician for musicians, artists, producers, and directors. The facility is designed to be a complete turnkey multimedia facility that is convenient and at your disposal, waiting to be of service to you.

From Concept to Completion

Jamesland Studios is a full service audio and video production facility with the resources to guide your project from concept to market.

Whether your project requires recording, mixing, mastering, graphic design, video production, video editing, or all of the above. At Jamesland you can complete your project from one convenient location making it easy to get your production to the market place in record time.

Get world wide exposure of your music by broadcasting your music video through Jamesland Studios' sister company netjamstv.com.

Jamesland Studios, built by an artist for artists.
NetjamsTV.com, we are broadcasting the future now.

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Blu-ray titles make a good start, but players still slow to sell

DiscBurn — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:00:00 +0000

Suppliers and retailers called first-week sales of Blu-ray movies encouraging, with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment reporting it sold through 15% to 20% of its initial shipment of titles.

Hardware sales reports, meanwhile, were more mixed.

Ben Feingold, worldwide president of SPHE, was cautiously optimistic about the studio’s Blu-ray launch, which included XXX, House of Flying Daggers, Underworld: Evolution, 50 First Dates and Hitch. The studio shipped around 15,000 units of each title.

“I think we’re encouraged,” Feingold said. “The only issue is hardware supply. In terms of our national accounts, where there’s hardware, the results are encouraging.”

Feingold said the studio is “reformatting” its Blu-ray slate now that Sony Electronics has delayed the release of its Blu-ray player until October. Going forward, the studio plans to release its movies on Blu-ray day and date with the DVD release, which Feingold said should drive sales.

Lionsgate was the only other Blu-ray studio to release movies on the format. Without giving specific numbers, president Steve Beeks called initial results “small but heartening.” The studio shipped between 7,000 and 10,000 units of its first releases of Crash, Terminator and Saw, among others.

Retailers reported mixed results of the first Blu-ray players to hit the market last week from Samsung, with many seeing more brisk software than hardware sales on the format.

Although high-end electronics retailers Tweeter, Abt Electronics and Value Electronics didn’t sell out of their initial stock, at least one Los Angeles-area Best Buy was sold out with no word on when more players were coming. In contrast, initial Toshiba HD DVD player supply at Abt, among other retailers, was wiped out within days due to numerous pre-orders.

Samsung didn’t return calls to comment on initial sales of the BD-P1000 players, which officially launched June 25 but were on sale at many retailers before that.

Retailers speculated that brisk software sales paired with slower hardware sales meant that people were stocking up on titles in anticipation of upcoming players. Blu-ray software can be viewed only on Blu-ray players, such as Samsung’s unit out last week.

The cheapest and most high-profile slated Blu-ray player, the $499 and $599 PlayStation 3 models, will not street until fourth quarter. Both Sony’s and Pioneer’s Blu-ray players are coming this fall as well. Sony’s unit will match Samsung’s $999 pricing. Pioneer’s model is set at $1,300.

“I think some people are waiting for some of the other brands,” said Frank Roshinski, Tweeter VP and general merchandising manager for video. “We ordered the same quantities [as Toshiba HD DVD hardware], about 500 pieces [for the chain]. We didn’t sell out, but it’s still a good seller.”

Meanwhile certain retailers, including DVDEmpire.com, have already sold through initial orders of Blu-ray titles Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day thanks to pre-orders and sales since their June 20 launch.

DVDEmpire.com managers said the swift sell-off was unexpected, as much of the compatible hardware rolls out later this year.

“I feel that many [title buyers] don’t have players yet,” DVDEmpire.com editorial director Shannon Nutt said. “But they’re anticipating that they are going to get PlayStation 3, so they want to have movies now.”

Added Mike Barry, the site’s director of business development, “God knows what fourth quarter is going to be like for [Blu-ray product] stock.”

At Value Electronics, which specializes in selling HDTVs in its Scarsdale, N.Y., store and online, initial Blu-ray player sales have been slow, president Robert Zohn said. Of the 12 Samsung players in stock, Zohn has sold only two.

On the other hand, he can’t keep HD DVD in stock. “HD DVD players are selling even better now given the poor reviews” of Blu-ray, Zohn said, adding, “We’re well-known for HD DVD.”

The Samsung Blu-ray players took a beating in some of the first tech reviews out, with some complaining of muddy picture and poor upconversion on standard DVD movies. Samsung also warns in its user guide that some Blu-ray discs, DVDs and CDs might not play on the players “because disc formats may evolve, and problems and errors can occur during the creation of BD, DVD and CD software and/or the manufacture of discs.”

On the other hand, HD DVD, which also was criticized for glitches such as long load times, is continuing to sell out. Zohn said he has taken 3,000 orders for HD DVD players since April, but has so far delivered only 700 players due to tight Toshiba supplies.

Zohn said he has been getting shipments of 100 or so players every other week, but it hasn’t been enough to meet demand, most of which is from the retailer’s online store. Many orders have subsequently been cancelled as consumers find players at other stores or change their minds.

“Toshiba’s being as fair as they can be,” Zohn said. “I wish I had more, and I think they do too.”

In-store, Value has been packaging HD DVD players with HDTV sales, selling 10 or so players in store every other week or so, Zohn said.

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Hollywood wins legal fight against sanitized DVDs

DiscBurn — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 14:48:00 +0000

A federal judge in Colorado has handed the entertainment industry a big win in its protracted legal battle against a handful of small companies that offer sanitized versions of theatrical releases on DVD.

The case encompasses two of Hollywood's biggest headaches these days: the culture wars and the disruptive influence of digital technologies.

Senior U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch came down squarely on the side of the Directors Guild of America and the major studios in his ruling that the companies must immediately cease all production, sale and rentals of edited videos. The summary judgment issued Thursday requires the companies -- Utah-based CleanFlicks, CleanFilms and Play It Clean Video, Arizona-based Family Flix USA and the separate entity CleanFlicks of Colorado -- to turn over all existing copies of their edited movies to lawyers for the studios for destruction within five days of the ruling.

Utah's CleanFlicks, which describes itself as the largest distributor of edited movies, through online sales and rentals and sales to video stores in Utah, Arizona and other states in the region, said it would continue its fight against the guild and the studios. CleanFlicks and the others make copies of official DVD releases and then edit them for sex, nudity, violence and profanity.

David Schachter, attorney for CleanFlicks of Colorado, said Sunday that it was unclear whether any of the video-editing companies would seek an emergency hearing this week to request a stay of the injunction pending an appeal. He said such a move was unlikely for his client, which operates a retail store in Colorado Springs. It was unclear whether the store was still open Sunday.

Representatives for Family Flix could not be reached for comment during the weekend. A posting on the Web site http://www.clean-edited-movies.com reported that the Family Flix had decided to shut its doors after five years as a result of the litigation, though the date of the posting was unclear. The site quoted Family Flix founders Richard and Sandra Teraci as making plans to establish their own production company.

CleanFlicks and the others maintained their edited DVDs were legal under fair use guidelines that allow for the use of copyrighted material in criticism, news reporting, parody and other circumstances. The slogan on the CleanFlicks Web site is "It's About Choice." An online listing for Family Flix's offerings on the Web site of the Mormon-based Meridian magazine noted that the content snipped out of its edited videos included all references to "homosexuality, perversion and co-habitation."

The mainstreaming of sophisticated digital editing technologies has fueled the cottage industry of movie sanitizers. CleanFlicks and others purchase an official DVD copy of a film on DVD for each edited version of the title they produce through the use of editing systems and software. The official release disc is included alongside the edited copy in every sale or rental transaction conducted. As such, the companies argued that they had the right on First Amendment and fair use grounds to offer consumers the alternative of an edited version for private viewing, so long as they maintained that "one-to-one" ratio to ensure that copyright holders got their due from the transactions. Matsch disagreed.

"Their business is illegitimate," the judge wrote in his 16-page ruling. "The right to control the content of the copyrighted work ... is the essence of the law of copyright."

The fight began in August 2002 with a pre-emptive legal filing by CleanFlicks against the DGA and 16 prominent directors after it got wind that the guild was preparing a legal case against the company. CleanFlicks sought a court ruling clarifying its right to market the videos on First Amendment grounds. The DGA and directors countersued the following month. After initially staying out of the fray, eight Hollywood studios joined with the directors and the guild in December 2002, filing claims of copyright infringement against CleanFlicks and other companies.

"Whether these films should be edited in a manner that would make them acceptable to more of the public playing on a DVD in a home environment is more than merely a matter of marketing; it is a question of what audience the copyright owner wants to reach," Matsch wrote. "This court is not free to determine the social value of copyrighted works. What is protected are the creator's rights to protect its creation in the form in which it was created."

The studios involved in the suit are MGM, Time Warner, Sony Pictures Entertainment, the Walt Disney Co., DreamWorks, Universal, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures. The directors named in the initial August 2002 filing included Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Steven Soderbergh, Michael Mann, Robert Altman, Curtis Hanson, Betty Thomas and DGA president Michael Apted.

Apted called Matsch's ruling a vindication for the guild and its members, especially with its clear support for rights of the work's original creator to protect how their film is presented.

"No matter how many disclaimers are put on the film, it still carries the director's name," Apted said. "So we have great passion about protecting our work, which is our signature and brand identification, against unauthorized editing."

Early on, the legal sparring involved Salt Lake City-based ClearPlay, which offers video filtering software that allows for home viewing of cleaned-up versions of Hollywood titles.

ClearPlay offers software programs developed for specific titles that users can run on their computer or ClearPlay's proprietary DVD player along with an official copy of the DVD. With this technology, a nude shot of an actor can be altered to show a silhouette, or profanity can be bleeped out. Because ClearPlay's technology does not involve making an altered DVD copy, it has been shielded from the copyright infringement claims. The debate over movie content filtering activities made its way into Congress, which passed the 2005 Family Movie Act that protects ClearPlay and other software-based filtering companies. Matsch noted that Congress at that time had the opportunity to also carve out legal protections for CleanFlicks and its ilk, but chose not to.

The DGA said in its statement on the ruling it "remains concerned about this exception to copyright protection."

Matsch's opinion could wind up eliminating most of ClearPlay's competition, but company CEO Bill Aho still criticized Matsch's reasoning.

"While it may be good for ClearPlay Inc., it's bad for parents," Aho said. "Moms and dads need all the help they can get to protect their kids, and these companies were providing a valuable service."

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ABC Looks Beyond Upfront To DVR, Commercial Ratings Issues

DiscBurn — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 13:45:00 +0000

ABC has held discussions on the use of technology that would disable the fast-forward button on DVRs, according to ABC President of Advertising Sales Mike Shaw, with the primary goal to allow TV commercials to run as intended.

"I would love it if the MSOs, during the deployment of the new DVRs they're putting out there, would disable the fast-forward [button]," Shaw said.

While MSOs risk losing some of their DVR customers if fast-forwarding were blocked, Shaw said the cable operators--who are beefing up their own local ad sales operations--"are in the same business we're in." "They've got to sell ads too," he said. "So if everybody's skipping everybody's ads, that's not a long-term business model for them either."

Shaw also threw cold water on the idea that neutering the fast-forward option would result in a consumer backlash. He suggested that consumers prefer DVRs for their ability to facilitate on-demand viewing and not ad-zapping--and consumers might warm to the idea that anytime viewing brings with it a tradeoff in the form of unavoidable commercial viewing.

"I'm not so sure that the whole issue really is one of commercial avoidance," Shaw said. "It really is a matter of convenience--so you don't miss your favorite show. And quite frankly, we're just training a new generation of viewers to skip commercials because they can. I'm not sure that the driving reason to get a DVR in the first place is just to skip commercials. I don't fundamentally believe that. People can understand in order to have convenience and on-demand (options), that you can't skip commercials."

Shaw said it's crucial for ABC and networks to hold these discussions with MSOs while DVR penetration is still in its early stages. DVRs are at around 10 percent of U.S. TV households. "It's in our interest and the MSOs' interest to figure out something that works for the two of us," he said.

The frequently outspoken Shaw made his comments Wednesday in a post-upfront interview where he offered up another round of no-nonsense commentary.

Looking back on the protracted upfront, Shaw said he was surprised that competitors at CBS and Fox were so quick to fold the tent and accept buyers' refusals to pay for increased ratings generated from DVR viewing. Shaw had argued earlier in the spring that the ratings jumps--which have reached double-digit percentages for top shows--had value, and he intended to charge for them. He continued that position early in the upfront until it became clear the two other networks weren't willing to hold the line, and had agreed to negotiate on "live" ratings only.

"I'm sure they told their upper management in their two companies why it wasn't a good idea for them to do so," Shaw said. "They and their management must have decided that the same thing we thought was important wasn't important."

Shaw said if he knew he'd be the lone proponent for negotiating on time-shifted ratings, he might have changed course. "Obviously, going back to last February, if I knew nobody else on the entire sell-side of the equation was going to open their mouths besides us, I don't know if we would have gone down the same track," he said.

Some research executives--even at networks with sales departments that acted differently--had argued before the upfront that ads viewed in fast-forward mode generated value for advertisers, since consumers were at least partly exposed to their messages. But Shaw said ABC was only interested in finding a way to receive compensation for un-skipped ads.

ABC's upscale audience, coupled with a strong performance in "A" counties and in leading markets, made his network a must-buy. "If you were looking for those attributes, with the programming on ABC that we deliver, are you going to move those dollars to CBS?" he said. "It doesn't make sense."

No shrinking violet, Shaw is the only sales chief at a major network to speak to the media as part of an upfront postmortem.

As questions fade about whether to negotiate solely on DVR ratings, Shaw said ABC will move aggressively to make deals based on Nielsen's new "commercial ratings," set to be unveiled at the start of the new season. He said ABC was interested in possibly using them as a currency in this upfront, but buyers felt implementing the logistics in such an abbreviated time period wasn't feasible. "We were too late in bringing that to the market for practical reasons," Shaw said. But, he added, "it's going to transform how people buy and plan television."

But Shaw said ABC executives will be fanning out to agencies and advertisers over the next two weeks to present an analysis of commercial ratings data from the last six months, which presents ABC in a favorable light. He added that some scatter business may be written based on the new ratings.

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Indian-born scientist developing DVDs that store TBs of data

DiscBurn — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 09:25:00 +0000

An Indian born scientist in the US is working on developing DVD's which can be coated with a light -sensitive protein and can store up to 50 terabytes (about 50,000 gigabytes) of data.

Professor V Renugopalakrishnan of the Harvard Medical School in Boston has claimed to have developed a layer of protein made from tiny genetically altered microbe proteins which could store enough data to make computer hard disks almost obsolete.

"What this will do eventually is eliminate the need for hard drive memory completely," ABC quoted Prof. Renugopalakrishnan, a BSc in Chemistry from Madras University and PhD in biophysics from Columbia/State University of New York, Buffalo, New York as saying.

The light-activated protein is found in the membrane of a salt marsh microbe Halobacterium salinarum and is also known as bacteriorhodopsin (bR). It captures and stores sunlight to convert it to chemical energy. When light shines on bR, it is converted to a series of intermediate molecules each with a unique shape and colour before returning to its 'ground state'.

Since the intermediates generally only last for hours or days, Prof Renugopalakrishnan and his colleagues modified the DNA that produces bR protein to produce an intermediate that lasts for more than several years. They also engineered the bR protein to make its intermediates more stable at the high temperatures generated by storing terabytes of data.

This, they said, ultimately paved the way for a binary system to store data.

"The ground state could be the zero and any of the intermediates could be the one," he said.

Prof Renugopalakrishnan now opines that the protein layer could also allow DVDs and other external devices to store terabytes of information.

The new protein-based DVD will have advantages over current optical storage devices such as the Blue-ray as well, because the information is stored in proteins that are only a few nanometres across.

"The protein-based DVDs will be able to store at least 20 times more than the Blue-ray and eventually even up to 50,000 gigabytes (about 50 terabytes) of information. You can pack literally thousands and thousands of those proteins on a media like a DVD, a CD or a film or whatever," he said.

The high-capacity storage devices will be essential to the defence, medical and entertainment industries.

"You have a compelling need that is not going to be met with the existing magnetic storage technology," he added.

However, there's a flip side to it also.

"Science can be used and abused. Making large amounts of information so portable on high-capacity removable storage devices will make it easier for information to fall into the wrong hands. Information can be stolen very quickly. One has to have some safeguards there," he added.

The findings were presented at the International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Brisbane this week.

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Totally “ScratchLess” CD-R Launched in the UK

DiscBurn — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 15:00:00 +0000

Medea International have been awarded exclusive UK partner distribution of the an innovative new “Scratchless” disc from the USA. ScratchLess disc is a totally new patented innovation that virtually eliminates the problem of surface damage to discs. For professional photos, important video and critical data applications, demand is expected to be substantial. Demand is also expected from applications where discs are handled frequently, and where damage potential is therefore higher.

The ScratchLess Disc was designed to protect data or media stored on discs from physical damage caused by everyday use and handling. The disc has 20 small, patented bumps (Aero-Bumps(TM)) that elevate the disc to avoid contact with any flat surface, thereby eliminating damage. Co-developed with General Electric, the disc's secondary layer of protection is achieved by adding a polymer coating, which gives it an extra glass-hard layer of protection. "We are excited to offer consumers the safest optical discs available today," said Scott Malcolm, Medea International, Marketing Manager. "Scratch-Less have created a product that consumers can count on. I believe the ScratchLess disc is a significant product that provides a much higher level of long-term security, perfect for the storage of photos, music, video and important data."

The Scratch-Less Disc was created to offer users protection that ordinary discs lack. It is compatible with nearly all existing recording and playback equipment. The discs also feature the Easy-Up-Edge(TM), a slanted/raised edge that allows the user to easily pick up the disc from a flat surface. The Scratch-Less Disc can be safely slid across or lifted directly from a surface, providing unparalleled damage prevention.

The Scratch-Less Disc is currently available in CD-R and will be followed by CD-RW in the near future. Scratch-Less Disc will debut its DVD formats (DVD +R, DVD-R, DVD+RW and DVD-RW) in 2006.

Key Benefits of Scratch-Less Discs

- Safely store photos, music, video & important data.
- Eliminate scratching and scuffing on disc surface.
- Aero-Bumps(TM) that elevate the disc to avoid surface contact, thereby eliminating damage.
- Glass-hard polymer coating reduces scratches.
- Easy-Up-Edge(TM) allowing the user to easily pick up the disc from a flat surface.

Details of availability and the Scratch-Less dealer network are available at http://www.medea.co.uk ScratchlessDisc UK – http://www.scratchlessdisc.co.uk

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Toshiba delays HD-DVD recorder launch

DiscBurn — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:00:00 +0000

Toshiba's hotly-awaited first HD-DVD recorder has had its launch date put back again, this time to " late July".

The world's first high-definition optical disc recorder, the RD-A1, was due to go on sale in Japan on 14 July, but it seems that there aren't enough recorders to go round.

Toshiba blames the slow delivery of components, leading to a smaller than expected supply of the machines.

However the electronics giant has not encountered any long-lasting problems such as software bugs or production glitches, according to a Reuters report.

Toshiba, Japan's second largest electronics firm after Hitachi, announced the 14 July launch date last month, but has now given a revised date of 27 July.

The company has not said when the RD-A1 will go on sale outside Japan. However, Toshiba hopes to show its HD-DVD products at the IFA trade show in Berlin in September.
Meanwhile Toshiba's main rival in the high-definition DVD format wars, Sony's Blu-ray, faces an even longer wait.

Blu-ray backer Pioneer had hoped to launch its players at IFA, but now expects the European launch to take place at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.

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Blu-ray vs. HD DVD: Which Has the Early Edge?

DiscBurn — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 15:00:00 +0000

A funny thing happens in a format war: At some point, the theoretical spec one-upmanship gives way to tangible reality--what the rival products are delivering, today.

After looking at the initial wave of products from both fronts, I have a few thoughts about where the format war is heading. The first products deliver on their promises of outstanding high-definition video (Toshiba's HD-A1 and HD-XA1 HD DVD players and its Qosmio G35-AV650 laptop, plus more than 25 HD DVD movies from Warner Brothers and Universal) and high-capacity, rewritable disc storage (Pioneer's BDR-101A, Sony's AR Premium VGN-AR19G notebook equipped with a Blu-ray player/burner). I'm less intrigued by the actual products than I am by what they say beneath the surface about the two warring formats.

High-Def Video: A Capacity Question?
After debuting in fits and starts, and after both formats' encountering delays due to issues surrounding the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) copy controls, HD DVD is still enjoying a slight lead to market on its rival. HD DVD came out in late April, and even though player supplies continue to be tight, new titles are steadily streaming out every week.
Meanwhile, Blu-ray has faced a few additional post-AACS setbacks--although not quite as many as I've seen inaccurately reported around the Web. Sony Pictures pushed its content launch to June 20 after Samsung announced a change in release date for its $1000 BD-P1000 player, from late May to June 25. However, both of those launches remain on schedule, the vendors claim. Jim Sanduski, Samsung's senior vice president of marketing, says, "We'll be in more than 2000 storefronts at launch, and we will have multiple units available at each of these locations. Will we sell out? I hope so. We are launching with more storefronts and more quantity than Toshiba."

Meanwhile, Pioneer shifted its planned Blu-ray player from an early summer launch to September--when the product does launch, though, it will be at $1500, $300 less than the price the company announced back in January at CES. And Sony Electronics has adjusted the expected July release of its $1000 BD-SP1 player by a few weeks. According to a company spokesperson, the move is a strategic one, to coincide with the company's August launch of 1080p televisions and its push to educate consumers about Blu-ray Disc at retail outlets nationwide.

I don't expect that we'll see dramatic, overwhelming differences in image quality between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc movie content. I do expect it to be tough to isolate which format is superior for delivering video, given the number of variables that come into play--including choices in the video codec, bit rate, and encoder used, not to mention whether you're viewing the output over analog or HDMI, on a display capable of 1080i or 1080p.

We'll probably see subtle differences. Sony plans to encode its first generation of discs in MPEG-2, while Warner and Universal's HD DVDs are using the VC-1 or MPEG-4 AVC codec. RCA's and Toshiba's HD DVD players output at 1080i (even though the movie discs are 1080p), while the first Blu-ray players from Pioneer, Samsung, and Sony all output at 1080p.

I hope to see the same film released on both HD DVD and Blu-ray, at different bit rates and using different codecs. Only then will it be clear, visually, whether Blu-ray's greater maximum capacity of 50GB for dual-layer discs provides a tangible advantage. (HD DVD currently tops out at 30GB for a dual-layer disc; Toshiba raised the possibility of a 45GB triple-layer disc last summer, but according to the DVD Forum it has not been discussed, let alone formally added to the HD DVD spec.)

The rival media's physical storage constraints have the potential to be a greater issue in this struggle than many observers have considered up until now. Before HD DVD's launch, I had privately heard rumblings of studio concerns about HD DVD's lower capacity.

Now that I've taken a closer look at the first eight HD DVD movies I received from Warner Brothers and Universal, I can understand why. None of the eight titles could fit on a 15GB single-layer HD DVD, and half came within a mere 5GB of maxing out a 30GB dual-layer disc--even though all relied on the latest, more efficient video codecs (VC-1 and MPEG-4 AVC). The movies were The Last Samurai (which topped out at 27.3GB), Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles (25.4GB), The Phantom of the Opera (24.8GB), Jarhead (24.7GB), The Bourne Identity (22.7GB), Serenity (19.6GB), The Fugitive (18.2GB), and Doom (16.5GB).

Granted, this is a small, random sampling, but the results nonetheless surprised me, considering that I had for so long heard HD DVD supporters say that even 15GB would be roomy for high-def content. Instead, it seems that HD DVD content is, in many cases, barely squeezing onto 30GB discs today--and the tight space leaves little breathing room for the interactive-video future that Hollywood's creative minds will dream up down the road. All of the titles I saw are first-generation; not surprisingly, their menus and level of interactivity are basic and do not reflect the complexity I expect to see from both formats in the near future. Plus, the existing extras don't take full advantage of the formats, nor were they created natively in high-definition, with high-def, wide-screen presentation in mind. And the soundtracks are more limited, typically only today's 5.1-channel sound, with just one audio commentary instead of multiple commentaries and elaborate features.

Imagine what an innovative director like Peter Jackson might have done with the on-set documentaries and featurettes for his The Lord of the Rings trilogy, had everything been filmed with HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc in mind. Something tells me that a 30GB disc wouldn't come close to being enough, and that a 45GB disc (assuming one does come to market) might get a bit snug--even if one accounts for future improvements and efficiencies in compression and disc authoring techniques.

How much space Blu-ray content will consume remains to be seen; the first titles from Sony are beginning to ship this week, and although none of them will be on 50GB dual-layer discs, other titles will ship on 50GB discs later this summer, according to Sony. But I can't help but think that this format's greater capacity will serve it well over time. That said, I'm not convinced the PlayStation 3 will be Blu-ray's trump card. Sony said nothing at the E3 Expo in May that makes me think it is truly positioning the PS3 for home-theater buffs who want a Blu-ray Disc player that's cheaper than a stand-alone box. And for those consumers who do invest $599 in the premium PlayStation 3 with HDMI output, the machine's primary purpose will likely be for playing Gran Turismo HD and other launch game titles, not for watching Hitch in high-def.

Recording
The advantage in recording is, for now, clearly with Blu-ray: Vendors in this camp are first to market with disc burners for PCs, as well as first to release mobile burners for notebooks--and the format has the higher maximum capacity. PC Blu-ray burners are shipping from Pioneer and I-O Data, with others soon to come; this month Sony is shipping its aforementioned AR Premium Blu-ray laptop, as well as its VAIO RC series of burner-equipped desktops starting at just $2150--not overly outrageous considering that a stand-alone PC burner is priced at $1000.
Officially, the HD DVD camp remains mum on the status of PC burners. Since media was introduced at Computex in Taiwan last week, and since RiData just announced that its HD DVD-R media will ship in July, one might think a burner isn't far behind. The only news from the show, however, consisted of Toshiba's display of a slimline burner for notebooks, the SD-L902A; the company offered little there in the way of specs, pricing, or timing, let alone a demonstration of the drive's readiness (and it hasn't revealed anything since). From the get-go, the HD DVD camp's stated focus has been on the home theater playback experience (with PC movie playback coming in second, and recording not even on the road map). The lack of recording capabilities restricts HD DVD to prepackaged Hollywood content; no aspiring Spielbergs can edit their own high-def films and burn them to disc. It also limits HD DVD's viability as a data storage medium.

Price
No question: HD DVD has the edge in price. RCA's and Toshiba's players start at a highly accessible $499--if you can find them.

The cheapest stand-alone Blu-ray Disc player will be Samsung's $1000 BD-P1000, due out this month. Sony's BDP-S1 will also be $1000 when it ships in August, and Pioneer's Elite BDP-HD1 will be $1500 when it debuts in September. Sony's $499 Sony PlayStation 3, due in November, will be the least expensive player of them all; however, that model won't have an HDMI output, so you won't be able to display all-digital 1080p content. The $599 version will have HDMI, at least. Nonetheless, PlayStation 3's impact as a Blu-ray Disc player may not be as far-reaching as some observers might think; I found it curious that at E3 Sony made no mention of what kind of remote control it will offer with the PS3, and I'm not fully sold on how well the PS3 will serve as a multipurpose entertainment device.

Of course, in this nascent market, one might argue that the early adopters shopping for high-def players won't be dissuaded by a $1000 price tag. But I think that Blu-ray Disc's higher cost could hurt it, unless Blu-ray player manufacturers can adequately convey to consumers that their devices deliver enough value to justify being at least twice as much as HD DVD players.

The AACS Wild Card
Forget that Blu-ray has PlayStation 3 on its side, and that Intel and Microsoft have thrown their collective weight behind HD DVD. Forget that high-definition televisions are still gaining traction, albeit with increasing speed, among consumers. Forget that HD DVD and Blu-ray are both, really, formats in their infancy, both trying to claw their way to dominance to succeed DVD--and to avoid the sad fate of their digital audio format cousins, SACD and DVD-Audio.
For now, both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD are hampered by the fact that AACS has yet to finalize its managed copy component, the most critical aspect of the spec that remains unfinished. Without a final AACS spec, living-room high-def recorders can't proceed to market, and neither can devices that are designed to take advantage of legally copying and moving content from one disc to another--or to another device, for that matter. Original estimates put AACS's final spec as coming out in May; we're already well into June, and still there are no updates.

Until players can be manufactured to take advantage of everything from media servers to copying content, the first high-def video players from either camp should have limited appeal. I have no doubt that these players, be they Blu-ray or HD DVD, will deliver enticing high-def images. If all they do is play back content, however, they're missing a core part of the innovation that Blu-ray and HD DVD have the potential to deliver.

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HD DVD vs Blu-Ray: Some real machines, some real problems

DiscBurn — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 15:00:00 +0000

In tech hardware, perhaps the single biggest controversy is over high-definition optical disks.

The movie industry has been concerned that the DVD format is slowing, and tech companies rightly point out that DVDs don’t have the capacity for real high-definition movies. But unfortunately, the tech companies and the movie studies couldn’t agree on a single standard, so we’ve got two: HD DVD and Blu-Ray.

Both are being positioned for a lot of different things: as a format for movies; for games and other interactive content; and as optical drives for PCs. But judging from the first few units we’ve seen, neither is quite ready for prime time yet.

The first HD DVD device we saw was Toshiba’s HD-A1– a stand-alone player for HD DVD movies. And the unit itself cost $499, which is cheaper than we expect the first Blu-Ray players to cost. And the movies look great on a 1080i HDMI device. However, the unit was slow to boot (feeling more like a PC than a DVD device) and it doesn’t support 1080p output.

I’ve recently been looking at a Toshiba Qosmio G5-AV650 notebook lately. It’s a gorgeous machine with a 17-inch, 1920 by 1200 widescreen display, 2GHz Intel Core Duo, 1 GB of RAM, 200 GB of hard disk (twin 100 GB drives), an nVidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics chip with 256 MB of memory. It also has an analog TV tuner, Media Center software and HDMI output at 1080i - - and especially notable, the internal HD DVD ROM drive (which also reads and writes DVD media).

As a standard multimedia notebook, this $2,999 is hard to beat (although there’s a somewhat lower cost version without HD DVD that I could say the same thing about). But the HD DVD parts of it were disappointing. On the internal display, you can see HD DVD movies in 1080p, while it’s limited to 1080i on an external HDMI display.

With HD DVD movies – we tried a few including Van Helsing and The Last Samurai -- video quality looked wonderful on the 17-inch display. Looking closely, we were able to discern more detail than in DVD versions of the same movies. However, I have to say that DVDs look pretty great on this screen – on both this and the regular version of the Qosmio. But the big problem is stuttering – occasionally, the video will skip a few frames, then speed up to catch up. That’s pretty annoying. The problem is likely due to the Intervideo playback software being not quite ready, and Toshiba is working on patches, but for now, I can’t recommend this.

Here’s Cisco Cheng’s full review.

Blu-Ray is different, in that it’s starting out in a writeable format. We have both a Sony Vaio VGC-RC310G Desktop and a Sony VAIO VGN-AR190G notebook here, both with writeable Blu-Ray drives. The drives are capable of writing 50 GB of high-def content per disk on a dual-layer disk. For now, we only have single-layer 25 GB media, but that’s pretty impressive. (For comparision, HD DVD backers are looking forward to eventually having writeable 15 and 30 GB disks, but we don’t have any drives or media yet).

There are some issues, though. The media is relatively expensive, and you have to be very careful burning a disk: Joel Santo Domingo opened another application during burning, and wound up with a $17 coaster. Subsequent burns worked fine, but it took about an hour and a half to burn and verify a disk. It takes even longer on the slower notebook drive, but it does work.

So for now, Blu-Ray is probably your best choice if you need to create an optical disk with a significant amount of high-definition content, perhaps from a HD video camera. The desktop sells for $2,249 (without display); the notebook will likely sell for around $3500.
Still, we don’t have any Blu-Ray movies yet, so we need to wait until we get some before we can really review the machines. We’ve seen a few Blu-Ray players, which are expected to cost about $1000, but haven’t gotten one in for testing (and of course, we’ll need content first). We expect to have both shortly.

So out of the gate, HD DVD takes a bit of a lead for being first out with both drives and content, but Blu-Ray gets points for having a writeable drive.

For video content, it’s too early to tell – it will depend on the number of titles; and frankly, if you’re viewing this on even a great laptop screen, unless you really look at the two side by side, my guess is most people won’t really see much of an improvement over DVDs. On a big 1080 display, you will be able to tell the difference, of course.

Blu-Ray should get a boost toward the end of the year, when the PlayStation 3 comes standard with such a player, increasing both the number of units out there, and the potential market for titles. And several big PC vendors – Dell and HP – seem to be in the Blu-Ray camp. In fact, if you’re just interested in viewing Blu-Ray content, the PlayStation 3 may well be your best deal, since it’s expected to sell in $500 and $600 configurations, both with Blu-Ray. And of course, it promises to be a great game machine as well. Toshiba and Microsoft are in the HD DVD camp, and Microsoft does plan an HD DVD add-on for Xbox 360, but as an add-on, that’s unlikely to have the unit numbers.

Even if the PS 3 is a hit, that doesn’t necessarily mean Blu-Ray content will be. The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a winner, but as far as I can the UMD format it uses is working for games, games, but not really for movies. But the sheer number of units Sony plans to ship should lead to lower prices for Blu-Ray over time, and that may matter a lot. On the other hand, HD DVD backers can rightly say the disks are out now, and they say they expect lower prices. We’ll see.
So what should you do now? My advice is to wait. For now, you won’t notice that much of a difference in video quality on a PC – standard DVDs look pretty good. And even if you do want the better content for a big display, it will likely be months until you see a lot of titles – at which point prices will be lower and the devices are likely to work better.

Unlike some of my colleagues, I’m not ready to write off either format yet – but neither am I ready to place my bet.

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Blu-ray Players Delayed

DiscBurn — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 15:00:00 +0000

Samsung, Sony, and Pioneer have pushed back the release dates for their new Blu-ray DVD players. Samsung and Pioneer Blu-ray players will not be available in retail stores until September, and Sony has stated that its BDP-S1 Blu-ray player debut in August.

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Jamesland Studios - Audio and Video Production

DiscBurn — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:00:00 +0000

Jamesland Studios is a full service audio and video production facility with the resources to guide your project from concept to market.

Whether your project requires recording, mixing, mastering, graphic design, video production, video editing, or all of the above. At Jamesland you can complete your project from one convenient location making it easy to get your production to the market place in record time.

With their state-of-the-art Ikegami Satellite Dish System you can instantaneously deliver your completed production to manufacturing plants, media outlets, or choose to broadcast a live performance worldwide .

They can uplink your video to MTV, VH1, CMT, TNN, or any other broadcast network that you recommend or deliver your music to radio stations for worldwide release.

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Nike shoes talk to Apple's iPod in new system

DiscBurn — Tue, 23 May 2006 22:54:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Nike Inc. said on Tuesday that its shoes will now be able to talk to Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod music players about how far anathlete has run with a new wireless system called Nike+iPod.

Shares of Nike rose nearly 4 percent.

Using a Nike+iPod Sports Kit, expected to retail for about $29, consumers will be able to access distance, time, pace and calories burned on the screen of a nano version of the iPod via a sensor inside the shoes that communicates with the digital music player.

The kit will be available in stores within two months and other products will follow.

Nike, the No. 1 global footwear company, said the Nike+ Air Zoom Moire was the first shoe designed to work with the system.

Apple will also include a Nike Sport Music section on its iTunes music store, the companies said.

The partnership was announced in New York during an event attended by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs, Nike CEO Mark Parker, Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and marathon record-holder Paula Radcliffe.

Shares of Nike rose $3.05 to $81.03 on the New York Stock Exchange. Apple shares rose about 59 cents or about 1 percent to $63.97 on Nasdaq.

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Duplication biz is one of a kind

DiscBurn — Thu, 18 May 2006 15:00:00 +0000

Todd Mortenson was running his software business a few years back when he needed to make some copies of a DVD. Unable to find a vendor, he bought a duplication machine and made his own copies. He figured since he had the machine, why not start a side business to make copies for others? To Mortenson's pleasant surprise, he reaped larger profits making copies than he did with his software company.

By 2001, Mortenson's software firm failed and the side business -- DiscBurn -- took off, growing 100 percent every year since.

"I love creating companies, and I've never learned more in my life than failing that [software] company," he said.

DiscBurn targets Fortune 500 firms; clients include Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. Inc.

John Clark of Target said DiscBurn is Target's preferred vendor for about 80 percent of its DVD copying projects. Clark said DiscBurn is willing to do smaller projects more often than some its competitors. "It seems like they bend over backwards to get these small projects done," he said.

Best Buy has used DiscBurn's services for four years. Joan O'Brian, the former supervisor of production and business affairs at Best Buy, said she liked DiscBurn's attention to detail. O'Brian said DiscBurn was always willing to explain which process, duplication or replication, will best fit each project. "They understand the importance of maintaining the vendor/client relationship," she said.

In the early stages of his business, Mortenson decided to team up with his father, Gary, who became the company's CFO. Gary Mortenson had retired from running his family-owned eatery, Tobies Restaurant in Hinckley.

The partnership was chaotic at first, Todd Mortenson said. "I'm probably more aggressive and focused on rapid growth, while he's more assertive and focused on controlling costs," he said. It didn't take long, though, for the two to balance decision-making efforts, and the business ran much more smoothly.

Then, in 2003, Pete Saari became president and minority owner of DiscBurn. "I loved the entrepreneurial side of [DiscBurn], and Todd did a fantastic job explaining his vision to me," Saari said. Now Mortenson drives the goals and direction, while Saari manages the daily operations.

Mortenson said his goal for the company's future success is to have one of the largest market shares in the Twin Cities. He also aims to expand the business across the country soon. Saari said DiscBurn also may land a new client that would "double the company's profit overnight."

For questions or comments on this story contact Steve LeBeau at slebeau@bizjournals.com or (612) 288-2108.

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All about Jewel Cases

DiscBurn — Fri, 12 May 2006 15:00:00 +0000

A Jewel case is a three-piece plastic case, measuring 142 mm × 125 mm × 10 mm, which usually contains a compact disc along with the liner notes and a back card. Two opposing transparent halves are hinged together to form the casing, the back half holding a media tray that grips the disc by its hole. All three parts are made of injection-molded polystyrene.

The front lid contains two, four, or six opposing tabs to keep any liner notes in place. The liner notes typically will be a 120 mm × 120 mm booklet, or a single 120 mm × 240 mm leaf folded in half. In addition, there is a back card between the media tray and the back, usually listing the track names, studio, copyright data and other information the consumer would need to read before purchasing. The back card is folded into a flat U shape, with the sides being visible along the ends of the case. The ends usually have the disc name and artist printed on them, and are designed to label the case when it is stored book-style.

The back media tray snaps into the back cover, and is responsible for securing the disc. In its center is a circular hub of teeth which grip the disc by its hole. This effectively suspends the disk in the middle of the container, preventing the recording surface from being scratched. Originally, the media tray was constructed of a flexible black polystyrene, but many newer trays use a more fragile transparent polystyrene. This allows the reverse of the back card to be visible, and is usually used for additional artwork.

Origin of the name
The case does not derive in any way from containers for jewelry. Instead, the name apparently originates from watchmakers' use of the term jewel to refer generally to a polished hemispherical bearing used in a mechanism (high-quality mechanical watches and clocks commonly use gemstones, typically rubies, for such bearings because of their low friction properties). A jewel case has two moulded hemispherical plastic bearings in its hinges, hence the use of the term "jewel".

Weaknesses
The original jewel case design has a well-known and very frustrating weakness in that the case is hinged on two brittle plastic arms, which often break if the case receives shock or stress. The teeth of the hub holding the disc are also prone to failure. An opposite problem are the tabs which hold the liner notes in place; sometimes, especially with larger booklets, the tabs grip the booklet too tightly, leading to tearing. As noted above some CD releases have only two tabs, which allows the booklet to be easily removed (at the small cost of the booklet sometimes falling out if held the wrong way).

Variations
Double albums can either be packaged in a normal jewel case with a hinged media tray (which can be lifted up to reveal the second disc, and is even more breakable than the lid) or in a double jewel case, which is the size of two normal jewel cases put together. The latter do not fit in most CD racks, however the design of these cases (with a small gap between the two normal sized trays) allows them to fit in specially designed racks.

The intended successor, which is now gaining ground, is the "Super Jewel Box", a more advanced design which offers (amongst other improvements) a greatly strengthened hinge area. Unfortunately the Super Jewel Box cannot be used as a direct replacement for the older jewel case design, as its card insert for the back is slightly different in size. However in many other ways it is an attractive concept and some CD manufacturers (for example the high-end company Linn) are supplying them. The Super Jewel Box was developed by Philips and other CD format developers, originally in a larger format as a DVD case, and then in smaller formats as CD cases.

A number of other alternatives to the standard jewel case are also seen, including digipak sleeves, and DVD-style larger cases with a more book-like format.

In the United States, the jewel box of a music CD was originally packaged for retail sale in a large cardboard box called a longbox, in order to fit in store fixtures designed for vinyl records, offer larger space for display of artwork and marketing blurbs, and deter theft. This packaging was much-criticized as environmentally wasteful, and was eventually dropped.

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