Europe's premier online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in DVD, Blu-ray and new delivery technologies
UltraViolet was a key feature at this year's PEVE conference in London. Many of the 280+ delegates were anticipating details about the deployment of the cloud-based content delivery locker system in Europe... Read more...
The market for Blu-ray and DVD rental in the United Kingdom is expected to plunge by 22% in 2013, as half the country's Blockbuster video stores shut down in a restructuring initiated by the company's... Read more...
New York-based KIT digital, a leading supplier of customisable software platforms for digital, multi-screen viewing, could seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on 24 April, according to the company's... Read more...
FindAnyFilm, one of the UK's leading websites for customers looking to watch, buy, download, stream or rent legitimate films, has announced the addition of UltraViolet titles on their website. This comes... Read more...
Long-time industry analyst, Jim Bottoms, has been appointed to spearhead Blu-ray Disc Association's local and industry activities throughout Europe. Bottoms, who also serves as the Executive Director ... Read more...
Consumers' video consumption habits are maturing and becoming more sophisticated, Accenture's third annual Video-Over-Internet Consumer Survey reveals. Online viewership is both high and consistent... Read more...
The 2013 BVA Awards extravaganza on 2 May in London will be hosted by stand-up comedian Rob Beckett, who was most recently seen as the resident co-host of I'm a Celebrity Get me Out of Here Now ... Read more...
Consumers are not widely using applications designed by broadcasters on their laptops, smartphones, and other second-screen devices, according to a research by The NPD group. Some 88% of US households... Read more...
The Spanish cabinet has approved preliminary amendments to the country's current Intellectual Property law, La Ley de Propiedad Intelectual, and hope to finalise the bill in the coming months, according... Read more...
An investigation carried out by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), the Australian Taxation Office and New South Wales Police Force led to the dismantling of a large-scale counterfeit... Read more...
Collaboration between Axel Springer, the European Publishers Council, the Danish Producers Association, the UK's ITV, Microsoft, News International and the RTL Group, under the umbrella of the Linked ... Read more...
The UK film, TV, video and music industries have joined forces with internet safety charity, Childnet International, to launch a campaign to provide clarity for parents and teachers when it comes to accessing... Read more...
Plants of independent, third-generation family-owned Vinyl/CD/DVD replicator Pallas, located at Diepholz (Lower Saxony), was destroyed by fire on Sunday night... Read more...
Hannover-based Entertainment Distribution Company GmbH is to manufacture DVD and Blu-ray discs for the feature film releases of SES Limited's world number 1 sports entertainment brand, World Wrestling... Read more...
Leading DVD production and distribution specialist Odeon Entertainment Group has signed up Sony DADC to service its entire supply chain management for the UK and export markets. The multi-year agreement... Read more...
Building on its flagship consumer education campaign, the Industry Trust for IP Awareness is joining force with Walt Disney Studios UK to launch a unique IRON MAN 3 trailer that celebrates the value of... Read more...
Cinema needs to get more digital
"Build it and they will come" may have been a line in a movie, but it could also be the cinema exhibitor's motto, argues DAVID HANCOCK, Senior Analyst at IHS Screen Digest. It is not entirely true, but the cinema's exclusive window for seeing a new release film means that a cinema always has a chance of getting people in.
Distributors plan and finance marketing campaigns, often as part of a wider media release strategy, while exhibitors focus on the operational mechanics and environment of the cinema venue. Now that the cinema world is three quarters digitised in projection systems and takes its place in the wider digital media landscape this work split needs to change.
Opening up the cinema to new technology has brought the IT world firmly into the operations of a cinema. This has opened the door to a range of other technology applications such as high frame rates, 3D, immersive or 3D sound, 4D, digital delivery by fibre or satellite. The fact is that the language of cinema is now driven by technology.... Read More...
JAPANESE independent replicator Toyo Recording, a leading disc manufacturer and solutions provider to the media industry, has purchased an additional Bluline II BD production line from Singulus Technologies. Established 50 years ago, Toyo Recording started as a bridal video production and high-speed video duplication. The company expanded to authoring, CD, DVD, and BD manufacturing for the advertising industry. Toyo Recording installed the first Singulus CD replication machine Skyline in Japan.
ANNUAL revenue generated from content delivered to mobile handsets and tablets is expected to increase by nearly $25bn over the next three years, reaching $65bn by 2016, a new report from Juniper has found. Growth would primarily be fuelled by an upsurge in game, video and eBook purchases via tablet devices, allied to increased opportunity for content monetisation via DCB (Direct Carrier Billing) on smartphones.
TESTRONIC Labs has been named an Authorized Test Center for the HTC Connect testing and compliance programme. HTC created this programme to offer consumer electronics manufacturers the opportunity to create an improved sound and visual standard when connecting HTC devices with their consumer electronics. For the consumer, this logo will indicate that wireless audio and video may be sent through their HTC smartphones to in-home and in-car electronics displaying the logo. Testronic is the first testing center in Europe to become certified by HTC for this programme.
TDK Corp., a leading innovators of Blu-ray technology, and the first to offer multi-layer Blu-ray discs, including BDXL, announced a number of restructuring measures aimed at improving its financial positions. Among the most significant changes is the plan to either sell its optical disc manufacturing business or simple withdrawing from Blu-ray disc manufacturing (by March 2014) as BD discs are becoming a commodity with low profit margins.
SOME 2013 Samsung Blu-ray players are featuring the Opera Devices Software Development Kit (SDK). Such players not only allow viewers to watch Blu-ray Discs and DVDs, but also enjoy various streaming video services with ease. The SDK offers superior online video support for YouTube, BBC iPlayer and more. The Opera toolkit helps build Smart TV solutions. With web-standards support, such as HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, SVG, 2D Canvas and WebGL, the Opera Devices SDK gives connected devices a boost with better web-content rendering and streaming performance.
CHINESE authorities have shut down two movie pirating websites in a clampdown on both online and offline piracy. YYeTs.com suddenly closed down on 25 April. The other site, Siluhd.com (Silu HD) was forcibly taken down and CEO Zhou Mou and eight other employees reportedly arrested. Silu HD is said to be China's biggest piracy site of HD movies, and claims to have 140 million registered users. YYeTs was less subtle and operated a blatant movie download site. The service hasn't gone down without a fight, and its semi-deactivated homepage currently directs users towards other URLs where they can download pirated content.
TWENTY-ONE Japanese broadcasters, consumer electronics maker and telcos have created a high profile development partnership to help Japan to move into television?s next generation transmission format, Ultra-HDTV. The groupg includes public broadcaster NHK, actively backing its Super Hi-Vision/8K format, as well as commercial broadcaster SkyPerfect JSAT, which has already promised to start 4K transmissions in mid-2014. Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Fujitsu, NEC, KDDI and others are part of the grouping, backed by Japan?s Internal Affairs Ministry which has earmarked a ¥3.1 billion (€24m) budget.
PRODUCTION of OLED screens is proving to be a real headache, says Paul Gray, director of TV research at consultancy DisplaySearch. He says that factories are only getting one good panel out of every 10 panels at 55-inches. "Production problems are making it very, very tough," he said. "There was a lot of hype about OLED last year and it will improve over time, but it will be painfully slow." Gray claimed that in comparison to OLED, LCD was a fast moving target.
SATELLITE operator SES has linked with Harmonic and chip-set manufacturer Broadcom to create what it describes as the first Ultra-HDTV transmissions using the High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC) from Astra?s 19.2 degrees European hot spot. SES says using the HEVC compression improves transmission capacity by some 50 per cent. The signal was broadcast in DVB-S2 using a data rate of 20 Mbit/s. The live demonstration for the first time broadcasts a full 3840?2160 pixel Ultra HD picture in HEVC, while previous demonstrations were either broadcast in H.264 or using 4 HD pictures in parallel.
