Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
High-definition audio and video producer/distributor AIX Records has released its first 3D Music Album(tm) on the Blu-ray 3D format. The Goldberg Variations Acoustica by the AIX All ... Read more...
Far from a pointless exercise shunned by users, BD-Live features are being enjoyed by growing segments of consumers, if one goes by actual usage data collected and analysed by TODD COLLART, Senior VP ... Read more...
Filmexport Home Video’s Marijka Nevěrnice (Maria the Unfaithful), a rare gem of Czech cinema released in 1934, earned leading authoring and post-production house Brickbox Digital Media... Read more...
Warner Home Video has partnered with LG Electronics and Sony to bundle new Blu-ray 3D versions of three IMAX movies – Under the Sea 3D, Space Station 3D and Deep Sea 3D – ... Read more...
Research firm Parks Associates reports a modest increase in awareness of 3DTV amongst US broadband households in 2010, but the mainstream viability of 3D depends on the availability of premium video content... Read more...
While the consumer electronics headlines this year have been dominated by 3D television news, the real story in 2010 is about Internet-Enabled TVs (IETVs), according to research firm iSuppli... Read more...
UK satellite broadcaster Sky announced it will launch Europe’s first 3D TV channel to millions of homes on 1 October. The launch weekend highlights will include this year's Ryder Cup, with three days... Read more...
Technicolor says it is set to deliver more than 15 of the approximately 30 Blu-ray 3D titles currently being produced in the marketplace. Announced at CES in January, Technicolor produced the first Blu... Read more...
US consumer spending for the first half of 2010 in the home entertainment window for pre-recorded entertainment – DVD, Blu-ray Disc and digital distribution – reached $8.8 billion, down 3.3% compared... Read more...
The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), a cross-industry consortium dedicated to driving a new, open market for digital content distribution, today announced its consumer brand – UltraViolet... Read more...
“I’m often asked – especially recently with repeated reports that DVD sales are declining and BD sales aren’t making up the difference– if DVD is doomed. Is Blu-ray whistling past the graveyard... Read more...
China Blue High-definition Disc (CBHD) players offered by Shinco Electric and TCL, the only two vendors of such devices in the China market currently, have been found to be not compatible with each other... Read more...
Sharp will introduce into the Japanese market two new models of AQUOS Blu-ray Disc recorders featuring a disc drive that supports the new BDXL format for Blu-ray Discs and enables recording and playback... Read more...
Taiwan won a trade dispute against the European Union at the World Trade Organization last month that may save the country's liquid crystal display manufacturers more than NT$19.6 billion (US$611.54 million... Read more...
Worldwide Blu-ray player shipments are expected to more than double between 2009 and the end of 2010, and the numbers from ABI Research forecast continued growth next year, for a total of more than 62... Read more...
The Directorate General of Anti-Dumping (DAGD) under the Indian Ministry of Commerce has confirmed that it has investigated DVD-R and DVD-RW discs imported from Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand... Read more...
Back to business!
Even though our website activities were on the back burner for over a year while we reshaped our operations, professionals from nearly 50 countries have kept logging in to tap into fifteen years of archives that uniquely chronicle the birth, the life, but not yet the death, of packaged media.
Though our service brief has been including coverage of new content delivery channels for several years, there is still enough activity on the DVD and Blu-ray Disc front – globally – on which to focus our reporting energy, especially as 4K UHD seems to be gathering pace.
While our company, Globalcom Ltd, remains based in the UK, we are running the website afresh from South Korea! Always looking for new challenges and a desire to share widely the knowledge gained, I took up a faculty position at Hannam University’s Linton School of Global Business (in Daejeon) where I teach globalization and communication technology courses.
... Read More...
TECHNICOLOR has posted its results for the full year 2016. Group revenues increased by 34.8% at constant currency, reflecting the change in scale of Connected Home and Entertainment Services. The two segments combined recorded revenue growth of 48.2% year-on-year at constant rate resulting from the contribution of the acquisitions completed in 2015 and double digit organic growth in Production Services activities.
VODAFONE SPAIN is launching a new 4K TV service with 5 TV channels (10 by year end ) and VoD content for subscribers with convergent packages, like Vodafone One. The five new channels are Odisea 4K, Festival 4K, FunBox UHD, Insight TV and Slow Channel – and one 4K transmission of the best football match of La Liga every week. The company will be the first in the country to offer 4K VoD content with 850 titles including films, TV series and documentaries.
APPLE will make its first forays into original content in the “next few months”, according to Eddy Cue, the company’s SVP of internet software and services. Speaking at the Code Media conference in California, Cue revealed that Carpool Karaoke and Planet Of The Apps will become available “in most countries in the world” on Apple TV. Mac and iOS devices as part of Apple Music, the company’s subscription music offering.
MPEG LA ANNOUNCED that several patent owners in MPEG LA’s AVC Patent Portfolio License have filed patent enforcement actions in the Landgericht Düsseldorf, Germany, against both Huawei Technologies Deutschland GmbH and ZTE Deutschland GmbH for infringing patents essential to the AVC/H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10) digital video coding standard used in mobile devices and other products. According to the complaints, Huawei and ZTE offer mobile phone products in Germany, which use patent-protected AVC methods without licenses with the individual patent holders or a portfolio license that includes these patents offered by MPEG LA. The suits seek monetary damages and injunctions.
DELUXE is to close its UK restoration operation at the end of March with the potential loss of 12 jobs.Recent projects worked on include the nine surviving silent Alfred Hitchcock films for the BFI. In 2015, the department won the Best Archive Restoration award at the 2015 Focal International Awards for its work on Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection for Arrow Films. The division was formed in 2011 through the merger of Deluxe Digital London (DDL) and Deluxe 142’s restoration operations following Deluxe’s acquisition of Ascent Media. Deluxe said it would maintain its restoration facilities in Madrid, Spain and Los Angeles, US.
MOBILE and desktop video consumption are running virtually neck-and-neck, with 86% of consumers saying they watch video on smartphones and other mobile devices, compared to 70% on desktops, AOL found in a fresh study that tracked usage trends across seven global regions. Additionally, 57% of consumers watch videos on a mobile phone every day, compared to 58% on desktops and laptops.
