Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
A counterfeiter who ran a major pirate DVD operation from his home in Balby, West Yorkshire, has been jailed and put out of business after his equipment was destroyed... Read more...
ESCA Europe 2009 in London treated the 200-plus delegates to a profusion of topics – from progress reports on authoring, production marketing and distribution of Blu-ray discs and BD-Live advances to... Read more...
In a world premier, Italian public broadcaster RAI has transmitted an experimental television programme using the so-called 4K technology that offers a picture four times sharper than the current high... Read more...
The China High-Definition DVD Industry Association (CHDA) has announced development plans for the home-grown China Blue High-Definition (CBHD) disc format at a recent conference in Guangzhou... Read more...
A by-product of the migration to digital projection in cinemas is a re-emergence of a 1950s phenomenon... 3D movies. Hollywood now wants to bring the 3D experience into your home. BILL FOSTER, Senior ... Read more...
Digital Interactive Interface for Video & Audio (DiiVA), a new high-speed interface for which specifications were finalised at the end of April 2009, is about to appear in the world of audio-visual equipment... Read more...
French independent family-owned replicator MPO has been a key player in the development of virtually all home entertainment media. Looking to the future, LOIC DE POIX, the company Chairman, tells JEAN... Read more...
RCDb and Videon Central have announced a partnership to deploy networked BD-Live applications directly from Blu-ray Disc players via the integration of software solutions in a reference design to BD player... Read more...
The French National Assembly yesterday adopted HADOPI 2, the amended version of the original ‘three-strikes’ bill which allows the imposition of punishments on those Internet users found to have made... Read more...
The ways in which people can watch video have exploded in the last couple of years as video streaming and download websites and services have proliferated. DAVID MERCER, from Strategy Analytics, looks... Read more...
German independent replicator Infodisc has introduced Copy-to-Go, an extra disc, sold together with a DVD or Blu-ray disc, which contains the digital files optimised for transfer to a variety of mobile... Read more...
After years of playing second fiddle to DVD retail, video rental could be set for a revival according to the latest research from media analysts Screen Digest. Strong growth in the online rental of DVDs... Read more...
French independent replicator and European Blu-ray pioneer QOL has switched on its third BD manufacturing line, capable of producing single- and double-layer hidef discs. This extra lines will provide... Read more...
Munich-based msm-studios, an authoring and post-production house that specialises in high audio-quality music DVDs and BDs, is extending the functionality of its Pure Audio Blu-ray service with copying... Read more...
That the latest high-tech home entertainment devices – Blu-ray players – should not feature wireless connectivity was seen in many circles as an anachronism, especially as the new format boosts web... Read more...
Europe now accounts for 30% of global broadband and 51% of all IPTV customers, according to the Broadband Forum. Based on data provided by industry analysts Point Topic, global broadband grew by 12.9 ... 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.
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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.
