Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
Two men have been jailed for a total of three years after admitting their part in the running of one of the biggest ever pirate DVD factories in the UK, capable of producing thousands of counterfeited... Read more...
Compared with the previous year, Singulus' 1st quarter 2007 showed a significant improvement in the adjusted operating result and the operating margin. The operating result (EBIT) in the 1st quarter 2007... Read more...
Cinram reported consolidated revenue of $447.8 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2006, compared to $453.8 million for the same quarter in the prior year. Net earnings were $3.9 million compared ... Read more...
German and Polish police have arrested several administrators and translators for a popular Polish site that archives user-generated subtitles for use on foreign DVD titles on grounds of copyright infringement... Read more...
DTS, Inc. has introduced the DTS-HD Master Audio Suite and the DTS Surround Audio Suite, two new software suites to prepare audio streams for next-generation and current optical disc media formats... Read more...
Target Technology of California has filed a lawsuit in US court against Sony for patent violations related to Blu-ray discs manufactured and sold by the electronics giant... Read more...
According to new NOP research more people in the North East of England and Scotland (35%) have knowingly bought a pirate DVD than anywhere else in the UK. The organisation set up to highlight the problem... Read more...
Research by Understanding & Solutions reveals substantial growth opportunities within the HD market, with 115m HD-Ready homes in Western Europe by 2010. Consumer demand for flat panel displays, particularly... Read more...
At Bradford, UK, the Crown Court has jailed a prolific DVD pirate for 6 months. Peter Spencer, 39, had been trading on eBay since 2002 selling counterfeit DVDs and making over £39,000 in less than two... Read more...
Verbatim has unveiled a breakthrough in archival media technology with a new type of DVD. The new Archival Grade DVD-R 8x is manufactured using proprietary unique dual reflective layers to maximise both... Read more...
glowria, Continental Europe’s leading on-line DVD rental service, announced today that it had purchased Palago GmBH, the owners of the German on-line DVD rental company inVDeo. With the acquisition ... Read more...
ZOOtech, an innovative solutions company revolutionizing the video title production industry, along with Scope Seven, a provider of both SD DVD and HD DVD/Blu-ray production services, have teamed up to... Read more...
Leading German newspaper Der Spiegel claims to have information on an unofficial agreement struck between the movie studios and CE manufacturers including Sony and Microsoft which will see the implementation... Read more...
In consumer and professional fields the demand for storage continues to skyrocket, and new research carried out by Understanding & Solutions looks at the removable storage market, the future opportunities... Read more...
Following moves by rival Blu-ray Disc format, the DVD Forum is considering developing specifications and an enforcement plan to include Regional Playback Control (RPC) on HD DVD-Video titles. The DVD ... Read more...
In response to attacks against certain PC-based applications for playing HD DVD and Blu-ray movie discs, Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator announces that “it has taken action, in... 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.
