Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
At CES LG Electronics has unveiled its hybrid Blu-ray/HD DVD ‘Super Multi Blue’ player... Read more...
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has lauded Malaysia's efforts in fighting against piracy and protecting intellectual property rights... Read more...
Already 48 industry leading companies have signed up for 69 booths to exhibit at Showcase event at the MEDIA-TECH Association’s Barcelona Showcase & Conference to be held at the Hotel Rey Juan Carlos... Read more...
MPEG LA, the body that administers MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio licenses has refuted statements made by German DVD disc manufacturer ODS Optical Disc Service to the effect that ODS affiliates have acquired... Read more...
New Medium Enterprises, the developers of the HD VMD format, a red-laser multi-layer next-generation DVD format alternative to Blu-ray and HD DVD, has trialled its HD VMD playback software as well as ... Read more...
New Medium Enterprises, developer of the red laser-based high definition versatile multi-layer disc format, is to offer a range of HD VMD products... Read more...
SanDisk Corporation introduced USBTV, a new, industry-wide initiative that is expected to enable consumers to easily move digital content from their PCs to their televisions for viewing in full, big-screen... Read more...
For the second consecutive year, sales of DVDs fell according to data from the Syndicat de l'Edition Vidéo (SEV), the French video distributors' association. The DVD market dipped 6-7% in value and 4... Read more...
As the movie industry is trying to find the right business model for Internet distribution for its first-run and catalogue content, a new study by Solutions Research shows that American consumers are ... Read more...
Sonic Solutions has launched Qflix, a licensing and certification programme to enable the legal, secure, and reliable burning of video content to DVDs playable on standard and high-definition players... Read more...
Sonopress, a subsidiary of the arvato storage media group, has joined the HD DVD Promotion Group. With this step the international media manufacturer continues its efforts in research, development and... Read more...
Simon Staines (pictured) has joined sonopress UK as their Supply Chain Development Director. Originally Head of Sales & Marketing at Cinram UK & The Entertainment Network, Staines has been hired by the... Read more...
Sony has ended production of its so-called Superbit DVDs to focus on promotion of Blu-ray. The Superbit process was designed to improve the video encoding and audio playback of discs... Read more...
TDK, a world leader in digital recording solutions, is highlighting its 200GB blue laser disc technology, the most advanced optical media ever developed... Read more...
Technicolor Home Entertainment Services has closed facilities in Cwmbran (Wales), Luxembourg and Pinckneyville (Illinois, USA) "as a result of changed market conditions and the ongoing maturity of standard... Read more...
Quality assurance facility Testronic Laboratories has announced the appointment of industry veteran Seth Hallen as the company's senior vice president as the company plans to further grow its games testing... 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.
