Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
Features
Packaging with Italian flair
“I dress CDs and DVDs the way Armani dresses women,” says ALDO POZZOLI, founder and CEO of the company that bears his name and which celebrates its 40th anniversary. He tells JEAN-LUC RENAUD, DVD Intelligence publisher, the secrets of his success. Read More...
PEVE 2008 Physical media not dead ... yet
Though the PEVE 2008 conference convened at the ancien régime Château de Fontainebleau replica, the sumptuous Cité universitaire internationale in Paris, the preoccupations of the 320+ delegates were very much turned to the future – the future of packaged media in a changing marketplace. JEAN-LUC RENAUD reports. Read More...
Will digital delivery ever pay off for studios?
With the packaged media market maturing, Hollywood studios are hoping digital delivery will provide long-term revenue growth. But that won’t happen without a few risks, says SARAH JOHNSON, Screen Digest analyst. Read More...
Gearing up for a Blu future
As the industry hopes for a Blu Christmas in 2008, Screen Digest’s HELEN DAVIS-JAYALATH and RICHARD COOPER assess the issues facing Blu-ray Disc as it seeks to achieve mass market acceptance. But the legacy of 18 months of intense format rivalry with HD DVD should not be under-estimated. Read More...
Audio: the other format war
The recent high profile video disc battle between Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD is the second spat in the past decade to pitch Sony and Philips against the rest of the DVD Forum. But, in the case of Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio, there were no real winners. BILL FOSTER sifts through the wreckage... Read More...
DVD at 10 - a primer
The 12-cm optical disc has been with us for 25 years and looks set to continue as a means to distribute music and movies in a digital format. But with each new generation, the technical challenges increase and format wars seem to dominate, at least in the early years. GRAHAM SHARPLESS, a technology consultant, tells the story so far. Read More...
The rise of HD displays
Western Europe’s demand for High Definition TV displays continues unabated. Major sporting events will help drive volume. And with new technologies, these advanced displays become ever more intelligent. JIM BOTTOMS, MD Corporate Development at Futuresource, looks ahead. Read More...
Pushing the BD envelope
Format war resolved, ROLF HARTLEY, General Manager for Sonic’s Professional Products Group, takes a ‘where are we now’ look at the BD production landscape, how to push the advanced features envelope, and discusses what professional authoring facilities might expect to see next. Read More...
My love affair with DVD
Responsible for the production of the first iconic titles in France, VICTORIA WILLIS has been involved in the life of DVD Video from day one. She looks back over 10 years of trials and tribulations that gave birth to an object of desire. In December 1996, she was asked to write a report for Editions Montparnasse, a French independent video publishing company, that was wondering whether to take the plunge. Read More...
Integrated solutions for a complex marketplace
As Sonopress celebrates its 50th anniversary and forges ahead with a new identity, SVEN DEUTSCHMANN, CEO of arvato digital services Manufacturing EMEA, spells out the company’s expanding services portfolio and forward strategy to cope with a complex marketplace. Read More...
The Independent Way
Infodisc was the first independent replicator to take the plunge into Blu-ray. MICHAEL GUTOWSKI, the company’s CEO, tells JEAN-LUC RENAUD, DVD Intelligence publisher, the challenges he faces forging ahead in a marketplace yet to guarantee a level-playing field.s Read More...
Promoting Blu-ray
Now that the war is over, FRANK SIMONIS, Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association’s European Promotions Committee, tells JEAN-LUC RENAUD, DVD Intelligence publisher, why his work has only just started. Planning early to deliver the highest quality products will be the condition for success. Read More...
The HD display market
Consumer demand for flat panel displays – the HD-ready variety – continues unabated and exceeded expectations during 2006 with volume growth of nearly 80% across Europe and 130% in the USA. JIM BOTTOMS, Managing Director of Understanding & Solutions, looks ahead. Read More...
IPTV Overcoming challenges
To date, little attention has been paid to the costs of providing the bandwidth needed to make IPTV happen, says BOB AUGER, from IT consultancy Newmérique. Delivering a feature film on IPTV that look as good as the same title on standard DVD will present a significant challenge, for HD format discs, it’s no contest. Read More...
The rights conundrum
Worship the producers of DVD nature documentaries. Securing rights for material from disparate sources can be an excruciating endeavour. Photographer and DVD producer CHRIS SATTLBERGER knows the situation first hand. Here, he shares his experience and offers some tips. Read More...
On predicting the future
Predicting the future, let alone the future of packaged media, is a perilous exercise, and possibly counter-productive, as the exercise closes doors rather than keep them open, argues JEAN-LUC RENAUD, DVD Intelligence publisher. Consider that: Apple was left nearly for dead 15 years ago. Today, it became the world's most valuable technology company, topping Microsoft.
Le cinéma est une invention sans avenir (the cinema is an invention without any future) famously claimed the Lumière Brothers some 120 years ago. Well. The cinématographe grew into a big business, even bigger in times of economic crisis when people have little money to spend on any other business.
The advent of radio, then television, was to kill the cinema. With a plethora of digital TV channels, a huge DVD market, a wealth of online delivery options, a massive counterfeit underworld and illegal downloading on a large scale, cinema box office last year broke records!
The telephone was said to have no future when it came about. Today, 5 billion handsets are in use worldwide. People prioritize mobile phones over drinking water in many Third World countries.
No-one predicted the arrival of the iPod only one year before it broke loose in an unsuspecting market. Even fewer predicted it was going to revolutionise the economics of music distribution. Likewise, no-one saw the iPhone coming and even fewer forecast the birth of the developers' industry it ignited. And it changed the concept of mobile phone.
Make no mistake, the iPad will have a profound impact on the publishing world. It will bring new players, and smaller, perhaps more creative content creators.
And who predicted the revival of vinyl?
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