Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
Features
UMD-Video pushing creative boundaries
Universal Media Disc is much more than yet another disc to watch movies on the move. It is a new interactive media that pushes authoring’s creative boundaries. ANDY EVANS, founder and director of The Pavement, says why UMD is the ideal transition stage to next-generation HD formats. Read More...
The HD DVD route to hi-res entertainment
The DVD Forum, which has regulated DVD standards since the birth of the format, listened to its members – studios, disc replicators, authoring companies, consumer electronics manufacturers – and concluded that the ideal next-generation format is HD DVD, an evolution from current DVD standards. Industry analyst MEGUMI KOMIYA explains why. Read More...
The market for HD discs
With the pending arrival of the two competing high definition video disc formats, this is a good time to take stock of what has happened over the past few months and to look ahead at the prospects for high definition video discs in Europe, says JIM BOTTOMS, Managing Director of Understanding & Solutions. Read More...
VMD the red laser HD way
In March, NME demonstrated its Versatile Multilayer Disc format at CeBIT. Inserted in a player that looked like a usual DVD player, the 20GB and 40GB VMD discs played back 3-hour movies in the High Definition format of 1920/1080, 60i. The company’s CTO, Dr EUGENE LEVICH unveils the technology behind it. Read More...
How replicators cope in a changing marketplace
It's not the best of times to be part of the disc manufacturing industry. DVD and CD has matured, BD and HD are still to come to the market, raw material costs are up and prices are stable, at best. So is it all doom and gloom? It seems not, says TIM FROST, talking to a cross-section of the industry on both sides of the Atlantic. Read More...
Packaging media in a wide open market
With manufacturing in both Belgium and France and an office in London, BDMO has carved out a strong business with specialised packaging for CD, DVD and now UMD. CEO GEERT CASSELMAN talks to TIM FROST about the realities and future of media packaging. Read More...
On manufaturing, price, competition and next-gen discs
Challenges and opportunities are the lot of independent replicators. PIERRE-ANTOINE BERTHOLD, CEO of Austria-based kdg mediatech, tells JEAN-LUC RENAUD, from DVD Intelligence, how his company is coping with change and prepares for the future. Read More...
Sound in HD entertainment
Next-generation disc media is in the news. HDTV is at our doors, HD-ready displays are on every high street. However, high-definition entertainment is about the sound as well as the picture, reminds TONY SPATH, Dolby Laboratories’ Marketing Director, Technology (UK). Read More...
Authoring for HD
The home video industry is once again on the verge of transformative change. ROLF HARTLEY, General Manager of the Professional Products Group at Sonic Solutions looks at the changes Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD will bring to today’s DVD-centric authoring facilities. Read More...
The road to Holography
There is much talk of the new blue laser formats being “next-generation” products. But, if we are to move into the era of Home Media Servers, downloadable HD video and digital home movies, we are going to need terabytes of backup storage, not gigabytes, argues BOB AUGER, from consultancy Newmérique. Read More...
The quest for Quality
As filmmaker you have full control over the quality of your production, but how can you ensure quality during the DVD production and replication process for your film, game or software? ROBERT BARNES, Vice President of Services at AudioDev, explains how you should get involved. Read More...
Combating Digital Piracy
Macrovision Corporation develops digital rights management and software licensing technologies to combat widespread casual digital piracy. In a wide-ranging interview, MARTIN BROOKER, Director of Sales, Entertainment Technologies Group EMEA, tells JEAN-LUC RENAUD, DVD Intelligence publisher, what the company has in store. Read More...
Pushing DVD production boundaries East
Managing a DVD compression and authoring business out of the UK sales office – with its production facility based in Bulgaria – comes with a number of challenges. It also brings rewards, says JONATHAN FINNERTY, Managing Director of International Digital Management. Read More...
Blu-ray Disc Next generation optical storage has arrived
This year, the first Blu-ray player and Blu-ray Disc movies go on sale. Thanks to the invention of the blue laser, this new high-definition optical disc format has been developed to provide high-capacity storage, combined with advanced interactivity and connectivity. CHRIS BUMA, Programme Manager, A/V Disc Recording, Philips Consumer Electronics explains. Read More...
Protecting content
Effectiveness against illegal copying, compatibility with legitimate devices, compliance with laws, expectations of honest consumers are requirements content protection must meet. GRAHAM SHARPLESS, from Optical Disc Technology consultancy, says it can be a tall order. 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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