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News in Brief

THE MOTION Picture Association of America spent $520,000 in the third quarter to lobby the federal government on combating film piracy overseas and other issues, according to a disclosure report. That's up from the $490,000 that the MPAA spent a year earlier and the $430,000 it spent in the second quarter of 2010.

SONIC Solutions and video supply chain management company Allied Vaughn said they have produced more than 1 million discs in their manufacturing on demand (MOD) programme for major film and TV producers. The system combines Sonic’s technology to store content electronically with Allied’s disc duplication and fulfilment operation to produce discs when ordered rather than kept in storage.

ACCORDING to market research firm GfK, Samsung’s Blu-ray players took a European market share of 25% in terms of sales and 24% in terms of units sold for the January-September period in Europe - topping the European market. The manufacturer also secured a strong position in another developed market - Latin America - with Samsung's Blu-ray players accounting for 48% of the market in terms of sales and 46% in terms of units.

TECHNICOLOR has provided compression, authoring and 3D subtitling services for Warner Home Video’s Blu-ray 3D titles, including Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Clash of the Titans, The Polar Express, IMAX: Deep Sea 3D, IMAX Under the Sea 3D and IMAX: Space Station 3D. Warner Bros.’ major retail offering remains the most BD 3D discs to be released by any studio this year.

THE BRITISH Video Association joined forces with the Ministry of Defence and Services Sound & Vision Corporation (SSVC) to send some Christmas cheer, in the shape of the latest DVDs, to troops in active service throughout Afghanistan and Iraq. Titles ranged from digitally re-mastered classics like Back to the Future, to the best-seller Avatar, to British comedy The Inbetweeners series 1-3. The DVDs will be shipped and distributed by SSVC, the charity set up to entertain and inform Britain's Armed Forces in active service around the world.

DUBBS-Eyeframe, the leading London-based digital media and post-production facility, has purchased a Snell Archangel Ph.C – HD real-time video restoration system. This is the first system that has been purchased in the UK and it is currently being used on the restoration of Straw Dogs the 1971 Dustin Hoffman classic film. Archangel is an advanced SD and HD restoration system with real-time dirt, dust, grain, noise, scratch, instability and flicker removal.