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the AVerMedia® AVerTV USB 2.0 Plus, a cool box sold by Dell for 95 Euros. With the Dell OEM AVerMedia® AVerTV USB 2.0 Plus, you've got high value for your money. This is a cheap, easy-to-use and full featured video to PC box which I recommend if you're looking for a toy to view TV on your PC and it will transform the PC into a nice DVR. It performs good to create VideoCD, SVCD and DVD, it's rather a nice surprise!

Pros:

full featured TV viewer and MPEG DVR
small box, self-powered
nice software
easy to use
NTSC/PAL/SECAM
fair quality
cheap

Cons:

no hardware encoder

The AVerMedia retail version is shipped as the UltraTV USB 300 and offers more software: Ulead DVD MovieFactory Software CD, and Ulead VideoStudio Software CD.

Read the exclusive labDV review.

2. Ton's web site: Digital Video Club

Founded by Ton, a major labDV actor, the Digital Video Club went online January 1st., 2005. It is run by and for people active in making their own home movies. The purpose is to collect and share knowledge and experience in all aspects of home movie making. A library containing an ever increasing number of articles will help you to learn everything there is to know, whether you are a beginner or an experienced cinematographer. Our forum offers you the possibility to ask questions, share your experience and meet other people who share your passion.

We know that information found on this site can be found at various other places at the Internet. However, what makes Digital Video Club Different from other sites:

A simple and effective navigation menu to various categories of information.
Clear articles which can be read "stand-alone" without having to jump from one page to another.
No cluttering by advertisements or pop-ups.
Completely independent
They strive to publish at least one new article per week
They encourage active participation of users by accepting feedback, requests for new articles and submission of articles that you may want to publish.

You may even want to contribute by submitting an article to be published there. If you do, feel free to send them an email. Also, don’t hesitate to contact them if you have requests, remarks or whatever you feel is helpful in improving this service.

We find there a clever inspiration from labDV ;-)

Find some technical help to create your own home movie at Digital Video Club.

3. Intel announces intent to acquire Oplus Technologies, Inc.

Intel Corporation today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Oplus Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of video processing products and technologies for digital television and digital displays. The acquisition would provide Intel with access to valuable technology, expertise and products that complement the company's offerings of standards-based silicon and software for the growing consumer electronics market segment.

Oplus is a privately held fabless semiconductor company based in Yokneam, Israel that designs, develops and markets integrated circuit and software solutions for flat panel plasma and LCD-TVs, projection systems, LCD multi-function monitors and emerging digital display applications.

Oplus' technologies would enhance Intel's capability by providing industry-leading expertise and products for advanced video processing, an increasingly important differentiator in the broad market segment for digital television and digital displays.

4. Nero Reloaded updates: DVD-R Dual-Layer, AVC/H.264, LightScribe

New features introduced in the latest updates:

Nero 6 now supports DVD-R Dual-Layer recording

The recent 6.6.0.8 update to Nero 6 provides users with enhanced Dual-Layer Recording tools including DVD-R DL disc support for 8.5GB data storage or 120 min playback time (SP) for DVD-Video. Nero BackItUp’s extensive back up features takes full advantage of the increased disc space of DL discs. Nero Express 6 and Nero Burning Rom allows users to burn standard data and digital audio discs with up to 8.5 GB in size.

NeroVision Express 3 supports Nero Digital AVC/H.264 codec

With outstanding video and audio quality, Nero Digital™ is at the center of Nero's strategy for content creation, delivery, and protection. Featuring cutting-edge AVC/H.264 video encoding, and HE-AAC audio, NeroVision Express 3 can now capture directly to Nero Digital’s™ High Definition video format with surround sound, or export and burn to Nero Digital™ for playback on compatible devices. With the addition of VCPS in the near future, Nero Digital™ output files will provide the required level of security against unauthorized re-distribution.

NeroVision Express 3 is able to author or edit video from virtually any input source and record video files to DVD Video, Video CD (VCD), Super Video CD (SVCD), miniDVD, and now Nero Digital™. Chapters can be created using automatic scene detection, videos can be trimmed in a fast and flexible way and customized menus can be created using pre-defined layout templates and button frames. Extensive editing is available for more advanced users, while fast and friendly wizards for the keen enthusiast mean no matter what skill level, the user is always in control.

Nero receives official LightScribe Certification

LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling is a new technology that offers consumers and businesses a simple, no-hassle way to burn professional, silkscreen-quality labels on their CDs and DVDs. Using the same laser that burns data in their disc drives, users burn their data as always, flip the disc over, reinsert it into the drive and burn a precise, iridescent label with their desired text and graphics using the same laser that burns the data – no printer, permanent marker or adhesive labeling is required.

Nero announced today that it has partnered with LightScribe to bring the Direct Disc Labeling technology to Nero’s vast community of users. With this recent certification, LightScribe and Nero 6 allow the user to take control of the entire digital media creation process from start to finish.

The update is available at labDV while Nero's servers are somehow saturated.

5. DVD to DivX guide with DVDx in Italian

In questa guida impareremo a convertire in modo molto semplice un Film in Dvd in un file Divx da masterizzare successivamente in 1 o 2 Cd-Rom.

Guys from AScROccO.IT have published a simple DVD to DivX guide with DVDx. It can be for a good help for beginners. This guide is in Italian language only.

Find this at AScROccO.IT

Find the FAQ and all guides on the official DVDx site:

	in English
	en Français
	in Deutsch
	en Español
	in Italiano
	in het Nederlands
	em Português
	in Traditional Chinese
	in Japanese
	in Korean
	in Arabic

6. Software at labDV.com: updates and adds

Now there are 185 software available from labDV.com, most of them are freeware. And like we promised, we've reinforced our processes to maintain this software database, so here are the last changes.

New software added in February

In DVD copying, cladDVD .NET is one of the best DVD ripper, which you may use when DVD Decrypter can't do the job.

In video editing, TOKI Shot allows to automatically detect the shots of a movie, thanks to a sophisticated algorithm, to list all scenes and shots with starting time code and length, the list can be edited, to export the shots detection to music software (E.g. Protools, Cubase, Logic Pro...) through midi or sampled sound files, to export the shots detection to editing soft. Available in English and French for Windows and Mac OS.X, for a reasonable 82 Euros pricing.

Get the whole software list available from labDV »»

Latest software updates

Authoring DVD and (S)VCD

Nero 6 Reloaded Pack 2 3.1.0.0

Nero 6 Reloaded Pack 1 6.6.0.8

DVD copying

cladDVD .NET 3.5.6

Video editing

TOKI Shot (Win32, English) 1.0

TOKI Shot (Win32, Français) 1.0

TOKI Shot (Mac OS.X) 1.0