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DVDx project: DVDx 3 launched at SVN, DVDx 4 to include FFmpeg...
CES Las Vegas : 2008 edition stood January 7-10
Blu-ray / HD-DVD war: a new victory for Blu-ray at Warner Bros.
Hardware: transfer video to iPod or PSP without a PC
Friends top ten: sites who link to labDV.com
Software at labDV.com: January updates
VIP Pass: get DVDx updates with 2-year VIP Pass renewal

January 30th, 2008

1. DVDx project: DVDx 3 launched at SVN, DVDx 4 to include FFmpeg...

Last minute:, I (Jim) picked deep in my moneybox to order a brand new HP Pavilion Intel Core 2 Quad with Vista and Bluray & HD-DVD so I'll be able to ensure DVDx runs on Vista and hopefully will support HD soon.

DVDx 3 launched

DVDx 3 is launched, source code available only because very draft. The SVN trunk/DVDx layout has been changed and Debug and Release configurations can be compiled with Visual C++ 9 (VS2008 Orcas).

Ongoing work is to fix some DVDx 2 bugs revealed by Debug configuration and get rid off Skin Control which is slowing us in adding new features and make more robust code and Vista Ready.

DVDx 4 ready to be launched

DVDx 4 will be a major breakthrough in DVDx project. We plan to move to Qt (Nokia/Trolltech) for the GUI (and get rid off MFC), so Linux and Mac OS X ports will become reality....

Omnicoder007, a coder used to FFmpeg, has joined the DVDx project and will start to incorporate FFmpeg libraries such as libavcodec and libavformat so we'll get H.624/AAC support.

Other developers will be welcome, you can easily get DVDx source code on your desktop:

download and install free TortoiseSVN,
create a local folder and right-click SVN Checkout... then set URL to https://dvdx.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/dvdx/trunk and you'll get DVDx current source code (known as DVDx-trunk in SVN world) on your desktop!

Download:

DVDx and DVDx InfoTool source code at Source Forge SVN repository
DVDx standard version "ripper free" (and sources) available from Source Forge.
DVDx Ultra Edition (and all versions and sources) available from DVDx download page.
DVDx InfoTool packages (Windows, Linux and Mac OS X) available from Source Forge.

2. CES Las Vegas : 2008 edition stood January 7-10

This year, Bill Gates was very present at CES Las Vegas, perhaps last time before he retires. However, I won't comment what Bill and other big names backing big technology ; because all points could come true or not - they were more preaching than analyzing and arguing. You can make your own point by reading all >>>

The picture I retain from CES2008: legendary rock guitarist Slash joins Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates on stage at the 2008 International CES pre-show keynote address Sunday.

A few CES press releases

LCD and Plasma new big screen are thinner: 8-9 mm.
OLED is going to be LCD and Plasma replacement: tremendous 1,000,000:1 contrast versus 30,000:1 for the best Plasma. A very few OLED are now sold in Japan ( Sony XEL-1 , and at Sony ).
ultra low loss, and no compression infrared technology
WiFi, MP3-MPEG-4 digital photo frames

Not very exciting though...

More at CES web site...

3. Blu-ray / HD-DVD war: new victory fro Blu-ray at Warner Bros.

In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

« Warner Bros.’ move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want, » said Meyer. «The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers.»

Warner announcement...

4. Hardware: transfer video to iPod or PSP without a PC

Want to watch TV shows and movies on your iPod or PSP? Make a digital copy of precious home movie tapes? Back up holiday videos when away from home? At the touch of a button, Pinnacle Video Transfer rapidly records video in MPEG-4 quality onto any USB 2.0 storage device without using a PC. Pricing US$ 129,99

Benefit

PC-less capture of your video to an iPod, PSP, USB 2.0 hard drive or USB Flash Stick.
One-touch start/stop recording from any video source including a TV, DVD player, PVR, camcorder, set-top box or gaming console.
High-quality MPEG-4 encoding in H.264 at up to 720x480/576 (NTSC/PAL) resolution.
Multiple capture options for mobile devices, full-screen PC and even video editing or DVD burning. S-Video, composite video and stereo audio analog inputs.
Compact size makes it perfect for travelling.
Recharges iPod battery during video transfer (cable not included).

More at Pinncalesys.com...

5. Friends top ten: sites who link to labDV.com

This rubric is to thanks labDV friends who link their web sites to labDV.com:

Major search engine aren't part of this list (Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Excite and Web Crawler).

6. Software at labDV.com

Now there are 239 software available from labDV.com, most of them are freeware.

New software added in November

Audio (compression and editing), we've added GoldWave, likely the most reliable and complete audio editor available in its price range. It includes all of the common audio editing commands and effects, plus powerful built-in tools such as a batch processor/converter, a file merger, a CD reader, and audio restoration filters that are expensive add-ons in other programs. (Fully functional evaluation version)

In video codecs, we've added ffdshow is a DirectShow filter and VFW codec for many audio and video formats, such as DivX, Xvid and H.264.

In encoding (MPEG), we've added MediaCoder, a free universal batch media transcoder, which nicely integrates most popular audio/video codecs and tools into an all-in-one solution.

In subtitle utilities, we've added Txt2VobSub which generates vobsubs[idx/sub] subtitles from srt or txt subtitles . The quality of the subtitles is superb . You can select custom colors and position of your subtitles. It can be used in order to watch on your standalone divx player subtitled movies. Your divx player must be vobsub [idx/sub] compatible.

Get the whole software list available from labDV »»

Latest software updates

Audio (compression and editing): GoldWave 5.23

Video codecs: ffdshow 2008-01-31

Encoding (MPEG): MediaCoder 0.6.1

Subtitle utilities: Txt2Vobsub 3.3

7. VIP Pass: get DVDx updates with 2-year VIP Pass renewal

You can extend your current VIP Pass for 1 year or 2 years for $29.90 or $49.90 (19.90€ or 34.90€).

We hope this will help you to get more connected on DVDx updates and help us to sustain the development efforts for both DVDx 3 ad DVDx 4...

With a VIP Pass, you'll access the whole labDV library, a lot of Digital Video articles and how-to's as well as a huge Digital Video software database, most of them are free. And you will navigate DVDx web site as MyDVDx and all its features.

The 1-Year VIP Pass is only US$ 39.90 (€29.90) and joining us is a strong support for all our efforts such as DVDx project relaunched and our new ambitious 2008/2009 roadmap!

And you can also currently join us for US$19.90 (€14.90) for a 3-months VIP Pass.

Support us: from time to time , we're sustaining our continuous efforts to develop DVDx software so the 1-Year Pass is likely the best deal for now as well as the 2-Year Pass extension.

Thank you for your support by joining us