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05 October 2007

MPEG LA announced this week that a meeting between the various HD DVD patent owners was held on September 11. The purpose of this meeting was to create a joint patent license. While progress was reportedly made, the MPEG LA is looking for input from interested parties.

MPEG LA announced today that the first meeting of essential HD DVD patent owners, currently consisting of 16 companies, was held in Los Angeles on September 11 for the purpose of creating a joint license providing fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory access to essential patents, as an alternative to negotiating separate licenses. Initial participating companies include LG Electronics Inc.; Microsoft Corporation; Mitsubishi Electric Corporation; NEC Corporation; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; SANYO Electric Co., Ltd.; Sonic Solutions; TDK Corporation; Thomson Licensing; Toshiba Corporation; Victor Company of Japan, Ltd.(JVC); and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc.

“MPEG LA applauds the extraordinary cooperation of so many diverse companies working together to come up with an efficient way for users of the multitude of patents employed in HD DVD devices, discs and related implementations to address their licensing needs,” said MPEG LA CEO Larry Horn. “And the substantial progress made in this initial meeting bodes well for achieving it.”

According to MPEG LA's press release, additional patent holder meetings are planned, and work on the joint license will continue. More information can be found here. Add a comment

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04 October 2007

A-DATA Vitesta DDR2-800 Extreme @Phoronix
Antec Veris A/V Component Cooler @Virtual-Hideout
Apple iPod Shuffle Second Generation 1Gb MP3 Player @Tweaknews.net
ASRock GeForce 7050 ALiveNF7G-HD720p Motherboard @TweakTown
ASUS BC-1205PT Blu-ray Combo Drive @Hardware Zone
Cooler Master Vortex 752 CPU Cooler @ThinkComputers.org
Corsair Padlock USB Flash Drive @Tweaknews.net
OCZ Reaper HPC Edition PC2-8500 2GB Kit (DDR2-1066) @Hardware Zone
Patriot 2x1GB PC3-15000 1866MHz DDR3 Memory @Virtual-Hideout
Samsung CLX-2160N Color Laser Multifunction Printer @Futurelooks
Silverstone Element ST50EF-Plus 500W PSU @HardwareLogic
SilverStone MFP51 Multimedia LCD @DV Hardware
Ultra X3 600W Modular PSU @BCCHardware
Zalman ZM360B-APS 360 Watt Power Supply @Futurelooks

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04 October 2007

Microsoft and Toshiba sent out a press release today, announcing plans to form the Advanced Interactivity Consortium (AIC). This main goal of this new group is to promote and extend the interactive features in HD DVD to other services and platforms like DVD players, PCs, portable media players and game consoles.

Toshiba Corp. and Microsoft Corp. today announced plans to form the Advanced Interactivity Consortium (AIC), an open forum aimed at the promotion of superior interactivity for a wide range of next-generation consumer devices, digital content and distribution scenarios. The newly formed organization’s mission is to maximize consumer satisfaction worldwide by accelerating industrywide adoption of advanced interactivity and interoperability across a broad array of HD DVD products.

In addition to its crystal-clear picture quality and sound, HD DVD, the next generation of DVD, approved by the DVD Forum, is the first platform to include advanced interactivity as a basic feature in high-definition movies and players, substantially expanding the possibilities of high-definition home entertainment.

If you'd like to read more, the entire press release can be found here. Add a comment

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02 October 2007

Biostar Geforce 8600GTS V-Ranger @TweakTown
Chill Innovation CP-520A4 PSU @Metku.net
Ideazon Merc Stealth Illuminated USB Gaming Keyboard @BCCHardware
Microsoft Streets And Maps 2008 With GPS Locator @Futurelooks
MSI NX8600GT Twin Turbo (GeForce 8600 GT) @Hardware Zone
NZXT Lexa Blackline Case @Virtual-Hideout
Viewsonic 42" N4261W 1080p LCD HDTV @I4U
Zalman Z-Machine GT1000 Case @HardwareLogic

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01 October 2007

ASUS Blitz Extreme Motherboard @Phoronix
ATP ProMax 4 GB SD High Capacity (SDHC) Memory Card @Futurelooks
CoolIT Eliminator and Freezone CPU Coolers @Madshrimps
Logitech G9 Gaming Mouse @TweakTown
MSI P35 Diamond Motherboard @ChileHardware
SteelSeries 5Hv2 Headset @BCCHardware
Twintech OC'ed GeForce 8600GT With HDMI @TweakTown
ViewSonic VX2255wmb 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor @ThinkComputers.org
Zalman Reserator XT Hybrid Liquid Cooling System @Virtual-Hideout

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01 October 2007

The CD-R patent dispute between Gigastorage and Philips is finally coming to an end. According to DigiTimes, Gigastorage has reached a preliminary settlement with Philips. The two companies will sign a final settlement once they can agree on which disc shipments Philips should be compensated for.

According to industry sources in Taiwan, Gigastorage stopped paying royalty fees to Philips in April 2001 and then Philips filed a charge in the US. After a long process of litigation Philips finally won the suit as judged by the US International Trade Commission in February 2007, the sources pointed.

For the settlement, Philips demands that the compensation be based on all of Gigastorage's shipments of CD-R and CR-RW discs and be paid in 10 years, but Gigastorage thinks only shipments to the US market are subject to the compensation and payment should be in installment over 10 years, the sources pointed out. In addition, it is not certain whether Gigastorage will accept Veeza, Philips' new CD-R licensing system, in the final settlement, the sources noted.

If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes. Add a comment

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28 September 2007

A-Data Nobility PD17 2GB Flash Drive @OCModShop
Diamond Viper HD 2900 XT 1GB CrossFire @HotHardware.com
Gigabyte iSolo 210 Case @BCCHardware
Microsoft SideWinder Mouse @I4U
New Standard Keyboards NSK 535 R Keyboard @HardwareLogic
NZXT Lexa Blackline Case @TweakPC
OCZ Vendetta Exposed HDT CPU Cooler @Benchmark Reviews

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28 September 2007

Earlier this month, we reported that the AACS LA had unveiled the final version of its copy protection system which included watermarking and encrypted keys. ABI Research has now issued a report stating that high-def players may require some hardware modifications to support this new technology.

Furthermore, new watermarking techniques are being implemented that may require enhancements to high-definition DVD hardware platforms. ABI Research sees a high likelihood for the incorporation of these changes, among others. “The watermarking process tags audio content in such a way that analog copies will be rejected by the player,” adds Wilson. “Content owners could unobtrusively tag their original source material and facilitate source detection of pirated material.” Watermarking is already in use in theatre content source.

Unless the AACS LA is going to require that players support these technologies, I don't think too many consumers are going to care that their player won't prevent the playback of watermarked content. If you'd like to read more, the entire report can be found here. Add a comment

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27 September 2007

Alienware Area-51 7500 @The TechZone
Inno3D GeForce 8600GT iChill @TweakTown
Microsoft Mobile Memory Mouse 8000 @I4U
OCZ Technology PC3-10666 Gold Edition 2GB DDR3 Kit @Bigbruin.com
Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-ray Player @Tweaknews.net
Tagan CS-EL Diablo Mid Tower ATX Case @Benchmark Reviews
Ultra X3 600W Modular Power Supply @ThinkComputers.org

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