DVD DIGEST - LIVE UPDATE (Birthday) Issue 20 DVD DIGEST - http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/ DVD DIGEST | LIVE UPDATE (Birthday) Issue 20 Your fortnightly (plus of minus a few days) DVD newsletter Tuesday, 11th July, 2000 ************************************************************** TOP NEWS SUMMARY : 0. Section Zer0 - an introduction to this issue 1. Server problems 2. DivX's legal future 3. DVD Software zone now online 4. Big DVD movie news 5. What's new at DVD Digest Downloads ? 6. How to cancel/change your subscription email address/settings - how to maintain the subscription to this newsletter even if your email address has changed 7. A simple thank-you - a thank-you message for all those that joined this list ******************************************************* 0. Section Zer0 Welcome to this, the 20th issue, of the DVD Digest LiveUpdate newsletter. DVD Digest (initially called DVDigest) has now been officially open for business 1 year and 1 week, to this day. It's been quite a year, filled with joyous moments, and troubled times. Our site has been removed, went back up again, sued, threatened and anything else bad you can imagine - even as recent as 3 days ago, we have had problems that threatened the existence of DVD Digest (okay, perhaps not as dramatic as that). But overall, it's been a fantastic experience. There have been many people who have contributed to the site, and we'd like to thank them all for their support and encouragement. You're probably thinking that this all sounds like a farewell speech? Is DVD Digest going to close down? Not if we could help it ... ******************************************************* 1. Server problems On the 7th of July, our ddigest.com was taken down by our host, communitech.net. This was because our ddigest.com server exceeded the 17GB of transfers per day limit, that was set by our host (even though they have stated many times that they offer "unlimited transfers per month). To deal with this situation, we have decided to open 2 more servers, dvd-digest.net and divx-digest.com. These servers will be dedicated to serving files only, while the existing domains (ddigest.com and digital-digest.com) will continue to serve all the web pages. This should avoid further downtime and might even improve overall website performance. Sorry for the inconvenience caused. ******************************************************* 2. DivX's legal future DivX may soon be completely illegal, if Microsoft gets it's way. Many of you already know that while DivX has had a good level of general acceptance, its legal status has always been a question. It seems that the DivX codec is a modified version of Microsoft's MPEG-4 codec, and as such, Microsoft will try to stop the distribution of this codec. There has already been rumors that Microsoft lawyers are preparing Cease and Desist letter, to send out to websites which distributes the codec, and no doubt, DivX Digest (http://www.ddigest.com/divx/) will be one of the sites receiving such documents. DivX Digest has no intention (nor method) to fight Microsoft on this issue. I would be doubtful that DivX Digest will have to be closed down entirely, as most of the articles/software are related to AVI encoding in general (not just DivX), and does not tread on any copyright issues. I don't think there will be much of a fight on this issue, at least not a conflict on the level of the DeCSS issue. And it seems that the "author" of the DivX codec is already working on another codec, which most likely does not use Microsoft code, but it's too early at the moment to tell. The next few weeks will be very interesting indeed ... ******************************************************* 3. DVD Software zone now online We have just opened a very early version of our DVD Software Zone site. This new site will mainly deal with information and reviews of DVD related software. Downloads for these software will still be on our DVD Downloads Zone site. There will be information and reviews of DVD authoring, conversion, games, playback and reference software. Currently, only the DVD playback software section is completed, and also reviews for FlasKMPEG Encoder in the DVD conversion software section - the rest of the sections will be completed over time. We have added reviews for Cinemaster 2000, and MGI SoftDVD MAX 3.6.0002 to our playback section. If you are able to help, for example, write reviews for a particular DVD software, then please contact us using this email address : webmaster@digital-digest.com You can access DVD Software Zone here : http://www.ddigest.com/dvd/software/index.html ******************************************************* 4. Big DVD movie news Four more "big" DVD titles have been announced for the coming month, Jurassic Park/Lost World and Toy Story 1/2. Both pairs of "sequels" can be purchased in a 2-disc pack, and the Toy Story series can be purchased in a special 3-disc limited collector's version - which contains an extra bonus disc filled with extras. Jurassic Park/Lost World 2-disc set can be purchase here : http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004U8KV/thehoppingxenter Toy Story 1/2 2-disc set can be purchased here : http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004U9WQ/thehoppingxenter Toy Story 1/2 3-disc set can be purchase here : http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004U9WR/qid=961934322/thehoppingxenter For more information, please refer to our Movie Zone site : http://www.ddigest.com/dvd/movie/ ******************************************************* 5. What's new at DVD Digest Downloads ? - DVD/VCD/MPEG-4 Players - BS Player 0.52 - DVD/VCD/MPEG-4 Playback tools - WinDVD Configuration Expert - DVD/VCD/MPEG-4 Launchers - Compact Disc Launcher 2.5 - DivX Autorun for MicroDVD 1.58 - mLunCh CD launcher - VideoCD Launcher 2.00 - Encoding utilities : - AC3-Decode 0.8.18 - AVI Encoder 0.20 - Danni Din's MPEG2AVI/AC3DEC/VSTRIP GUI 0.19j - DVD to AVI GUI 1.04 - FlaskMPEG 0.594 - I-Media MPEG2 to AVI - IouAzE MPEG-DVD Launcher - Semi's DirectSound 3D Filter - SubAdjust 1.21 - SubRip Converter 0.5a - VOBDec GUI 2.3 - Region-free utilities : - Drive Info 1.1 - DVD Genie 3.75 - DVD Remote Selector 1.75 - DVD Toolkit 2.0 - more region-free firmware for the latest DVD-ROM drives - Ripping utilities : - CladDVD 1.45 - Other : - TVCC 2000 Beta 2c - TVTool 4.5.1 ******************************************************* 6. How to cancel/change settings/email address for your subscription to this newsletter Changing subscription settings for this newsletter can be hard, so here is a short guide : 1. Go to this link : http://www.listbot.com/cgi-bin/subscriber 2. Enter the email address this newsletter is sent to and also the password you chose when signing up to this newsletter. The email/password should have been sent to you in an email from "ListBot" or "ListBot Verifier", with the subject "Account Activated" or "REPLY REQUIRED: DVD DIGEST LiveUpdate Subscription Verify". 3. You should find options to change/cancel your subscriptions. Note : using your sign-up account, you can sign up to the 1000's of other newsletters available from listbot.com ******************************************************* 7. A simple thank-you Just a note to thank all the thousands of people (3000 at last count), including you, who joined the DVD Digest LiveUpdate program. We've spent quite a bit of time developing this site, and making it what it is today, and really do appreciate your continued support. We have changed most of our click ads into banner impression ads, which means you no longer need to click on them, although it will still help my advertisers. And if you are interested in advertising on our site, please refer to our Advertising page : http://www.ddigest.com/advertising.html If you would like to provide us with some feedback as to the quality of this newsletter, please contact us using this email address : webmaster@digital-digest.com We hoped you enjoyed another LiveUpdate newsletter. We'll try to make this newsletter a regular fortnightly one in the future. Thank-you ======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======