DIGITAL DIGEST - http://www.digital-digest.com
DIGITAL DIGEST - LIVE UPDATE Issue 23
Your "whenever I have time to write one" newsletter
Tuesday, 23rd January, 2001
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TOP NEWS SUMMARY :
0. Section Zer0 - an introduction to this issue
1. The Empire Strikes Back : Part 2 - 1.00 GB VOB Files
2. OpenDivX - the future is here ... sort of
3. Microsoft WMV Version 8.0beta
4. New programs at Digital Digest
5. How to cancel/change your subscription email address/settings
- how to maintain the subscription to this newsletter even if your email address
has changed
6. A simple thank-you
- a thank-you message for all those that joined this list
Welcome to this, the 23rd issue, of the Digital Digest LiveUpdate newsletter. Back from a month long vacation, and now feeling all energized to sleep in late and eat junk food, as usual. We hope you also had a nice and relaxing holidays, and wishes you all the best in the new year.
We have partnered with RipHelp, which will now host all of the rippers that used to be here, plus some new CD/MP3 rippers. This coincides with the news of special DVDs that can't be ripped or even played back on PCs (see "1.00 GB VOB files section" below).
Nicky Page has also opened a new site on digital-digest.com - here, he will publish his articles, and will now have the full freedom to update his articles, without going through us first (like before). He has added tons of new articles since the grand opening, so please check it out : http://www.digital-digest.com/nickyguides/ - major updates on in this section will also be reported, as usual, in our DivX/DVD Digest's new articles sections.
Also released in OpenDivX (DivX Deux), an open source MPEG-4 codec being written from the grounds up. At this early stage, performance and quality isn't all that great, but there can be no denying the potentials of this codec.
And of course, there is the usual array of new and updated DVD/DivX software to add to your collection - most of them added in January, because of our previously mentioned vacation during December.
Okay now, back to sleep ...
1. The Empire Strikes Back : Part 2 - 1.00 GB VOB Files
By doing this, they have basically excluded a large part of the DVD movie market and might even break the law as it prevents the fair use (ie. playing DVD movies) of your PC-DVD system.
Movies that features this anomaly includes, Alice in Wonderland (TV movie), Sneakers and Scream - all of them are region 1 titles.
But I do have a feeling that this may all just be a technical glitch, rather than an intentional act, as this does seem pretty drastic.
A story in development ...
More info : http://www.dvdrip.ws/
2. OpenDivX - the future is here ... sort of
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Just a couple of days
ago, the guys at Project Mayo (http://www.projectmayo.com)
released an early version of the work-in-progress MPEG-4 codec, and have
released it as open source - meaning any budding programmer can now help
out with the project.
Project Mayo's aim is to create a MPEG-4 codec, from the grounds up, to be the successor of the popular (and controversial) DivX codec. At present, there are many versions of the codec available (for the different major OSes) as well as a player. Performance and quality isn't at a point yet where general release is possible (eg. it needs a 1 GHz processor to playback movies in full frame), but with wide support from the existing DivX community, it shouldn't be too long before a more efficient version is available. For more information and links, please visit : http://www.divx-digest.com/software/opendivx.html or |
3. Microsoft MWV Version 8.0beta
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Microsoft - at what bitrate do you want to encode today? |
Sometime
in December, while I was still on holidays and generally felling relaxed
(in an exhausted sort of way), Microsoft released a beta utility that
allowed people to encode AVI movies (including DivX) to WMV Version 8.
This tool was released to the public free of charge.
WMV V8 is the successor to the MPEG-4 V3 codec, which the DivX codec is based on. WMV V8 now features much better variable bitrate encoding (VBE), meaning that file size is reduced. The DivX codecs (low and fast motion) already feature VBE, especially the fast-motion codec, but the VBE engine in WMV V8 is far more sophisticated. |
A typical AVI to WMV conversion process goes like this : the AVI is scanned through twice. On the first pass, the file is examined carefully (this can take a while), and the actual encoding/conversion is done on the second pass. While almost doubling to tripling the encoding time, the file is examined more carefully, and a true variable bitrate WMV file is produced as a result. Of course, the file size now heavily depends on the movie, so it becomes even harder to predict the file size with a bitrate calculator (similar to the way how hard it is to predict the file size of fast-motion DivX movies).
The actual MS tool can be found here :
http://www.divx-digest.com/software/wm8eutil.html
Links to articles on how to use this tool, as well as an analysis by Nicky Page (http://www.digital-digest.com/nickyguides/) on the effects of WMV conversion can be found here :
http://www.divx-digest.com/articles/index.html
Have fun =)
4. New programs at Digital Digest
DivX Software :Audio : DeDynamic 1.1b Radiator 1.5.4.0 Semi's DirectSound 3D Filter 1.1 WaveUP 1.0
Bitrate Calculators : DivXcalc Ecuador's AVI Bitrate Calculator 2.0
Codecs : 3ivx MPEG-4 Codec 1.0d1 DivX Codec Scene Detect Patch OpenDivX 4.0 a47
Conversion : AVI2VCD 1.3.7 DVD2AVI 1.25 eXstream MPEG 0.65 Honestech MPEG Encoder 2.0 SmartVid 1.02.006 Windows Media V8 encoding utility 8.0.0.0284
Cut/join : AVI Revolution 2.0c Project DivX 1.5
Editing : AVIedit December 7th Build Terabits AVI Info 1.015 AVI Mux 0.2 AVIsynth IDivX 0.1 MakeFilm TNG 1.2 Vegas Video 2.0
GUIs : aMPEG2AVI GUI 1.45a EasySoft DivXbase 0.05 beta Fast DivX 0.9 Windows Media V8 Encoding Utility Frontend Windows Media V8 Encoding Utility GUI 1.0
Launchers : AutoAVI 4.00 Compact Disc Autorun 1.4 Compact Disc Launcher 5.0 DivX Movie Launcher 1.23 Figgy's Simple DivX Launcher 1.0 Full-Moon Launcher 4.0 MDVD Go! 1.0.1 MediaLauncher 0.04 Demo MicroDVD Autorun 1.71 Shadowboot 1.1b
Players : Ar1z Video Player 2.75 FMV 2.0 GDivX Player 1.8.0 miniPlayer 1.0.0 MultiAVI Player 0.1 RadLight Player 3.01 Ripnot Player 2.00
Rip-Packs : BH's DivX Rippack DivXEncode 1.2 DVD-RIPP 3.4 MPEG2AVI Rip Pack 2.0
Subtitle tools : SubAdjust 1.51 Subtitle Studio 1.0 Subtool 1.9 Ultimate Subttile Converter 0.02
DVD Software :
Audio : WaveUP 1.0
Authoring : DVD Wise 1.68 Sonic MyDVD 2.3 SpruceUp 1060b
Conversion : FlaskMPEG Intel (P4) Optimized version FlaskMPEG AMD Optimized version FlaskMPEG 0.594 Pre3 TMPGEnc beta 12b Vidget 1.01
Editing : MPEG2VCR 3.10
GUIs : Danni Din's MPEG2AVI/AC3DEC/VSTRIP GUI 0.20b Pers-o-FrontEnd 4 Normalize 1.0
Mac tools: bbDemux 1.0d2 mAC3dec 0.9.2 Mac MPEG2Dec 1.0b4 MPEG Stream Guillotine 02b PCMtoAIFF 1.0
Playback : Cool DVD Soft 1.10 Elecard MPEG-2 Decoder 1.22 Elecard MPEG-2 Player 1.17 Eugene's DVD player 0.96 WinDVD 2.6.4 Patch Zoom Player 1.00b2
Playback tools : More PowerDVD Skins More WinDVD Skins
Ripping : All ripping tools are now hosted by our partner site, RipHelp - please refer to them for the latest versions.
Other : DVD Expert 1.21 Movie-Box Database 1.20 Movie Organizer 1.41
5. How to cancel/change settings/email address for your subscription to this newsletter
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Thank-you
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