There's no question that it's faster to purchase a movie from the iTunes store than your local video store -- assuming you have a speedy internet connection. But if you want to get the latest releases as son as they're out on video, you're probably better off making the trek to the video store. Or at least that's what we would have told you yesterday, when it could take weeks or months longer for movies to show up on iTunes. But now Apple has announced that many movies will be available on iTunes the same day as they are released n DVD.
Apple has reached deals with Fox, Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal, Sony, Lionsgate, Image, and First Look. That covers a lot of territory. New releases will typically set you back $14.99. The press release doesn't make it clear whether this applies to the $2.99 movie rentals, so if you want to rent a video for just a few bucks, you might still better off using Netflix or walking to a bricks and mortar store.
There are plenty of free CD/DVD burners for Windows, and to be honest we haven't often been tempted to look beyond CDBurnerXP and InfraRecorder, which both seem to handle pretty much any tasks you can throw at them. But while reading an article about BurnOn over at Life Rocks 2.0, we noticed a link in the comments to StarBurn. And while we might check out BurnOn later, we were kind of blown away by StarBurn.
The application can handle all of your basic tasks like burning data, audio, and video discs. It supports a wide variety of formats including CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD. And it has some nifty features like the ability to either rip audio CDs or compress audio already on your computer to MP3, WMA, or OGG formats.
One StarBurn feature that you don't often see bundled with disc burning utilities is a virtual drive mounting application. In other words, you can use StarBurn to create a disc image or ISO file, and then mount that file as a virtual disc so you can see how it performs without actually burning the file to a disc and sticking it in a drive. This can come in handy if you want to see check an image before burning it, or if you want to mount an image you've created or downloaded on a system that doesn't have a working optical drive.
StarBurn is free unless you want the network version, which offers network burning features and costs a whopping $495. The full functionality is included in the free version, but you can only use the network features during a 30 day free trial period.
One of the things that makes Ubuntu such a popular Linux distribution is that it comes with a ton of useful applications preinstalled. When you first boot Windows, you may have Windows Media Player, and Internet Explorer but you need a separate application suite if you want to create and edit spreadsheets, databases, or Word documents. Ubuntu, on the other hand includes a media player, web browser, office suite, and a few other goodies.
But one thing that you can't do with a stock Ubuntu installation is play commercial DVDs. While the Totem movie player will certainly make a valiant effort at playing the video on any DVD you stick in your computer, it won't manage to bring up DVD menus and may have problems playing the video. It turns out it's very easy to enable DVD playback. Just open a terminal and type the following two lines (entering your root password when prompted):
Or if you'd rather not play around with the terminal, you can open the Synaptic Package Manager and do a search for VLC. The VideoLan media player is capable of playing DVDs without any tweaking.
Looking for an inexpensive (read: free) alternative to the CD/DVD burning utilities currently dominating the market? BurnAware Free looks to fill that space nicely.
BurnAware is a free utility that enables you to perform most common disc burning tasks:
Burn data to most any type of disc, including DVD+R and DVD-R
Create audio CD's from WAV, mp3, or WMA files
Create disk images (.ISO's)
Write DVD video files (e.g. VOB files) to a DVD
The interface is very clean and easy to use. BurnAware has a simple home screen where you can see the different burning options. Once an option is selected, the home screen minimizes to the taskbar (similar to Nero and Roxio's functionality) and a new window is opened, allowing you to customize whatever function you selected.
An added bonus of BurnAware is support for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats (provided that you have the appropriate drive, of course). Though BurnAware supports both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, we found it peculiar that it only advertises Blu-Ray support. A pointed jab at HD-DVD, or simply an oversight? Only time will tell...
BurnAware Free is currently in beta, with support for Windows 98/NT/2000/XP and Vista (32 and 64 bit).
Mac OS X does a great job of integrating CD/DVD burning into the iLife suite and Finder, but LiquidCD unifies your disc-burning needs in one easy-to-use (and free!) program. LiquidCD lets you create basic audio CD's and data CD's or DVD's, but it also adds the handy ability to burn multiple disc image formats like .cue, .iso, and .dmg.
LiquidCD, which is available in 15 different languages, is a great alternative to Mac OS X's built-in burning tools, especially if you want to bypass iPhoto or iTunes so you can burn a simple project. You may have a folder of songs on your USB drive that you don't want added to your iTunes library. With LiquidCD you can plug your drive in, select the songs you want to be burned, and have a CD burning in seconds.
Looking for a good CD/DVD burning utility, but short on cash? Yesterday we mentioned that CDBurnerXP had been updated to include Blu-Ray and HD-DVD support among other things. And in the comments one reader pointed out another excellent (and free) disc burner.
InfraRecorder is an open source utility that doesn't skimp on features or accessibility. Once installed, you'll notice you can either launch InfraRecorder or InfraExpress. The latter version features a slimmed down interface with wizards for burning data, audio, and video discs. It's sort of InfraRecorder for dummies. The full feature gives you a ton of options that might confuse folks used to using Nero Smart Start.
Here are a few of the things you can do with InfraRecorder:
Create data, audio, video, and mixed-mode discs
Record dual-layer DVDs
Four methods for erasing discs
Record disc images (ISO and BIN/CUE)
Scan SCSI/IDE bus for devices and capabilities
Create disc copies using temporary disc image
Import session data from multi-session discs and add more sessions
It doesn't look like there's support for Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, but the product is still under development and new features are being added all the time.
Despite its name, CDBurnerXP is not just a CD burning application for Windows XP. It's actually one of the most full featured free CD and DVD burning utilities you're likely to find for Windows 2000/XP/Vista.
CDBurnerXP 4 was recently released, and it has some impressive new features:
Support for burning Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, and Double layer DVDs
Support for FLAC audio files
Disc to Disc copy for audio and data
Save discs and compilations as ISO files
Support for WPL playlists
While Windows XP and Vista include some basic CD and DVD authoring features, CDBurnerXP is about as full-featured as many commercial applications out there. And it's free. The program is donateware, so if you want to download the latest beta versions you'll need to make a contribution.
In the intervening months since we last took a look at the fabulous DVD-ripping tool Handbrake (for Mac, Windows, and Linux), the studios have gotten wise to the "lawful use" of the little silver platters they sell at Wal-Mart and upped the ante on rippers. It seems there's a newer protection scheme that does indeed stop Handbrake from ripping the video content on certain DVDs so you can package it for your iPod.
Granted, Handbrake's developers state that the best way to use their program is by supplying it with unprotected video files to begin with. And that's the trick.
The answer is the new beta of MacTheRipper (3.0), which offers a workaround for this new technique. Once you've nabbed a rip using MacTheRipper, Handbrake will grab the ripped video files from your hard disk and package them into a MPEG-4 or AAC format that's perfect for your video iPod, iPhone, or for on-the-go viewing on your laptop. Now MacTheRipper is freeware, but you'll need to contribute to the developers' coffers if you want to get the 3.0 beta at this point. When you do, let 'em know Download Squad sent you.
Seems that we forgot to wish our good friend 'Compact Disk' a happy birthday on August 17th. It was that day in 1982 that the first CD was manufactured at a Philips factory in Langenhagen Germany, close to Hanover.
Sony and Philips worked together to develop this new technology as a shift away from analog and into digital recordings leading to the eventual launch of the DVD and Blu-ray media technologies. This technological revolution sparked a big change for the music industry, skyrocketing music prices among other things. Since then there has been over 200 billion CD's sold, with Polygram holding the title of the first CD for ABBA's The Visitors album. However, people couldn't listen to them because the first CD players hit the Japanese shelves three months later, with the US and Europe not seeing them until March of 1983.
The computer virus also celebrated its 25th birthday earlier this year. So one thing we need, and one thing we definitely do not.
Many years ago, car manufacturers emphasized only new features to entice new buyers. Then some time in the early 90's car safety became important and car manufacturers put safety features top of the selling points for new model.
I feel that right now Web 2.0 service providers are operating like those car manufacturers before the shift to car safety.
Ever since the infant days of the internet, people have been putting more and more data online (emails, newsgroup posts and IRC conversations) without giving it any thought. But in the Web 2.0 age we are leaving behind a trail of data much more personal than ever before. We tell people about our lives, our thoughts, and where we've been with our photos (some even tagged with geo-data).
Fire up the popcorn popper, and get ready to settle into your comfy chair with your iTunes.
iTunes has brought some award winning films from the MGM studios to the iTunes store that are available for purchase and download. These new film additions from the largest film library in the world include Dances with Wolves, Mad Max, The Great Train Robbery, Rocky, The Thomas Crown Affair, Ronin, and Lilies in the Field among others from the list of 208 other Academy Award winners.
The movies are expected to be online in the next few weeks, and will be available in near DVD quality at resolutions of 640x480 and can be viewed on computers, fifth generation iPods, TV's and with Apples new Apple TV.
Apple's current iTunes store holds over 350 television shows and now over 500 movies thanks to the MGM addition.
Personally I've never seen the point in paying $25 for software to rip DVDs into a format for viewing on a Windows Mobile device when Fair Use Wizard does the job perfectly well for free.
But then Spb goes and announces that they're upgrading Spb Mobile DVD to support all the extras you get with a DVD, menus, scene selection, language and subtitle selection, extra videos.
There's no word on pricing or availability yet, but Spb Mobile DVD 1.1 goes for $25. Version 1.1 outputs videos as WMV or XVID files in 320x240 or 640x480 resolutions, so I'm going to assume we can expect at least that quality in version 2.0.
Looking for something to use your Wii remote for other than breaking your TV?
Now you can control more than your Wii with your Wii remote control, you can control your Mac.
iTheater v0.1.3 was released yesterday the new version adding support for the WiiRemote control. The newest iTheater version also includes the ability to change background images, default music, play iTunes video playlists, and the ability to change your weather location and degree unit.
iTheater is an open source project that integrates most of the media elements on your Mac, working similar to Apple's FrontRow. The program supports DVDs, Photos, Video and Music much like FrontRow but also offers support for several other media elements such as Video_TS, and Widgets.
The iTheater folks also announced this will be the last official release that supports OSX 10.3. All following releases of iTheater will be for OSX 10.4 and up.
After three short months, sales of Disney movies through the iTunes Store have hit 1.3 million downloads, in addition to 20 million television show downloads. However, Paramount has been the only other movie studio that has joined Apple since October of 2006. Why? No one wants to upset colossal retailers like Wal-Mart and Target, which are responsible for the majority of DVD sales. But will these latest sales figures help convince other companies in joining the digital download game? Finanicial Times reports that Disney CEO Bob Iger said digital distribution is "creating more consumption of media....The message that we deliver to our traditional [retail] partners is that the pie is getting bigger." Part of the retailer argument against digital downloads is the lower pricing. Because, you know, $12.99 is apparently a good deal for a lower quality (than DVD) movie download without any extras and limited viewing capabilities. However, Apple has previously expressed its unwillingness to change its current pricing structure. Ultimately, it seems almost guaranteed that digital downloads will continue to gain market prominence, but only time will tell to see if and when other companies will hop onboard with Apple.
Qflix, hmmm, sounds familiar but you just can't place it? That is most likely because it is a new technology (to be introduced tomorrow at CES) that will allow digital movie downloaders to burn DVD's of their downloaded movies and play them on their home DVD player. Qflix is a way for studios to appease the angry mobs who are screaming at them to give their viewers some way to get these DVDs off their computer. It will be restricted of course (so the DRM isn't going away) to burning a limited number of times or limiting the number of times the DVD will play. Thanks for the nod, but no smoking gun DVD-burning drive yet. Sonic Solutions (of Roxio fame) is the company behind the Qflix technology, and the rumors floating around say that they are planning to give customers the option of burning a movie at a kiosk (most likely in a Walgreens store near you). Not a bad idea, only if they still plan on offering a downloadable version you could burn at home in addition to the kiosks. Can you say "the death of Blockbuster?" This idea might actually have legs if they don't limit the times it can play (which would enrage consumers), but limiting the number of times you can burn it is fine by me. I don't need four copies of anything, really. It isn't perfect, and it isn't ideal, but it may work as enough of a compromise between consumers and the tight-fisted studios. Oh yeah, did I mention the movie studios have approved its use? That is another reason this one might actually make it on the small screen.
After three short months, sales of Disney movies through the iTunes Store have hit 1.3 million downloads, in addition to 20 million television show downloads. However, Paramount has been the only other movie studio that has joined Apple since October of 2006. Why? No one wants to upset colossal retailers like Wal-Mart and Target, which are responsible for the majority of DVD sales. But will these latest sales figures help convince other companies in joining the digital download game? Finanicial Times 
