gHacks technology news » blu-ray

HD Video Authoring Software multiAVCHD

Martin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:47:31 +0000

HD video authoring software multiAVCHD has been designed to author AVCHD, Blu-Ray, HD DVD, SD-Video, to transfer DVD backups without re-encoding into Blu-Ray or AVCHD format, to watch Blu-Ray disk backups without re-encoding in their Playstation 3 or to create a 1080p menu for up to 252 different files of various formats including MPEG2, Quicktime MOV, MKV/AVC, AVI/AVC, M2TS/MTS, TS, TRP, M2V, VC1, 264, MP4, MPLS, IFO, etc.) or AVCHD / Blu-ray / DVD / VIDEO_TS folders.

Output can be created for various devices including Blu-Ray players employing Secure Digital High Capacity capabilities (SD/SDHC cards), Blu-Ray players compatible with the AVCHD format written on DVD-R media or BD-R discs, USB / MS (MemoryStick) / SD / SDHC equipped Blu-ray disc players (like the Sony Playstation 3, HD DVD players that support DVD-R (3xDVD). It is furthermore possible to output directly into BDMV format.

One interesting usage example for multiAVCHD is the following: Creating a menu for up to 252 video files (e.g. tv series, youtube clips), putting them all on a USB drive to watch these videos on the Sony Playstation 3. A good start to get acquainted with the program is the excellent tutorial that is available at the developer’s website. The developer’s website itself is linking to Rapidshare for program downloads. A superior option is to visit download portals like Softpedia to download the HD video authoring software from there.

Tags: authoring software, avchd, blu-ray, hd dvd, hd video, multiavchd, video authoring

Rip Mount Burn Blu-Ray DVDs

Martin — Sat, 30 May 2009 17:19:13 +0000

Blu-Ray has won the high definition wars against HD-DVD. Everyone thought that consumers would start buying Blu-Ray players and DVDs like crazy once that happens but this is apparently not the case. Blu-Ray is struggling, most users seem to be quite happy with their DVD players and computers and cannot see a reason to invest money in a Blu-Ray player.

Still, it is only a matter of time until Blu-Ray (or the next-HD generation) becomes the standard. Users who already have a Blu-Ray player in their computer might want to transfer the movies to their computer system to mount or burn them again.

Enter Blu-Ray & DVD Decrypter. A free software suite that can be used to rip, mount and burn Blu-Ray DVDs.

The main interface provides easy access to rip, burn and emulate Blu-Ray DVDs. Blu-Ray DVDs can be ripped as ISO images or as m2ts files. Please note that a connected Blu-Ray player is required for the process. To burn Blu-Ray images a Blu-Ray recorder is required.

Images that reside on the hard drive can be mounted by the application which is basically a Blu-Ray player emulation on the computer system to be able to watch the movie if the right player is installed on the system.

The Blu-Ray & DVD Decrypter software is easy to use in most cases. It usually takes only a few clicks to rip and burn a Blu-Ray DVD with this software.

Tags: blu-ray, blu-ray dvd, blu-ray player, blu-ray ripper, blu-ray software, rip blu-ray dvds, windows software

DVD Sales Down. What do You Think the Reasons are?

Cheryl — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 13:47:01 +0000

At the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Digital Entertainment Group released its figures for DVD spending in the United States in 2008. The results were a 5.5% decrease from the previous year.

DEG’s figures aren’t just for outright sales of DVDs, but also include DVD rentals and Blu-Ray disc sales. Rental revenue stayed nearly constant from previous year’s figures but sales pretty much took a nosedive. While it’s easy to blame dismal sales on the old monster of piracy, I personally think there are a lot of factors for this loss. Here are some of them.

Economics: There’s no denying that DVD sales have in part been affected by the recession. With money starting to get tight, fun spending is the first to be cut and DVDs are definitely not ‘essential’.

Content: For me, barring 2-3 flicks, I can’t think of many movies that I found memorable this year. So I don’t see the point of owning them on DVD because I certainly don’t want to watch them over and over.

Digital Downloads: Nowadays, plenty of TV shows and movies can be legally purchased in a digital format of your choice. In the case of TV shows, consumers have the option of purchasing only the episodes they want. This is a definite advantage over buying an entire season on DVD for a few episodes.

Transition to High Definition: Falling prices of HDTVs, Blu-Ray players, and discs means that a lot of people no longer prefer to invest in standard-definition media like DVDs. It’s similar to tapes dying out once CDs became more affordable.

I’m not much of a DVD person myself. If a movie catches my fancy, I’ll watch it in a theatre. If not, I can just wait a few months and catch it when it’s broadcast on cable. What about you? Have you bought less DVDs this year? Why do you think sales are down? Let me know.

Tags: blu-ray, dvds, movies, video sales

Can Your PC Play Blu-Ray Movies?

Martin — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:49:15 +0000

Practically any modern computer is capable of playing DVD movies. But what about Blu-Ray movies? Everyone knows that this high definition video format requires some processing power and probably additional capabilities. Cyberlink’s Blu-Ray Disc Advisor is trying to answer that question for you by determining if a computer is capable of running Blu-Ray movies.

It was created as a reference tool and will display results seconds after execution. The results are divided into two categories. Basic Playback will check if the hardware of the computer is able to play Blu-Ray movies. The diagnostic tool will analyze the cpu, system memory, video card, disc drives but also the software players and video connection types available.

The detection is not overly accurate but should be sufficient on most occasions. It did detect 2 Gigabytes of computer memory on a system with 4 gigabytes installed. The Blu-Ray Disc Advisor will show if the items are Blu-Ray ready. A green icon means the hardware or software component can playback Blu-Ray movies while red means it is not capable of, yellow means an upgrade is required and brown means that the software cannot rate that item.

The second tab analyses the advanced Blu-Ray playback capabilities of the computer hardware. This includes special features that are included in some Blu-Ray movie titles like Internet interaction or picture-in-picture.

Items will be tested for dual-video decoding capabilities, network capabilities and player capabilities. It is possible to save the information in a log file and visit the Cyberlink website for additional information about items that are not Blu-Ray capable.

Tags: blu-ray, blu-ray capable, blu-ray disk advisor, blu-ray movies, blu-ray player, blu-ray software, high definition, high definition video, sony blu-ray

DVD Identifier

Martin — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:00:02 +0000

Many DVD, HD-DVD or Blu-Ray writers work best with blank media from a specific manufacturer. One could argue that it is only a matter of looking at the label of the blank media to find out about the manufacturer but the information presented there is not always reliable. It can happen that the brand name differs from the manufacturer and it is not uncommon that a brand makes use of several manufacturers for the same product line.

DVD Identifier is a software program that can identify and display the information that is recorded on the blank media. The main interface of DVD Identifier will display various information about the default writer – be it DVD, HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. Some of the information provided include the write capabilities of the drive which gives the user an understanding of the support media types.

The Identify button becomes active after putting a blank disk into the drive. A click on the button will start the identification which consults a manufacturer database that gets updated regularly.

Information provided include the manufacturer name, ID and the blank disk capacity. DVD Identifier is also providing in depth information about the drive capabilities on the disk inserted and the media code block.

Tags: blank media, blu-ray, blu-ray writer, dvd, DVD Identifier, dvd manufacturer, dvd writer, hd dvd, identify dvd, windows software

Blu-ray Disc Ripper

Martin — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:10:52 +0000

We covered a software program yesterday that would remove the region protection from Blu-Ray rips on the computer hard drive. Today’s application can be used to rip Blu-Ray movies to the computer’s hard drive. The application is portable but requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0.

Blu-Ray Disc Ripper is the perfect complement for the Blu-Ray Region Code Remover that we introduced yesterday. The process would therefor start be started by running the Blu-Ray Disk Ripper to rip the Blu-Ray movie to the hard drive and start the Blu-Ray Region Code Remover afterwards to get rid of the region code protection if that is of concern.

The Blu-Ray Disk Ripper requires a unique volume key which the user has to supply. The software developer suggests to either search the Doom9 forum for the movie title or use the applications DumpVID and AACS Keys to find them. The program will check the key if it can be used to decrypt the Blu-Ray movie.

The software provides access to four actions.

Copy the contents and decrypt the .m2ts files
Copy the contents and do not decrypt the .m2ts files
Decrypt BD-Live files related to the movie for a specific software player
Sync modified dates between source and destination folder

The program is available at the Doom 9 forum. The current version can be downloaded at Sendspace directly.

Tags: blu-ray, Blu-ray Disc Ripper, blu-ray movies, Blu-Ray Region Code Remover, blu-ray software, portable software, rip blu-ray, windows software

Blu-Ray Region Code Remover

Martin — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:34:27 +0000

Although Blu-Ray has won the battle of this generations HD formats against HD-DVD it is still far away from winning the battle against the DVD format. The majority of Blu-Ray players had made their way into the homes in the form of the Sony Playstation 3. PC users can purchase Blu-Ray players and the more expensive Blu-Ray writers for their computers for some time now as well.

There have not been many releases on Blu-Ray disks though except for movies. Blu-Ray disks can have a region protection which means that it can be that a movie won’t play on a Blu-Ray player if the disk and the player have been purchased in different regions.

The world is divided into three regions: Region A spans across most of Asia, region B includes Europe, Africa and Australia while region C includes North- and South-America and Japan.

Not all Blu-Ray movies are region encoded though. The decision is made by the motion picture studio releasing the movie.

The Blu-Ray Region Code Remover removes the region code of Blu-Ray disk rips on a computer’s hard drive so that these rips can be played regardless of the user’s region. It furthermore supports removing of region code from Blu-ray titles and Java-enabled titles. It can also remove Prohibited User Operations for a better user experience.

The software program requires Windows XP or Windows Vista and the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0.

Tags: blu-ray, blu-ray region code, blu-ray software, movies, portable software, region code, region code remover, sony, windows software

Manage your movie collection with Coollector

Martin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:09:29 +0000

Keeping track of all the movies that you own can be a tedious task especially if you also lend movies to friends and relatives. I’m someone who does not buy lots of movies and if I do I normally only buy them if they have been reduced in price which means that I’m not a likely candidate to organize my movie collection. A friend of mine on the other hand has literally thousands of movies and I would think that it could become awfully hard to keep track of the whole collection.

Coollector tries to help by providing an interface to organize and manage movie collections. The program is aimed at English movies only but can be used to include foreign releases as well. It requires more manual work though to add those. Each of the more than 43000 movies is listed with information about actors, plot, genre, directors and release versions and it only takes a click to add one of the movies to a movie collection.

Each aspect of the movie can be edited before it is added to the collection. The main way of finding movies is by using the build in search which can find movies and people.

Movies and Persons are always clickable which leads to the movie’s main page or the movies that the person was part of. The database is in no way as comprehensive as that of IMDB for example but it does find most movies.

Filters can be added to exclude certain formats from being included in search results. A user could for instance exclude Blu-Ray and UMD results if he does not own a player for these.

Movies can be rated and added to a wish, loaned and ordered list. The Piclens extension is required to view movie covers or previews at Youtube.

Tags: blu-ray, coollector, dvd, movie collection, software, Windows

No HD DVD Players for XBOX 360 anymore

Martin — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:58:58 +0000

The high definition format war is almost over with Blu-Ray winning the field. Microsoft was supporting the HD DVD format by offering the HD DVD player add-on for their XBOX 360 gaming system. In an announcement made today they made clear that HD DVD will be pulled as add-ons for the XBOX 360 as well.

Roughly 300.000 HD DVD player add-ons have been sold for the XBOX 360 and the owners find themselves in an awkward position although the HD DVD player was never needed for gaming purposes and won’t have an impact on that.

Microsoft does have two options at the moment. They could create a Blu-Ray add-on for the XBOX 360 which I think is unlikely or they could push digital downloads which is the most likely scenario. The major problem in my opinion is the size of the hard drive which seems way to small for huge digital downloads.

Tags: blu-ray, hd dvd, microsoft, xbox-360

HD DVD is throwing the towel

Martin — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:34:40 +0000

With more and more companies announcing to go Blu-Ray exclusive it is only a matter of time until Blu-Ray will be announced the winner of the battle of the high definition war. I really could care less which format wins the race because I have no intention to purchase either of them in the near future but if you plan to purchase a HD player you probably should buy a Blu-Ray player.

I’m not a huge fan of Sony and have still hopes but it looks pretty sad for the HD DVD supporters. Those consumers who have bought a HD DVD player will face a huge problem much like the Betamax users faced back in the days when VHS did win that race. It occured to me that the consumer is always loosing in this kind of wars.

If you pick the wrong player you will have to purchase another one to be able to view high definition videos, if you pick the right player you contributed to a monopoly, and it’s Sony this time – it will be awful, it’s a Sony after all.

Tags: blu-ray, hd dvd, high definition, sony, toshiba

The HD war is not over yet

Martin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:18:14 +0000

If you thought that the HD war was over with the switch of Warner Studios from supporting both HD formats to just Blu-Ray then you might want to observe the market a little bit longer. The effect that Warner has left the HD DVD supporters will not be visible to consumers later this year when the contract expires (May 2008). From then on Warner will only release movies on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Two studios, Paramount and Universal are still backing up HD DVD and press releases suggest that they have no intention to change their stance in the near future. Movie fans are still facing the problem that a choice can’t be made if they wanted to watch movies from all studios unless they would purchase a more expensive dual player that would play Blu-Ray and HD DVD movies.

Many Blu-Ray and HD DVD movies are currently offered at Amazon for 50% off and player prices have been reduced as well. You can purchase a HD DVD player for $149.99 and get five HD DVDs free as a bonus which is an attractive offer.

My stance on this matter remains unchanged. I will boycott both formats and won’t purchase a remaining format as well if there should be a winning format in the near future. I do so mainly because of DRM and all the crap that is loaded into those players. I also have no intention to update my player’s firmware regularly because the manufacturer published a new firmware to fix some security holes.

That’s not what I want and I’m pretty confident that this is something that most consumers do not want as well – if they would know that is.

Tags: blu-ray, hd dvd, high definition, paramount, sony, toshibar, universal, warner

Sony’s first PC Blue-Ray drive won’t play Blue-Ray Movies

admin — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 19:01:27 +0000

This sounds a little strange at first, don’t you think ? I really had to investigate the matter further, let us check out what this is all about. The Australian PC World revealed the new Blue-Ray drive about three weeks ago on their website.

“Sony cautions that additional software and hardware is required for playback of commercial movies on Blu-ray Disc (BD-ROM) but the company didn’t specify exactly what is required.”

No one was sure what that ment at that time – until today. Cdfreaks report that Sony’s BWU-100A Blu-ray drive will not play Blu-ray movies which is exactly what Sony ment when they gave this statement to PC World.

“While the drive would be more than capable of reading Blu-ray discs for the playback of HD video content, the problem is due to the main issue that plagues all next generation formats for movies: The Infamous Copy protection. With the lack of PCs available that have HDCP enabled graphics cards and playback software still in its development, Sony has decided to leave out support for commercial BD movies altogether. However, the drive will still be able to play back user-created HD content, such as from a high definition camcorder, where no copy protection is required.“

PC World Australia asked Sony’s product manager Vincent Bautista for data storage about this matter, he explained..

“..that due to copy protection issues and lagging software development, the drive will only play user-recorded high-definition content from a digital camcorder, and not commercial movies released under the BD format.

Bautista says that one of two reasons for this is the fact that commercial content is encrypted with High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), which can only be decrypted using a HDCP-compliant graphics card that offers DVI or HDMI connections. Since there are currently no PCs for sale offering graphics chips that support HDCP, this isn’t yet possible.

The second reason, according to Bautista, is that BD playback software that can decrypt HDCP isn’t “released as a saleable item yet“.

This means in other words that people who are actually buying this Blue-Ray drive are not getting what they bargained for. A Blue-Ray drive that is not playing copy-protected movies ? C’mon who needs such a drive ? It is capable of writing disks which could be a good argument for a purchase.

Looking at the prices for Blue-Ray discs makes me wonder how many users will use this feature instead of using a different method to backup their data. The price of ten Blue-Ray discs is greater than that of a large external hard drive for example. Oh, I forgot, the Blue-Ray drive itself will cost around 750$. Pretty expensive for something that has a limited functionality, don’t you think ?

Tags: blu-ray, Hardware, sony

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HD DVD is throwing the towel (3)

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Howto copy Blu-Ray and HD-DVD movies

Martin — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 10:31:17 +0000

Well well well. The industry tried their best to make the new competing high definition formats blue-ray and hd-dvd as secure as possible so that no one would be able to view them with insecure hardware or would be able to copy the movies. The files themselves are protected by AACS which stands for Advanced Access Content System. HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) makes sure that high definition playback is only available if the output device (television, monitor) is HDCP capable, if not the movie will be downsampled to 960×540p.

The german computer magazine CT apparently found a way to copy Blue-Ray and HD-DVD movies. The first movie players on Windows XP that are capable of running those protected movies allow the print screen key to work which saves a hd image of the current frame to the computer. Automating that screenshot function to take 24 / 25 / 30 was the logical next step.

The mag calculated that it would not be a problem for todays high end computers to save all images in real time. All that was left to do is join all images. The result ? A high definition movie of course.

The mag tested this exploit with Sonys first Blue-Ray Pc Vaio VGC-RC 204 and with Toshibas HD-DVD-Notebook Qosmio G30. Both were running a special OEM version of WinDVD.

Upcoming versions of WinDVD will most likely be patched.

Tags: blu-ray, hd dvd, high definition