Pioneer Electronics just sent out an interesting announcement regarding their Blu-ray BD-ROM / DVD-RW combo drive. According to their press release, the BDC-S02 combo drive can now be purchased for less than €150 or £100 in Europe. While it is still somewhat more expensive than a plain DVD-RW drive, the price range of Blu-ray equipment is getting more and more appealing for the average consumer. Obviously the Blu-ray camp is now in a big hurry to push the format main stream, before any potential alternatives for high definition media delivery appear on the market - and we are not talking about optical disc formats, but download based solutions, solid state technology and so on. Read more »

Yet another proof that no copy protection is unbeatable, which again makes one wonder why do they put so much money and effort in developing them. Usually the protections get cracked and the one to beat the protection gets famous, like Jon Lech Johanssen aka ‘DVD Jon’, who craked the CSS protection used on DVDs. The story with BD+ is different, since this time the crackers have a pure commericial interest. Yes indeed, it is show-time once again for the Antiguan SlySoft, Inc., who make business by selling protection decyphering software for individuals. They have today sent out the following press-release about their new AnyDVD v6.4.0.0 software, which is able to bypass the BD+ protection with ease. Their press-release is interesting in many ways, as their CEO Giancarlo Bettini couldn’t resist the urge to touch the topic of HD DVD vs. Blu-ray format war. I am not sure what are his interests in making this statement, as it really makes no sense - AnyDVD may be a popular software, but it is certainly not a deciding factor on any market.

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BitBurners.com has always been an hosting and website platform services provider for interesting software projects. We are hosting the websites of the famous HC Encoder and QuEnc, both high quality and free MPEG encoders. Today we have expanded to whole new areas by adopting a mobile phone game developer Cahoona Games to BitBurners.com. They are an independent mobile game developer company, focusing on game developement on the Symbian Series 60 platform, found in the modern Nokia mobile phones. Their first released title Scorched City is an excellent remake of the classic Scorched Earth game. Scorched City comes with stunning photo realistic visuals, zoom effects, wireless multi-player mode over Bluetooth - be sure to check out this highly addictive game on your Nokia S60 v3 phone!

Toshiba made the announcement that they will ramp down the HD DVD format, so the so called war in between the HD DVD and Blu-ray is finally and officially over. Supporters of the HD DVD format are naturally disappointed, but in general this is good news for the consumers. Now nobody has to speculate which format to choose, and the whole industry, including vendors and content producers, can focus on Blu-ray. This should result in improved selection of movies and hardware on the market. They wasted quite a bit of time battling against, which has slowed down the adobtion of the high definition video, so obviously their next target is to push Blu-ray into mainstream format.

With a very convenient timing, the most complete and comprehensive  High Definition DVD FAQ (this does not refer to HD DVD, but high definition formats in general) has been updated by the author Xiao Fang. The latest edition contains a lot of updates regarding the end of the so called format war, plus other additions. Be sure to check it out - excellent reading!

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We said it some time ago: The format war is over and now according to a Reuters Toshiba is throwing in the towel. One has to wonder how much money and effort was wasted on this struggle, as from the beginning it looked very obvious that Blu-ray is the stronger contender. For some reason the biased media wanted to raise hype over the so called ‘format war’, bash Sony/Blu-ray and give unrealistic hope for the HD DVD format. I can’t count the number of times that I read articles saying that it is ‘Betamax vs. VHS all over again for Sony’.

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Premium optical drive vendor Plextor has released an interesting combo drive. Their new PX-300SA is a 16x speed DVD recorder which can also read Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs. The drive is a major technological break through, as it is first of it’s kind on the market, but it remains to be seen how much there is real demand for this combination. The HD DVD is most likely to be extinct, so it is questionable how much is the dual format support worth. Of course, if you are one of those that have already bought a Toshiba or Xbox HD DVD add-on and some titles, the new Plextor could be a nice choice for bringing your PC to the blue laser age and you also provide one with Blu-ray support if and when HD DVD starts fading away.

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Antiguan SlySoft, Inc. released updated versions of their products including Clone DVD v2.9.1.5. The changelog looks pretty good, including improved layer break handling. They have also a 20% discount coupon code available valid until 28th of January. Visit SlySoft for downloads, and more information.

Version 2.9.1.5: 2008 01 20
- New: Improved layer break handling
- Fix: “Clone 0″ error with some discs
- Fix: If a PGC contained multiple programs per chapter, parts of the PGC
were blanked.
- Fix: In rare situations Audio and Subtitle streams were not copied, if
“Enable auto-selection for removed streams” was enabled
- Some minor changes and improvements

Hot from the press! I just received information that VSO Software has just released a public release candidate of their upcoming ConvertXtoDVD software. If your license key is less than a year old, you are entitled for a free upgrade. I case you didn’t know, ConvertXtoDVD is THE best solution for converting and recording your video files into DVD-Rs. It is very simple to use, offers a nice selection of settings, the encoding process is fast and the video quality very good. New version 3 comes with improved menus, but also the encoding/conversion engine is even better than before. This is highly recommended software, so check out the release candidate version now!

Download now!

UPDATE 18-Jan-2008. More complete list of changes:

New features of ConvertXtoDVD 3:
- Advanced menu creation
- File merging
- Multi-Core processor support
- New improved engine
- Quality advisor wizard
- More supported formats

Just as we were finnished writing about the SlySoft discount offer, the good folks of VSO contacted us and said that they have also a -20% discount Christmas promo at their webshop. Discount applies to all of their great products, so this a good time to buy the excellent ConvertXtoDVD, or other quality products by VSO. Check out VSO website for details

SlySoft products will be subject of a significant price increase effective on 1.1.2008, but are now offering their products with old prices and 20% discount on all purchases during the holiday season. So now is an exceptional opportunity to grab their quality products cheap! Visit Slysoft website for the offer.

f you are entertaining the thought of purchasing one of our products then now is the right time to act because not only are the old prices still in effect, but you also profit from our 20%-off Christmas Promotion.

As a special promotion for Christmas we offer a 20% discount on all software products (except upgrades). To redeem the coupon just enter the

• coupon code: christmas

in the box ‘Coupon / Promotion Code’ at the bottom of the check-out form. Please note that this coupon is only valid until December, 31st 2007!