Technologizer

Sony Getting the Antitrust Eye Over Optical Drives

Monday, October 26, 2009

It’s not quite clear why it is happening, but Sony disclosed Monday that its Optiarc division in the US is under investigation by the Justice Department for possible antitrust violations. Sony Optiarc is one of the larger manufacturers of optical drives, including DVD and Blu-ray. The DOJ is not the only government agency worldwide looking into [...]

DVD: The Short Goodbye?

Friday, October 9, 2009

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Over at Yahoo Tech, my friend Chris Null blogged about an interview the Motley Fool did with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings in which the DVD-by-mail tycoon says he thinks DVD has two years left as the primary delivery format for movies. That’s a little like hearing the president of McDonalds opining that burgers are on [...]

Kaleidescape Loses in DVD-Copying Battle, Too

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

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For years, the high-end consumer-electronics device known as Kaleidescape has provided good reason to wish you were filthy rich. Starting at around $8,000 but mostly going way, way up from there, the systems let you store DVDs to hard disks and browse and watch them from multiple TVs around your house. But the DVD-copying aspect–which [...]

VHS is Dead. Next: DVD. Then Blu-Ray.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

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Maybe I’m just not very observant, but I never notice old media formats going away until they’re…gone. One moment, the record stores down at my local malls still stocked vinyl. And then they didn’t. Audio cassettes? Same thing. And now the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Distribution Video Audio, the last major distributor of [...]

RealDVD Fails to Leave Limbo

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

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This just in: Judge Marilyn Patel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has ruled to extend the restraining order that prevents Real from selling its new DVD-copying software until another hearing can be scheduled. Bummer. More details when we have them…

RealDVD Now Available; Ten Free Copies for Technologizer Community Members

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

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[UPDATE: RealDVD is already the subject of legal wrangling--Real announced today that it's suing the Hollywood studios to protect the product against charges that it's illegal. Press release here.] RealNetworks is announcing that its RealDVD software is available for download and purchase today. It is, for the moment at least, unique: It’s the first software for [...]

A Real Review of RealDVD

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

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[NOTE: A court has ordered Real to stop distributing RealDVD for the time being--details here.] In one sense, there’s nothing the least bit new about software that can copy DVDs to a PC’s hard drive. Folks have been using applications such as DVDShrink and Handbrake to do the job for years–and the same people have moved [...]

Real DVDs Ripped to Your PC. Legally. Really?

Sunday, September 7, 2008

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Have you ever ripped a commercial DVD to your PC? If so, you’ve probably used a product like Handbrake whose legality is at best sketchy, since it breaks copy protection and therefore violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Chances of the copyright police breaking down your door and hauling you away are slim. But starting [...]