Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs:

itunes-comics

Technology and the Future of the Comic Book
In all the comic-themed panels I attended at this year’s Comic Con, digital distribution was an unavoidable topic, brought up by audiences, creators or outside observers, no matter the specific theme of the talk.

Judge Denies Further Extensions, DivX/UMG To Be Resolved By Christmas
At one point, DivX may have been able to convince the judge to let them have wider access to the copyright records, but after failing to cite a single “widely distributed” modern act, he put an end to this discovery requirement.

US Telco TV Numbers Up
Apparently we like TV. A lot. Ongoing Nielsen studies show our viewing times continue to increase, and the latest quarterly earnings show that telecom operators are reaping some of the benefit from our love affair with TV.

IBC 2009 Preview
Beyond the technical issues, there’s also the challenge of integrating web-based video and traditional TV services in a workable business model. Part of this involves cross-platform apps that are both useful to a consumers and generate revenue for providers.

Plex Media Center Releases 0.8.2 – New Features & New Plugins
Plex, the popular Mac-based media center software (a fork of the XBMC HTPC software) had a new version released this weekend along with some nice, new plugins as well.

Silicondust releases Gold Version of HDHomeRun Tuner Software
The ever popular SiliconDust HDHomeRun dual network tuner received a software & firmware update to Gold which includes some nice improvements all around including those for SageTV, GBPVR, MediaPortal and even XBMC.