Month: September 2015

From world's first UHD Blu-ray player to the world's first streaming service with a download option, read this and other news stories for the week ending 6 September 2015

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Tech giants Microsoft, Google, Netflix and Amazon, along with browser maker Mozilla, Networking specialists Cisco and hardware kings Intel have joined forced to create a new consortium, the Alliance for Open Media, with the goal of creating royalty free next-generation media format. The group will focus on creating a truly royal-free next next generation video codec to go head-to-head with the industry accepted HEVC/H.265, but will also work on creating audio and image formats that are also royalty free.

The issue of royalty payments, particularly for video codecs, has become a much bigger problem since the introduction of HEVC/H.265. While the royalty situation for HEVC's predecessor, H.264, was already an issue, a dramatic increase in licensing costs, up to 16 times more than H.264, has prompted the need for a much cheaper alternative.

This spurred companies like Google (with their VP9/VP10 codec) to come up with their own royalty-free alternatives, only for these to also run into trouble with patent claims. 

Others like Mozilla (Daala) and Cisco (Thor) have opted to create new codecs from scratch with the sole intention of avoiding royalty and patent issues.

Now these companies, along with hardware giant Intel, software giant Microsoft and content delivery powerhouses in Netflix and Amazon, have joined forces to try and unify their work and to produce and promote media format that won't become a hindrance to innovation due to high royalty payments. And the goal is to not only produce a free codec, but also to offer improvements in terms of quality and efficiency compared to commercial solutions like HEVC. The companies hope to pool their technical knowledge, as well as existing IP and patent rights owned by these companies, to create the new codec and to offer it as a truly royalty free option.

The results and analysis for Blu-ray (and DVD) sales for the week ending 22nd August 2015 is in. Another quiet week, but at least this week's top selling Blu-ray was a new (Blu-ray exclusive) release: Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection.

You can read the rest of the stats and analysis here

MPAA partners, particular those tasked with handling digital data, are bound by security guidelines that bans certain types of clothing, calls for random searches and include detailed background checks into all employees and contractors.

Amazon, one of the partners, has published a web page detailing the MPAA's comprehensive security best practices guidelines, and it reveals how security obsessed the MPAA is when it comes to protecting their digital data.

The guidelines, most of which Amazon have implemented, include detailed background checks on all employees and third party contractors. It also forces employees to sign annual non-disclosure agreements.

Naturally, digital recording devices are banned from entering Amazon premises, and there are intrusive guidelines to ensure these devices are not sneaked in or out of the premises. These include random personal searches, pat downs, emptying of pockets and scanning with metal detectors, all in an effort to stop content thieves and leakers. Even food containers bought into the facility must be transparent, as to allow security guards to visually inspect them for suspected devices.

Even the worker's dress code is closely scrutinized by the MPAA, with a complete ban on baggy clothing, or clothing that can otherwise be used to conceal content carrying devices.

The security guards in charge of handling these procedures themselves are also subject to "active" monitoring.

And it goes without saying that employees with computer and Internet access are subject to further restrictions, which include comprehensive logging of all activities.

But despite these precautions, pre-release content from MPAA studios do still get leaked with great frequency, including almost all Oscar nominated moviesback at the start of the year.