VobSub 2.14 supports all common color space formats and a property page to switch between them. The SMI support also won't crash when you have control code like characters in the subtitle file. A few days I reported about the MFC-CD maker. Now there's a DirectShow filter that permits you do read these 800MB files directly from the CD. It is not quite perfect yet (each format requires another filter, the whole file is being read to memory so if you actually try an 800MB file you may just run out of memory) but it may just be something to play around for the fearless people out there ;) Keep in mind that it's still under heavy development.

Today is the world intellectual property day. Read the message of the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) about this day. While that sounds all nice and peachy let me just point a few things out. Patent, trademarks and copyright laws are more than ever abused to strangle creativity and restrict user rights. One very good example of the former is the field of video and audio coding. This field is so heavily patented that it's very hard if not close to impossible to create patent free codecs. As you may have heard the MPEG-4 video licensing is so strict that most players are holding back products because they are not willing to pay the hefty fees the MPEG LA charges. And as an example of the latter let's take the DMCA which all but abolishes fair use rights. Where would the world be today if information and knowledge would not have been made freely available for everyone? What if we never had public schools and only the rich and powerful could afford to learn? But in the Internet age certain powers would like to turn back time and create a DRM and copyright law (or should I say "you may not copy law") sanctioned pay per use society.

mpeg2avi development is ongoing. There's a new version 0.16 out. OggMux 0.8.4 supports ChapterXtractor chapter input along with SmartRipper generated input. In order to get chaptering to work you need the Ogg DS Filters 0.9.9.1. The TFM Audio filter 1.0.7 supports movies with multiple audio tracks (but still crashes when you use the Morgan Stream Switcher).

Moonlight (formerly Elecard) has released a new filter called WinDivX decoder. It can be used to decode both DivX3 and DivX4. WinSubMux 0.1.0.1 is a Submux replacement with a nice GUI. It can be used to multiplex subtitles into an SVCD stream.

OggMux 0.8.3 makes chapter editing a little more comfortable and will work just fine with the upcoming Ogg DS filters v0.9.9.1 (not released yet I'm afraid). I've also added a GUI for toolame.

HeadAC3he 0.23 now has WAV/MP2 and MP3 input, an internal downmixer with DS2 (Surround 2) downmix capabilities, MP3 pre delay fix, an improved booster and more boosting functions, the new input formats have been fully integrated (even cutting works), the quick mode is no longer there for mp2 output, there's a 4ch preset and all three downmix presets are configurable via the ini file, global gain is used for WAV/MP2/MP3 input in 1 pass mode and the input gains are used by the downmixer and last but not least there's a bunch of fixes. The package also contains the latest SSE optimized DLLs (if you want SSE2 - P4 - DLLs or need MMX DLLs - old CPUs - please visit the official homepage).

Then there's an AacMachine guide.

Last but not least we were having some problems with the mail server which affected all public e-mail addresses. Hopefully everything is back up now and no mails got lost (if something bounced just send it again). I've also tried to send a thank you e-mail to the 81+49 (Kagi and Paypal respectively) who have donated since the donation program has started, but unfortunately every mail server I tried kept rejecting the recipient list. So let me just say it here: Thank you all very much! I've started sending out personalized thank you messages a while back but there's a lot of people who've donated and never got one. My apologies for that.

The TFM Audio Filter 1.0.6 uses the same routines as WavBooster and a redesigned interface. ChapterXtractor 0.96 has a new %ff preset for DVD authoring tools that want framenumbers rather than 1/100 seconds, %C and \n support in presets (for the Ogg Media Multiplexer chapter format) and header support. OggMux 0.8.2 adds chapter support. Well, sort of. Currently the playback filter does not support this information but an upcoming version will. The import list button can be used to get chapter data from SmartRipper generated info.txt file.

Also, I've had some problems with my mail server for the past 24h so if you mailed something and it's not yet online or you haven't received any answer yet, don't worry, old mails are still coming in and it seems that the server is working properly again now.

DVD2SVCD 1.8.0b1 has an extended IMDB interaction, it's possible to use the 16:9 DAR flag in the video encoder, there's a preview that will show you the effect of filtering and resizing before encoding, the field order should be automatically determined, incomplete subtitles will be discarded, it's possible to not convert the audio, there's a rip only function that will not only rip but create a DVD2SVCD batch file that can be run (so you can rip multiple titles then launch the batch file to encode all your ripped movies), all TMPG versions are supported now, permanent subtitles can be resized and there's a couple of bugfixes.. VobSub 2.13 should fix all reported bugs since version 2.10. VirtualDub 1.4.10 supports B-frames in DivX5.01 (won't work in capture mode), fixes the incompatibility with VideoLive files, fixes a crash when producing large files from Avisynth, a couple of capture related enhancements and bugfixes. The HeadAC3he package has also been updated another time. It contains the latest CVS code and fixes the channel coupling issues.

ZDNet has an article on the CDBTPA and the opposition it is facing. Look like we're on the right track but we cannot get enough people to do something against a law that turns a large part of the US population into criminals. Visit DigitalConsumer.org to find out what you can do against the CDBTPA. Microsoft has announced to incorporate direct DVD+RW burning support into Windows in the future. It seems that the younger format is getting more and more supporters.

DivX5.01 bugreport: I still have the problem reported in my codec comparison and when you use the brightness/contrast/saturation slider you'll get a vertical line about half a cm thick on the right side of the movie.

RadLight subtitle studio 2r2 has an option to select a character set and some major bugfixes. BeSweet 1.3b9 supports PostGain for AC3 and WAV inputs, and MP3 and Vorbis output, has a new DRC algorithm, support for daily libvorbis.dll compiles and all reported bugs have been fixed.

It's been a long time since the last news-less day but there just wasn't anything new yesterday. Okay, I was going crazy rewiring every phone outlet in the apartment and frantically trying to get the ADSL output from the splitter up to my room and it took some pretty hairy improvised connectors (thanks dad) to finally get it working. And now it turns out that the DSL provider has accepted too many new customers and can only deliver full upload speed, and download speed is still the same as on my cable (where it should be twice as fast). Oh well.. that's life.

On the bright side Nic and me have been working on an updated XviD guide, that features every gadget that has recently been added to the codec (starting with modulated quantizers, interlacing, alt cc, hinted mv...). and on the software side I have DVD2AVI 1.86 that has 2 pass support, cropping and resizing as in Ogo's DVD2AVI version (1.82), more options in the MP3 encoding dialogue, MP3 muxing (the author suggests so still use VirtualDub/Nandub as the interleaving settings are not properly working yet), DTS tracks can be extracted (but not converted in any known working software), P4 iDCT by DimitryR has been added, audio normalization is back and last but not least there are some bugfixes. BeSweet GUI 0.6b39 enables post gain for Vorbis output. Last but not least I've added the latest vorbis.dll to the HeadAC3he package.

I almost missed that one: DivXNetworks has issued a press release. They'll be creating a variety of DivX compatible hardware devices in cooperation with Digital Corporation. Among the list of hardware devices is a DivX-enabled DVD player.

Lots of new today: DivX5.01 was just released. It adds an option to make IVTC work with content that has the field order reversed, the psychovisual model has been improved, one pass bitrate accuracy should be better, the IVTC mode has been improved, and a lot of bugs have been fixed. Here are the most important ones: VDub disappearing after the first pass, crop&resize artifacts, GMC artifacts on top of the picture, P4 crash when using basic deinterlacing, data partitioning causing artifacts when being used with GMC and or data partitioning, pink and purple artifacts using resolutions not divisible by 16 (x8 and x4 should be possible now though it's still strongly suggested that you use x16). The included DivX Player 2.0 alpha3 has the DivX decoder integrated, should support VBR MP3 tracks, has brightness/contrast/saturation controls, fixed a FourCC code handling issue that could cause videos not to be played and the stability has been improved. For a list of all changes please read the changelog. And now: DivX5.01 regular edition and DivX5 Pro GAIN edition. Registered users can upgrade free of charge. I'm afraid my suggestions to make DivX3 decoding optional and to offer codec only installers for both editions have gone unheard.

Not a lot of news today. I've made a couple of small fixes in various guides, nothing major. There will be at least one new guide shortly though.

Also, thanks to all the input I got on lftp, I've had it up and running for 3 days now, and the server -> server synching has been working for a while so I won't be needing any help in that department anymore.

VobSub 2.12 fixes wrong aspect ratios when using the extend to option. Compatibility to several media players should be improved. However, Gabest told me that he still doesn't consider this release as being stable. Therefore I would suggest that you only get if you've already upgraded to the 2.11. If you still have the 2.09 release keep it until further notice. XviD has also gotten a new motion search engine, interlacing support and support for motion vector hintfiles (as DivX5). I've given the new build a quick spin and it was faster than the build I used for my codec comparison, however I couldn't use modulated quantizers (because they require that you use H.263 quantizers in the first pass and then change it to modulated in the 2nd pass and using mv hintfiles that is not possible).

There's also been some work ongoing regarding the new navigation menus. There are two options in the work now, you can find both on the forum. The goal is to have cross browser compatibility including IE5 and above, Netscape 6, Mozilla and Opera 6. Comments are welcome. I

It is done: The new Codec comparison is complete. Now featuring DivX5.01, XviD 3/27, SBC and for the first time: VP4. And I've noted that I send more and more people off to do IVTC using Decomb but there's no guide for that filter anywhere on my site. So I wrote a guide explaining all the options of Decomb. I've also integrated it into all guides using GKnot.

And I'd like to bring the Vorbis hardware support petition to your attention again. I think that Vorbis is a great audio format and having hardware support certainly wouldn't hurt. In fact, the Vorbis developers already have hardware implementations ready but they need somebody to build these devices. And in the progress they would also make some money which I think they deserve for all their (unpaid) coding efforts.

And while we're at the subject I would like to thank every reader who has donated some money to this site since I started the donation programs. All your contributions are appreciated a lot and I apologize for not having sent a personal thank you message to each and everyone of you.

VobSub 2.11 has an advanced DVobSub renderer with a new layout for the property page, remote controller support, handles ogm subtitles and unrar.dll is updated to version 3.xx of Winrar. The Subresynch tool has a reorganized user interface, the window is resizeable, there are more input and output formats, text and styles can be edited and there's a preview for textual subs and advanced synching abilities via two new waypoint types. The submux tool has the input type changed to ssa and still can't mux VBR MP3s and there's a new TextSub plugin for subbing with textual subtitles. This plugin is VirtualDub and Avisynth compatible and the VirtualDub version will auto-load as DVobSub does. OggMux 0.8.1 has filesplitting abilities (sadly not keyframe accurate) and some small code cleanups.

And I'm aware that some guides need updating but I've been busy working on a big project once again. Stay tuned, you won't be disappointed.

Does anybody know if there's a windows binary of lftp? I could use it. Every local -> remote synching tool I've tried so far has let me down, but lftp has never let me down doing the server -> server synching so if I can get a windows binary all my synching problems would be solved.

The latest pulldown.exe will fix asynch subtitles when using it for DVD authoring purposes. Apparently the video would needs drop_flame_flags so this new version sets these flags which ensures synch subtitles using both hybrid and progressive MPEG2 streams. This release also adds the possibility to change the aspect ratio flag.

About the new navigation: keep the feedback coming. But if it's about not working in Netscape, Opera or Mozilla don't bother to contact us, we're aware of the problem and will present a cross browser compatible version shortly.

The Ogg DS Filters v0.9.9.0 allows you to set a preferred output mode (IEEE float mode caused a lot of problems on W9x and ME, so the default on these OS is int16 PCM), the IMediaSeeking Interface supports TIME_FORMAT_BYTE (necessary for Koepi's OggMux tool) and the encoder accepts any number of channels. In the future we'll get channel mapping in the decoder, a downmix filter, chapter selection in WMP7/8 and chaptering.

Also, I've been working on a new kind of site navigation. It's not finished yet as I'm still thinking about which categories to include and which not, but here's a preview. Some feedback on the general idea would be appreciated (preferably via the forum or the IRC channel).

Last year on this day I had Nandub for you. Today I'm afraid I don't have anything quite so exciting but there's no funny business here either. XMpeg 4.5 has been released, and without a changelog. DVD Decrypter 3.0.0.17 contains completely rewritten ISO file splitting code allowing you to select how big a file should be, automatic program update checking has been added (deactivate it in the settings), the settings form has been reorganized, some ISO mode related bugs have been fixed and drive letters have been added to the source /destination drive selection.