distribution
by PVC Staff
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Blu-ray Disc for Mac is Here
Finally, something to fill my empty drive bay on my Mac Pro.
MCE announces a new installable Blu-ray drive that fits nicely into the Mac Pro and Power Mac bays. According to the release, it doesn’t even require new drivers. Install and go.
The MCE Technologies Blu-ray Internal Recordable Drive for Apple Mac Pro and Power Mac is completely pre-configured for easy user installation. In addition to writing to 25GB single-layer and 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray discs, the MCE Technologies Blu-ray Internal Recordable Drive is compatible with all DVD and CD recordable media including DVD±R/RW + Dual/Double Layer, DVD-RAM, and CD-R and CD-RW. The MCE Technologies Blu-ray Internal Recordable Drive includes a 25GB Blu-ray (BD-RE) rewritable disc for instant storage right out of the box.
I may be making a purchase soon.... You can learn more here: MCE Blu-ray
more »Distribution • Hardware • (1) Comments • Most recent comments by: Nathan Beaman, • Permalink
Friday, June 27, 2008
Dymo Discpainter, Part Deux
Wherein I use the Discpainter to print 70 DVDs, with reasonable results.
more »Business • Distribution • (4) Comments • Most recent comments by: Art Adams, RC Fisher, stephen v2, George Kroonder, • Permalink
Monday, June 23, 2008
Mainstream Media’s new correspondent: YouTube
YouTube as the new AP Wire Service. Except nobody gets paid.
I’m still working out how I feel about this, so feel free to chime in with your own comments.
This past weekend, drag racer Scott Kalitta died in an accident while qualifying for the NHRA SuperNationals. The event was televised by ESPN.
I first learned about the tragedy while browsing the web site for the Los Angeles Times newspaper. In the initial version of the story, they didn’t have photos, but they did have a video of the accident.
It turns out that the video was an embedded clip from YouTube.
The interesting implication of this is that a news gathering source no longer needs to have staff on site, trade the story with a partner, or buy it from another news service; they can just link to a free service someone else has created.
Distribution • Interactive • (0) Comments • • Permalink
Friday, June 20, 2008
AFI Digital Content Lab Sessions
A couple of interactive TV sessions at upcoming conferences.
We occasionally post mention of what’s happening at the American Film Institute’s Digital Content Lab (AFI DCL for short), as it’s perhaps the best incubator around right now for interactive television. Here’s a couple of sessions they have coming up that are part of other conferences (the first with a registration discount):
MediaXchange
June 25-27, Los Angeles, CA
Exhibition Session June 26: New Technologies Impacting Drama Creation
Professionals from around the globe congregate in Los Angeles to address new models for scripted drama and for an exciting insight into the fast-evolving future of a more global TV drama industry. AFI Discount Resistration Code: EDU814 (3-day) or AFIEDU814 (1-day).
LA TV Festival Digital Day
July 30-August 1, 2008, Hollywood, CA
DCL Session, July 30: Steal These Ideas
Join project participants and mentors as they share lessons learned in the Digital Content Lab. The innovations and ideas developed in the lab are for the benefit of the entire television community, so come, learn and steal an idea or two!
Distribution • Interactive • (0) Comments • • Permalink
Saturday, June 14, 2008
A Retro View of the Future
We unearth a time capsule and see how predictions for digital television have panned out so far.
Back in the early 90s, I wrote a column on interactive media for Audio/Video Interiors magazine. It was an odd fit; I was writing highly technical, philosophical think pieces, while the magazine was aimed at the most blatant forms of consumerism and instant gratification – but the editor gave me free rein, and it was a fun romp.
I’ve had reason to go clean out my archives recently, and it’s been quite a laugh to read the predictions of what the “future” of television and video would supposedly look like. To give you an idea of the landscape at the time, DVDs were just being developed, HD was but a promise, and the main way of gathering information was to attend lots of conferences and trade shows – for example, it was considered odd that I also had started to use chat rooms on sites such as The Well as part of my research.
One set of predictions I wrote about were made by noted futurist Nicolas Negroponte (co-founder of the MIT Media Lab, founder of the One Laptop Per Child project, and author of Being Digital) on the implications of television going digital. Let’s have some fun and see how many came true:
Distribution • (2) Comments • Most recent comments by: Chris Meyer, Joel Smith, • Permalink
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Cable Salaries
Raise your hand if you’re in the Cable industry, have a show on Cable TV, work on a show that airs on Cable, or even if you just subscribe to Cable.
Want to know why you don’t get paid what you should be paid? Why your documentary cost more to produce than you’re earning from airing on Discovery? Why your Cable bill is so much?
According to MultiChannel News:
With the consolidation of its ownership into one public company expected by the end of the third quarter, Discovery Holding, which includes cable network powerhouse Discovery Communications, filed its first proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing among other tidbits that founder and chairman John Hendricks received nearly $58 million in compensation last year. I am so in the wrong vocation.
via [MultiChannel News]
more »Distribution • (1) Comments • Most recent comments by: jeffyjones, • Permalink

