The fans have it: Star Trek is top Blu-ray

UPDATE ON ULTRAVIOLET - What does the industry really think?

It’s been a long time in the making, but the first UltraViolet titles have finally been launched. What do people think about its prospects for success - a revolution in home entertainment and digital delivery, or too little too late? George Cole asks the question.

The 11th of October 2011 could become one of the most significant dates for the home video market, ranking alongside the introduction of the video cassette recorder and the launch of the DVD player in terms of importance. On that day, Warner Bros released Horrible Bosses, the first video title to include UltraViolet functionality, a feature that could transform the way home videos are purchased, stored, distributed and watched.

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AUGMENTED REALITY AND MIXED REALITY - Offering new dimensions to TV

One of TV’s new dimensions is coming from the incorporation of augmented reality/mixed reality features which, as Michael Mascioni explains, promise to bring a higher level of interactivity and immersiveness to TV-related content. The application of augmented reality and mixed reality to such TV-related content is still fairly limited, but some embryonic efforts in this area give a sense of the potential impact of these technologies on TV programming.

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SPECIALTY PACKAGING - Still key for sales opportunities

The doom and gloom surrounding physical media continues, but Debbie Galante Block talks to the packaging people and learns that there are still opportunities at the top end of the range with a wide variety of special packaging products out in time for the holiday season.

Six thousand dollars for a Beach Boys special edition package! Who would ever have expected that in a time when physical goods, especially music CDs and DVDs, are said to be dwindling? “Despite the sag in retail sales, speciality packaging projects are coming up with some new alternative markets for packaging opportunities,” says Dyan Spigner, Vice President of Sales Home Entertainment, Shorewood Packaging. This trend is true for Europe as well as the US.

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MORE CONNECTED TO DIGITAL - Supplying customers - educating consumers

Cinram has long roots in physical media, but has carried out an extensive rebranding to reinforce itself as a player in the digital world. John Crosier, Senior Vice President of Digital Architecture and Delivery, talks digital to Elizabeth Toppin: the differences and similarities in relation to the physical and digital supply chains, how the company fits into both, and where the challenges are for digital delivery.

First of all, the name Cinram has historically been very firmly embedded in the physical media side. Is it a good fit? Is the move to digital offerings a necessity because of the way the industry is going, or is it a natural progression of the company’s overall strategy when it comes to content delivery?

It’s definitely a natural progression, and even some of the smaller companies that handle very specialized replication and distribution deals are now being tasked to get into the digital space. I think anybody who remains a physical-only service provider will really face challenges, and that provides a great opportunity for Cinram to offer our solutions.

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Copy protection and the unused magic bullet

Movie and video content providers are hurting from disc piracy, illegal downloading, file sharing and camcording in cinemas. There is now DRM technology, called Cinavia, which can kill this stone dead. But content providers are so far showing surprisingly little interest in using it. So why not use it, asks Barry Fox?

The story began around ten years ago when the music industry hoped to recapture the boom years of CD by launching a new super hi-fi disc format called DVD Audio. It sported a new DRM system that would stop copying by watermarking the audio.

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