Digital Life for the Technology Voice

SlySoft AnyDVD HD Gone Retail?

February 17, 2007 · 6 Comments

It was not to long ago that i posted news about a Beta version of AnyDVD HD and well today i get word that it has gone Retail. AnyDVD HD can be purchased for a price of $79.00 USD. Or why not just get the bundle package. Don’t forget to add the discount code of “valentine” that takes a whooping $ 5 – $20 bucks off the full price depending on what bundle you get.

Press Release is as follows:

AnyDVD beats HD-DVD and AACS

After a Beta test-phase of a mere ten days, conducted by a few chosen scene gurus, SlySoft announced the first official release of AnyDVD HD.

The change-log, although not so significant at first glance, abounds in understatement:

- New: added HD DVD and AACS support (registered users need an upgrade key for HD DVD & AACS support)
- New: added support for new versions of SONY’s Arccos protection to the option “Remove Protection based on unreadable Sectors”
- Added AnyDVD HD Ripper
- Fixed: Problem with multi-angle titles and Sony Arccos protection
- Some minor fixes and improvements
- Updated languages

At first look, the mention of “Added HD DVD and AACS Support” appears rather “so-so” but behind this annoucement exists a real revolution. For the first time, it is possible for the average user to get around the previously uncrackable AACS copy protection of the new HD-DVD generation with a few simple clicks of the mouse.

Officially, the film industry and the AACS consortium is, of course, not very happy about this development. However, behind closed doors, they are likely pleased to have learned from past experiences with the CD and DVD that the users are now finally able to make unlimited use of this new medium HD DVD, i.e to enjoy his “fair-use rights”. It is expected that a real “boom” will occur with HD-DVDs. All the same, AnyDVD contains several rather interesting features:

* watch movies over a digital display connection without HDCP-compliant graphics card and HDCP-compliant display.
* playback those discs on the PC with PowerDVD Ultra which otherwise would not play or would cause a software crash
* Removes user prohibitions. You can select language and subtitle tracks without going through the disc’s menu.
* Removes parental restrictions.
* Allows you to remove or skip Studio Logos and warning messages.
* With “magic file replacement ™” you can remaster any commercial movie disc using simple XML scripts.
* Includes a UDF 2.5 file ripper; no need to install 3rd party UDF 2.5 filesystem under Windows XP.

AnyDVD HD is indeed a “must have” utility for the serious home theater enthusiast using a media center or home-theater PC.

“The way AnyDVD HD addresses and solves the problem doesn’t have much in common with the discoveries of individual members of the OpenSource community in reading AACS keys from the USB bus”, says Peer van Heuen, one of SlySoft’s lead developers. He adds further, “As one can expect from SlySoft, our solution works fully automatic with all known titles while the so-called hacker tools require laborious reading out of memory or the USB bus. This is not to say that their efforts are completely fruitless; it’s just that ours need to be user-friendly. It’s just that simple.”

To add icing on the cake, Peer van Heuen takes particular joy in stating that SlySoft was ready with AnyDVD HD in an incredibly short period of time. He adds, “We could only begin our development some weeks ago and we are immensely proud to get this product out to the users so quickly. This speaks to the commitment to our users: get good and easy-to-use products out on the market fast!”

Tom Xiang, Marketing Director: “When we considered Blu-Ray, our strategy was simply to initially support HD-DVD and await further developments in the marketplace. Already during the beta phase we got many inquiries about Blu-Ray so we decided to go ahead and also provide support for this as soon as possible. Blu-Ray employs the same AACS process as HD-DVD. An implementation was really just a matter of form. A beta version is planned for availability this quarter.””

http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html

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Categories: Breaking News

Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive: Comes in Black

February 17, 2007 · 1 Comment

This is just a tad bit late but if you haven’t caught on to the news yet then your in for a treat. It seems that the Andy Pennell posted on his blog that he received something special. His team helped develop the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive and was rewarded with some Limited Edition Black HD DVD drives that were made especially for those of us who helped work on the product. It comes with a black remote control too. I say this is great news but unfortunatly its not for everyone. Besides isn’t HD DVD struggling over the big giant Sony and their PS3 BluRay player. And mind you were is our black Xbox 360 with HDMI and a larger Hard drive.

Comes in Black

A quote from Andy himself “Different teams at Microsoft give different things to team members as “Ship-It” awards, and how good they are depends on the coolness of the team and the coolness of the product. Fortunately our team is cool in both regards. My old team (Visual C#) once gave us empty cardboard boxes of the product as a Ship-It award. Not-very-cool-at-all. Unlike some other Microsoft-internal goodies, we are permitted to sell these, so if you want one you might be lucky and a co-worker could put one on eBay. Or not.” I say bribes are in order!

Thanks Xbox Scene for the heads up

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Categories: Breaking News · Gaming

MC360 1.01 Released

February 17, 2007 · Leave a Comment

I often find myself loving XBMC and well the current dashboard is great dont get me wrong but well you cant help but fall in love with this new skin. MC360 gives the appearance that your xbox is on steroids. Im happy to say that i will be using this as soon as possible. The 1.0 version of MC360, the Xbox 360 replica skin for Xbox Media Center on the original Xbox, has been released.

Blackbolts Release Notes: MC360 1.01 skin for Xbox Media Center

Its been a long time since MC360 was first thought of until its actual release today. The team has seen many members come and go, many clashes, many ideas and changes. Since December 29th 2005, MC360 has been in production and we are so glad to finally be able to release the 1.0 build. We will all be taking a little time away from skinning for a couple of weeks before we begin anything else, permitting theres no problems with release. So we would like to invite you all to download our latest offering and give it a try. You can use our comments function here on the site or go to the official forums and let us know what you think. You can also donate towards Team Blackbolt skins to say thanks, a donations button is located at the bottom of every page on the left. Thank you.

So, here is the 1.0 finished version of Media Center 360, a skin for Xbox Media Center. You will need the very latest version of XBMC to use this skin, we recommend the latest t3ch build or if you build your own, Rev 7841 or sooner. Visit our MC360 skins page found in the XBMC section of Skins or just click here. You can download the skin along with the Official T3Ch release, of which you can find more information by visiting T3CHs page, found in our links section. You can also download MC360 1.0 from our new Public SVN, details can be found on the MC360 1.0 page at the bottom.

A Direct Link to Download the Release Can be found here http://blackbolt.x-scene.com/?p=skins&cat=mc360

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Categories: Breaking News