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Media
Information > Media DVD Coverage 
Archive
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| Updated March 12, 2008 DVD
NEWS DIGEST
1 -
Why Did I Get Married? Lionsgate
The latest: best picture winner "No Country for Old Men," will come out March 11; original score winner "Atonement," March 18; best-actor winner "There Will Be Blood," April 8; and original screenplay winner "Juno," April 15. They join several films already in stores, including "The Bourne Ultimatum," which picked up three technical awards; "La Vie en Rose," winner of the best actress award for Marion Cotillard; and "Michael Clayton," surprise winner of the supporting actress award for Tilda Swinton.
The UK is at the forefront of the high definition (HD) revolution and is leading the way in Europe in next generation disk sales. According to DEG Europe and based on GfK tracking, the volume of next generation DVD's being sold in Europe increased 85 fold between 2006 and 2007 and is expected to rise exponentially into 2008. In terms of who's buying the most DVD's, tech savvy Brits are leading the HD revolution with 34% of total next generation DVD sales coming out of the UK. Yves Caillaud, senior vice president international, Warner Home Video, speaking for and on behalf of DEG Europe, said: "In 2007, we saw over 2.5 million units of high definition DVD's sold within Europe. To put this in context, when compared to the transfer from VHS to DVD in 1998, only 1,480,000 DVDs were sold in the first year. This clearly demonstrates the rapid consumer adoption of HD technologies." Hardware sales of next generation DVD players also look encouraging. According to GfK tracking, 11,100 units were sold in January 2007 which soared to 124,000 by December 2007, showing a sharp increase towards the end of the year. Mobile Computing: External DVD drives Not only is DVD not dead yet, but it’s cheap – about a third of the price in some instances. And it stores plenty of data for people who don't do anything uber-extravagant with their computers. You can get about 9GB on a double-layer DVD, which might not touch the 25GB you can get on a Blu-ray disc, but is still very decent. With new formats in the shops, there is of course the little matter of DVD nearing the end of its life as far as manufacturers are concerned. They reckon it'll be a ghost by 2012 – or possibly even as early as 2009. But when you consider that tape is still the cheapest storage option and CDs still haven’t been made redundant by DVDs – well it may be around a lot longer than they expect. If a portable drive is what you are after, then DVD is the thing to buy right now. Prices have come right down and – even if you can get your hands on a portable Blu-Ray drive – standard DVD makes better economic sense.
More than 2,000 illegal DVDs were seized at a factory believed to be operating illegally in South Oxhey. In excess of 2,000 DVDs, hard drives, printing templates, computers and recordable media, believed to be illegally manufactured and distributed, were seized. Two people - a 34-year-old woman and a 29-year-old man from South Oxhey - have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and offences against copyright infringement. An industry official said: "The sale of knock off DVDs generates profits for criminals as well as damaging local businesses."
Two people who sold fake DVDs and CDs from their home, ripping off the music and film industries by illegally duplicating discs were convicted at Durham Crown Court of conspiring to defraud the film and music industry. Police seized equipment for copying DVDs and CDs in raids at the couple's home. end
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