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is there a reason they can't run the line underground?

Cost. It's orders of magnitude more expensive. I heard an interview with the CEO of Sonic, which is rolling out symmetric gigabit fiber to the home out in California for like $40 or $50 per month. I don't remember the amount per mile it cost for pole-based installation versus buried, but it was a HUGE difference. Orders of magnitude. So right now they are ONLY rolling it out to places where they can use poles.

Dropped Comcast for Sonic the day Comcast removed their NetNeutrality pledge.

Sonic supports personal privacy and NetNeutrality.

Dropped Comcast for Sonic the day Comcast removed their NetNeutrality pledge.

Sonic supports personal privacy and NetNeutrality.

Dropped Comcast for Sonic the day Comcast removed their NetNeutrality pledge.

Sonic supports personal privacy and NetNeutrality.

I have never had a technical problem with Comcast service either, but I have a political problem with the company. Finally did something about it today and switched to Sonic.

Typing in a 16-character link and hitting enter, clicking on a 16-character link, or even just putting your cursor over a 16-character link, will crash Google's browser.

Gee, I typed in http://sonic.com and hit Enter, and it worked Just Fine.

Perhaps they meant to say "Typing in a particular 16-character link, clicking on a particular 16-character link, or even just putting your cursor over a particular 16-character link, will crash Google's browser."

Sonic announced this deal with your favourite company Macrovision last October: http://www.sonic.com/about/press/news/2006/10/secu reDVD.aspx

Movielink and Sonic Solutions also announced an alliance that would allow downloaded movies to be burned to DVD. Theirs also will use a DRM technology that claims to allow the DVDs to play in "standard DVD players," but will be a "protected format" so you can't copy them.

Given that pressed DVDs can't achieve this, and that CSS isn't possible on burned DVDs, I find this difficult to believe.

Xesdeeni

Of course there is. Popcorn.

For excellent DVD ripping use MacTheRipper.

For excellent ripping to divx, HandBrake.

It's a freakin' Mac, multimedia editing is its home territory.

It's still new (took a year), but they do have some industry support, such as Sonic MyDVD.

You're wrong, and so am I. The AC-3 encoder is in the deluxe version of the product, available for $70. http://www.sonic.com/products/mydvd/deluxe/default .asp

"Dolby Digital(R) encoding for 50% more video per disc"

Sonic MyDVD

I used to be an Avid editor but didn't have the budget or clients to afford one of those on my own. Based on some feedback from friends I decided to go with a a Matrox RT2500 and later upgraded to a Matrox RT.X100. The RTX100 is fantastic. It's basically a PCI card with a breakout box that has stereo audio in/out, and component and Y/C in/out. There's also two firewire ports on the back. It uses Adobe Premiere for its editor and installs a plugin which lets Premiere use the RTX100 for realtime effects. Basically anything you find in an online suite you'll find here as a realtime effect. Titling, wipes, ADOs, keying, colour correction, etc.

The RTX100 also comes with DVD burning software called ReelDVD. I've only used it twice so all I can tell you is that it works and has lots of features, none of which I've yet to really take advantage of.

I pretty much use that on a dedicated machine with Premiere 6.0, Photoshop, After Effects, and Sound Forge. I also use some open-source tools such as VirtualDub and DubMan. I haven't upgraded to Premiere Pro yet as the Matrox drivers are still in beta.

My only suggestion is that if you do get a RTX100, then buy one of the recommended systems to use it in. The Matrox forums are full of people who complain that the RXT100 doesn't work right or at all yet admit they don't have a compatible system. Especially watch out for via chipsets as the RTX100 won't work on those at all.

Don't forget Sonic's eDVD. A higher level standard but still, DVD, EVD, EDVD, and all the rest...

Gee, I believe you 're right!

Can you give more information about CSS - there was nothing on that page that even hinted at it.

Who's key do you use? (there are a fixed number) Is the CSS authoring implemented in software or hardware? Why do they not even mention CSS on the page?

It is not possible to write a CSS key to a General DVD-R (the regular type used with most DVD-R units such as the DVR-A04) since the area the key would be written in (an area similar to the pregroove on a CD-R) is not writable on a General DVD-R.

Authoring DVD-R discs, however, can have anything written to them, including CSS keys. This is accomplished using software such as Scenarist (proof of CSS here, under DVD-Video Specification Support).

However, this doesn't entirely stop piracy -- even though all DVD-R discs are all single-layer (so if you're mastering a dual-layer DVD, you have to write the final layout to tape to send to the mastering/replication facility), you can copy single-layer CSS-encrypted DVDs just fine with General blanks by decrypting the content first, then creating a new UDF 1.02 layout in software such as Nero and placing the freshly-decrypted files into the VIDEO_TS folder in the layout, then burning it. I know this works, because I've done it with a single-layer DVD I own as a proof-of-concept.

Theoretically you could duplicate a dual-layer DVD by decrypting it, then extracting the MPEG2 data from the VOB, recompressing it at a lower bitrate so the finished product will be less than 4400MB, then creating new VOBs and burning those. It would be a pig of a job, but theoretically quite possible. (Why bother, though? Just turn it into an SVCD or something similar.)

Can you give more information about CSS - there was nothing on that page that even hinted at it.

Who's key do you use? (there are a fixed number) Is the CSS authoring implemented in software or hardware? Why do they not even mention CSS on the page?

It is not possible to write a CSS key to a General DVD-R (the regular type used with most DVD-R units such as the DVR-A04) since the area the key would be written in (an area similar to the pregroove on a CD-R) is not writable on a General DVD-R.

Authoring DVD-R discs, however, can have anything written to them, including CSS keys. This is accomplished using software such as Scenarist (proof of CSS here, under DVD-Video Specification Support).

However, this doesn't entirely stop piracy -- even though all DVD-R discs are all single-layer (so if you're mastering a dual-layer DVD, you have to write the final layout to tape to send to the mastering/replication facility), you can copy single-layer CSS-encrypted DVDs just fine with General blanks by decrypting the content first, then creating a new UDF 1.02 layout in software such as Nero and placing the freshly-decrypted files into the VIDEO_TS folder in the layout, then burning it. I know this works, because I've done it with a single-layer DVD I own as a proof-of-concept.

Theoretically you could duplicate a dual-layer DVD by decrypting it, then extracting the MPEG2 data from the VOB, recompressing it at a lower bitrate so the finished product will be less than 4400MB, then creating new VOBs and burning those. It would be a pig of a job, but theoretically quite possible. (Why bother, though? Just turn it into an SVCD or something similar.)

Authoring drive != CSS protection

It's just a higher quality write... all I've seen, including the one you reference, write at 1x speed.

This is not correct.

It is not possible to write a CSS key to a General DVD-R (the regular type used with most DVD-R units such as the DVR-A04) since the area the key would be written in (an area similar to the pregroove on a CD-R) is not writable on a General DVD-R.

Authoring DVD-R discs, however, can have anything written to them, including CSS keys. This is accomplished using software such as Scenarist (proof of CSS here, under DVD-Video Specification Support).

Authoring drive != CSS protection

It's just a higher quality write... all I've seen, including the one you reference, write at 1x speed.

This is not correct.

It is not possible to write a CSS key to a General DVD-R (the regular type used with most DVD-R units such as the DVR-A04) since the area the key would be written in (an area similar to the pregroove on a CD-R) is not writable on a General DVD-R.

Authoring DVD-R discs, however, can have anything written to them, including CSS keys. This is accomplished using software such as Scenarist (proof of CSS here, under DVD-Video Specification Support).

The problem here isn't software (although the programs aren't exactly excellent either). The problem is hardware. Speaking as an audio engineer, i will make the bold statement that NO pro-level sound card is currently supported in linux. Some people may disagree, but let me see if i can cut some of them off at the pass; a sound blaster of ANY kind is not a real sound card. Nor is a gravis, a turtle beach, or any other of the gaming cards people usually mention. The turtle beach comes close in a few areas, but doesn't get out of the hobbiest arena, due mostly to it's SNR, i/o connectors, and low rate ADCs.

Don't misunderstand me, i'm not saying these cards are horrible or that they suck, but if you think you're gonna replace 2" tape with your audigy, think again.

The real pro-level sound systems like sonic solutions, protools, motu, and to a more semi-pro extent midiman and echo audio have absolutely no linux support. For now, studio level audio with linux is a total dead end. The most you can hope for now is to use it for audio processing or creation does not even involve a sound card, and that's a pretty limited use.

BeOS could have made it, in fact they were starting to, but then they made the brilliant decision to "change focus" from multimedia to networking, good call guys.

All is not lost however, because OSX will bring light. Mac is THE platform for pro audio, protools is native to it, as is sonic solutions. This means that before too long all the biggies will be offering drivers for OSX (midiman already does), and if they are smart enough to offer the source with them, then they'll be ported in short order to linux i'm sure.

Linux audio now? bah! Linux audio in three years? definately!