Chris Lanier reports that some Japanese hackers may have figured out a way to strip away the DRM protection key from Windows Media files, thus making them playable on any compatible WMV and WMA device. Chris writes, “The software has the file names of DrmDbg.exe and DRM2WMV. DrmDbg.exe is supposed to get the KID and the Seed from memory when a DRM-enabled file is being decrypted/played. That spits out a .key file and DRM2WMV is supposed to take that .key and unprotect the WMV. This would leave you with a WMV file that is entirely unprotected and playable in anything that supports WMV playback.” MORE »

Popularity: 20% [?]

Shelly Palmer, Chair of the Advanced Media Committee New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (whew!), is out with a television industry insider’s write up that initially examines the realistic threat to the television industry of MythTV (given Sunday’s front page article on the software in the New York Times), but then turns to examine the reasons why consumers want free TV in the first place. Initially Palmer refers to MythTV as a DIY TiVo but notes that the Times lumps it into “a genus of technologies dedicated to helping people steal pay-per-view and premium television.” MORE »

Popularity: 3% [?]

LIVEdigitally appears to be a new online digital magazine that “offers original content on living digitally. The content is focused on product news and announcements, independent and original product reviews and analysis, as well as commentary and opinion.” The article that caught my attention today was one entitled “Music Delivery Evolution in the Digital Age.” The article is a thoughtful write up on the current adversarial relationship between the music producer/distributor and the music consumer. MORE »

Popularity: 2% [?]

We received an interesting email after the broadcast of 24 on FOX. According to our reader Kesey: “I recorded 24 this evening on FOX-HD (Comcast, Chicago Area) and low and behold, I was unable to Pause, Rewind, or Fast Forward any of the show! I have not heard of this at all, but it seems as though they’ve found a way to restrict what a DVR can do. On the other hand, my TiVo, recorded the same show, on FOX’s non-HD channel and I was able to use all of the DVR functions.” This could be one of the first reports of the Broadcast Flag taking effect before July 1, 2005 (the official day the nuisance starts). Has anyone else had similar experiences while trying to record broadcast HD content? MORE »

Popularity: 4% [?]

PVRblog reports on the unveiling of TiVo’s developer friendly Home Media Engine (HME) SDK that will lead to an explosion of useful third party applications, similar to Media Center “Online Spotlight” channels, for TiVo Series 2 owners. MORE »

Popularity: 3% [?]

SkipJam Corp., a leading provider of home media networking solutions, announced today SkipJam iMedia wired and wireless touch panels and RF remote Controls which allow complete control of all SkipJam iMedia home multimedia and appliances through an integrated simple to use menu. The SkipJam iMedia controllers also let users send voice pages and messages to any room or device in the home. MORE »

Popularity: 3% [?]

Here’s another example of why blogs are incredible. Steve over at The Furrygoat Experience expressed to the world that movie studios should create their own RSS feeds for both theater and DVD releases as a promotional vehicle to link consumers to information and video trailers. Great initial idea… but others, after reading his post, suggested that the feeds should also contain video enclosures, or at best, link to torrents of the trailers themselves. Personally, I like the last idea because it empowers consumers to subscribe and automatically download trailers, via Podcasting tools, to their PC for later viewing. MORE »

Popularity: 9% [?]

Wow! Let me say it again. Wow! Album Art Fixer is one amazing piece of software. Despite the expected bugs here and there, this freeware (donations happily accepted via PayPal) utility is one of the most impressive pieces of code that I’ve seen in a number of years. 1. Microsoft should quickly buy this software and incorporate the technology into their Windows Media Player. 2. Wow! I mentioned yesterday that I’d be trying this software out this weekend and I am seriously impressed. MORE »

Popularity: 4% [?]

Verizon announced today that Verizon will use the Microsoft TV platform for the commercial rollout of Verizon’s FiOS TV service, planned for later this year. MORE »

Popularity: 3% [?]

SBC Communications Inc. today announced the lowest price ever for the fastest SBC Yahoo! DSL service available to consumers. MORE »

Popularity: 4% [?]