The DEG (The Digital Entertainment Group) has elected its new board of directors and executive committee for the fiscal year starting 1 August 2009. Four of the five executive committee members are re-elected. The Group have also outlined its priorities for the new year: Strong support of Blu-ray Disc and sustainability and will expand its focus to include a wider variety of home entertainment platforms, including 3D and digital delivery.
DivX, a digital media company, today announced that it has released its flagship video software, DivX 7 for Windows, in Chinese for the China, Taiwan and Hong Kong markets. Now available at www.divx.com/zh-hans and www.divx.com zh-hant, the Simplified and Traditional Chinese language versions of DivX 7 for Windows allow Chinese consumers to create and play high-quality DivX(R) videos and DivX Plus HD video including high definition H.264/mkv files. DivX videos can be played on a range of DivX Certified(R) consumer electronics devices, including Blu-ray disc players, mobile phones, digital TVs or gaming consoles.
Microsoft annouced that they have adapted the Microsoft Mediaroom system to work with virtualization, making Mediaroom the first Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) platform to offer virtualization support. Mediaroom with virtualization can deliver up to a sixfold reduction in the number of physical servers required to support a full-featured IPTV service, significantly reducing hardware and management costs and speeding time to market for Mediaroom customers by up to three weeks.
The connected home has a new entrant that promises a new approach to communicating with all the appliances in your home – from your Microwave to your refrigerator, any thing with a computer inside it. The Fugoo team hope to start shipping the Fugoo device this summer, for a retail price of $99.
Western Digital has entered the Media Player market with their WDTV Media Player. We are seeing a steady stream of announcement from home systems manufactures; I was last month that Western Digital announced their new the My Book World Edition NAS drive for the Connected Home market.