Sales of CDs Hold Steady in Germany – According to the German music industry trade group Bundesverband Musikindustrie, there was only a reduction of 3.25% in sales of CDs, DVDs, downloads and ringtones in 2008 compared to 2007. 222.9 million product were sold, making Germany second place in Europe behind the UK. CDs remained by far the largest revenue mainstay in the German music market, accounting for 85% of revenues. Music videos accounted for 8%. In other countries CD sales slumped drastically, but the switch from physical to digital downloads is progressing more slowly in Germany, and the attractiveness of the CD has been increased with lavish editions, well-done booklets and additional content such as video DVDs. Revenues for 2008 at specialist electronics stores increased by .5%. Four out of ten Germans buy music at least once a year according to BMI, and 4.3% of the population purchase more than nine music products a year.
Dolby Hi-Res Audio Technologies Set for China – Dolby Laboratories has announced that it is enabling and supporting Chinese consumer electontrics makers to develop Blu-ray disc products. Three digital entertainment companies in China have agreed to license Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus for future Blu-ray products. Nearly 70 home audio systems and 50 Blu-ray players from 30 worldwide companies already use one or both technologies.
Consumer Reports Covers Blu-ray Players – We’ve experienced poor results using Consumer Reports for both speakers and cars, but on a FYI basis, here’s their recent take on Blu-ray players: They recommend the $300 Panasonic DMP-BD35 and suggest that if you don’t have an HDTV, just get a standard DVD player, recommending the Pioneer DV-410V at $100. They also found Toshiba’s promoted up-conversion of standard DVDs to fall short of expectations (we can agree).
Libraries Offering Blu-ray Discs – Since Blu-ray has become more mainstream, some libraries are beginning to stock such titles. If yours doesn’t yet, lodge a request with them to do so. And don’t forget to make use of their stock of audiobooks on CDs and cassettes which most libraries have. Cassettes may be obsolete but if you still have them and a decent player (as little as $20 for a good Sony portable) they surpass any MP3 files.
WDTV Connects to Any TV – The new Western Digital WDTV ($110) connects to your standard or HDTV with HDMI at up to 1080p resolution and an optical audio output, and can play digital media transferred from any USB storage device with need of a streaming network device to get from your PC or HD to your TV. It even has two USB ports to let you keep two storage devices connected to the player simultaneously, and works with any hard drive. It has an included remote and displays contents in specific categories, but the menu is a bit slow.
