I don’t often tout other companies products, and I rarely discuss products not related to the duplication field, but I came across a product recently called the BeatRoute which blew me away! It’s a Bluetooth enabled stereo speaker which connects to any Bluetooth enable smartphone or PC so that the listener can hear wireless crystal clear music or communications without using a docking station. I saw a demonstration in person and knew this was going to be a monster idea, especially for the holidays. I don’t work for the company, but I would highly recommend that you check out their website to learn more about this new gadget. Go to: store.beatroute.com/ or click on the below link. They have a pretty cool little animated video at the bottom of the below link – check it out and share with your friends – you’ll thank me later!

http://store.beatroute.com/Bluetooth-Speakers/c1/p1/Phoenix-Bluetooth-Stereo-Speaker-with-Microphone/product_info.html

I read an article today, “Blu-ray Replication Shortfall in Q4?”, by Chris Tribbey, which discussed the potential shortfall in the availability of replicated Blu-ray discs during the business shopping quarter of the year, Q4. In the article, Jim Bottoms, director and co-founder of Futuresource Consulting, was paraphrased as stating that within 2011, the North American Blu-ray Disc replication infrastructure likely will hit capacity. Bottoms said, “There were major capacity shortages in Q4 of 2010,” he said, pointing to data showing a 60% year-over-year increase in Blu-ray production in 2010. “People are talking about new investment, but nothing has been approved yet. It needs to happen soon for it to help Q4.”

Even the major replication studios echo the notion that the Blu-ray replication needs will continue to increase as stated by Cinram CEO Steve Brown, “Consumer adoption of Blu-ray has been fabulous domestically and internationally,” he said. “In 2010 Cinram had a substantial increase in capacity — a 25% jump from the previous year. We’re fully committed to the format and increasing our capacity in 2011.”

What this says to me is that the adoption of the Blu-ray format is increasing rapidly and the infrastructure to meet the demand may not be able to keep pace. Even though the major studios are always going to find a replication source to produce their products, smaller operations will most likely have to find an alternative Blu-ray disc production method. Most likely minimum quantities are going to increase making it impossible for the common company/person to utilize replication for their Blu-ray titles. Fortunately, Blu-ray duplication is just as reliable and accepted by Blu-ray players as replication, so there is an alternative. Those people who need reproduction of their Blu-ray content but do not have the volume or the funds to utilize replication, can easily adopt duplication as a reliable and actually more convenient alternative.

Every so often the Earth reminds us that ultimately we are but inhabitants on this planet and that we should not take anything for granted, especially our ability to control our environment. The Earthquakes that have taken place in Japan since Friday, March 11, 2011 have cause tremendous devastation in terms of loss of life, damage to property/infrastructure and commerce.

It is a tremendous tragedy that so many people lost their lives or lost loved ones from either the earthquake or the tsunami that followed. Then on top of that there’s the loss of personal property and livelihoods that will linger for who knows how long. But some may feel sad for the plight of people that live thousands of miles away from them and have no connection with. So they may not see how their lives will be affected.

However, based on multiple news feeds that have been coming in, show that there will be a bigger effect on our wallets in the coming days. Many of the high-end components for a majority of the technological gadgets that many of us use on a regular basis are still produced in Japan. Things for items like cell phones, cars, Blu-ray products, etc. are still manufactured in Japan and all industry is affected by the natural disasters and the subsequent human disasters that have taken place in its wake.

So, there’s no question that the shortages of these products will have an impact on the products made around the world and soon there will be price increases on many items that we have taken for granted as readily available. Even though it’s a foregone conclusion that most of the world’s CE products come from China or Taiwan, many of the key components still come from technological giants like Japan. So this event that has paralyzed a country, will spread to touch many other nations across the globe. The world is flat, as the saying goes, and the positive and negative effects are felt across every nation sooner or later.

It’s not hard to recognize that 3-D is becoming a major force in video content, just look at all of the movies being released in 3-D regardless of whether it’s necessary or not. Plus all of the TV manufactures are all rushing to put out 3-D capable TV sets. So it’s not a stretch to imagine 3-D being the preeminent format for home video and video games, but Nintendo is taking it a step further as they introduced their new 3DS, 3-D portable video game system that doesn’t require 3-D glasses.

Our C.E.O. Calvin Chang was visiting Japan when he noticed this large kiosk at the Tokyo JR Station (one of the main train stations in Tokyo). Being thoroughly impressed by the technology and strong 3-D graphics, Mr. Chang thought how the 3-D craze will ultimately be a boost for the duplication market. The things that crossed his mind were, the amount of capacity needed for feature length 3-D content is much too large for anything other than Blu-ray optical discs at this time. The playability between duplicated and replicated Blu-ray discs and is identical, so there is no drop off for duplication. The drop in pricing for Blu-ray related products, such as the writer drives, players, recordable media, etc. all are encouraging signs as we look toward the influx of purchases for this format.

We are encouraged by this major push toward multi-platform 3-D and we think it can only benefit the consumer and the reproduction industry.

Vinpower Digital’s Cronus series publishing solutions have been well received on the market but there’s still a segment of the customer base that prefers the natural water & scratch resistance as well as vibrant glossy appearance of thermal print quality.  That’s why we are proud to announce in a cooperative effort with TEAC, the Cronus series is now available with the TEAC P-55 color thermal printer. The TEAC P-55 thermal printer is the world’s only dye-sublimation thermal disc printer providing the world’s highest image quality and fastest print speeds in its product class. It is also the only full-color CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) thermal printer with “True Black”.    The Cronus series are available with 2 or 4 drives as CD/DVD only or with Blu-ray capability and comes with many advanced applications such as:

• Networking support (Client/Server)
• True Speed Asynchronous duplication for a faster run rate.
•  Job Queue: Supports the ability to queue multiple jobs for unattended operation.
•  Email notification when jobs are complete or the reporting of an error condition.
•  Powerful Label Design software
•  Quick Text Printing (Text Overlapping)
•  Serial # / Barcode Printing support
•  Job Report Generating
•  Multiple Job Queue Management Support
•  Web Based Administration
•  Adjustable Layouts for customized viewing
•  Multi-master read-in support: Users can read-in a stack of masters and create CDI or      ISO images.
• Hardware can be integrated within existing customer base software for greater implementation within the environment.
• PLUS SO MUCH MORE!

Vinpower Digital introduces the RipBox Optical Disc (CD, DVD, BD) copy and ripping stations based on the Cube series duplicators. The RipBox units are automated systems with a robotic transport arm that connects to a computer via USB. They can be operated through various software applications like Vinpower’s BPR 2000 Lite, a third party freeware (i.e. ImgBurn), or even through the users own proprietary operation software that can be adapted to controller the RipBox units through an SDK with Vinpower.

The RipBox devices are perfect for archival of important documents and information, ripping items from a disc onto a server or computer, information overflow such as copying video content from surveillance cameras before the HDD fills up and starts to overwrite itself, and so much more. Whether you use the RipBox frequently or only occasionally, it’s compact casing and hidden disc carriage allows the unit to be out of the way and readily available when needed.

Check out the RipBox today.

While speaking with a customer on the tech support line today, he described a really cool use for the Vinpower Digital Slim Micro HDD to 5 Duplicator. He was going to take it on a 10 day cruise with him. What a neat idea!

Of course traveling by cruise ship, unlike airplane travel, does not come with weight penalties. Bringing along this little 12 lb wonder is almost a no brainer! Folks now have hi-def video cameras, soon to have 3D capabilities, and 12+ mega pixel cameras, storage is beginning to be a problem. By bringing along this 5 Target Blu-ray burner, this customer has the ability to instantly have multiple copies of his precious memories backed up and ready to share with new friends.

I hope our customer thoroughly enjoys his cruise. Bon Voyage!

Except for all the rain here in Southern California over the past few weeks, it has been a thoroughly enjoyable holiday season. The Vinpower family has its eyes set on the coming year, with numerous product releases and updates. Come check out what’s happening at CES Las Vegas, January 6-9. It’s going to be exciting!

My own family decided to take off some extra time and enjoy the week before Christmas in the desert. We went to Palm Springs, turned off the alarm clock, and did nothing. The time was spent just enjoying being together. We brought along our digital camera, of course, and now have a disk full of memories. This now begs the question how to share those memories with family and friends. Previously when using film, sharing vacation pictures involved double prints or gathering everyone together for a slide show. (Remember those ordeals in a darkly light room?)  

With the advent of the digital age, we can post our images to the web. Being a bit more creative than this and wanting my own family to have lasting memories, I’ll put the images to music and create a video slide show on DVD. After creating the master, I place it in a multi-target Vinpower duplicator and instantly begin making copies. This allows us to share with distant friends and relatives, through the old fashion communication method of letter writing and the US mail. Since almost everyone has a DVD player hooked up to their TV, even our 90-year-old non-computer literate Abuelita can see our pictures, hear the music, and share in our adventures.

   

Kinect brings games and entertainment to life in new ways without using a controller. Imagine controlling movies and music by waving your hand or the sound of your voice. With Kinect, there is no need to imagine. Indusry experts are saying this is the hotest technology in gaming this holiday season. So with the hottest item being in Xbox gaming then you only have to wonder how long will it be until the Xbox users are going to need DVD+R DL discs. Do you have stock?

Have you ever thought it would be very cool to burn multiple copies of a data disc or Audio CD from your computer without having to feed blank discs into your burner? Well very soon, you will have this ability. Vinpower Digital is developing a new line of duplicators, based on the popular Cube series, called RipBox. These duplicators will connect to your computer and allow you to create, burn, and/or rip a stack of discs, with robotic automation.

An important step in the process of creating these new duplicators was to ensure that software was available to take full advantage of their capabilities. The development team working on ImgBurn, a powerful, lightweight freeware CD/DVD/Blu-ray burning application, has a history of working with other companies to add tools to its software. These tools enhance the functionality of ImgBurn so it can be utilized with the hardware of the other company, in this case Vinpower Digital. ImgBurn version 2.5.3.0 was released this week. This new version includes new settings that support the RipBox series of autoloaders. This new line of duplicators is slated for release some time in 2011. I saw a pre-production version of the RipBox in action and I want one!