Warner Brothers introduces a brilliant new service for 1996

Hey - do you have a DVD that you'd like to put on your computer?

Great news: Warner Brothers have invented a brilliant new service for you, that's easy, quick and cheap. Apart from cheap. And the easy bit. It's not exactly quick, either. Public Knowledge explains:

The head of Warner Home Entertainment Group thinks that an easy, safe way to convert movies you already own on DVD to other digital formats is to take your DVDs, find a store that will perform this service, drive to that store, find the clerk who knows how to perform the service, hope that the “DVD conversion machine” is not broken, stand there like a chump while the clerk “safely” converts your movie to a digital file that may only play on studio-approved devices, drive home, and hope everything worked out. Oh, and the good news is that you would only need to pay a reasonable (per-DVD?) price for this pleasure.

That's right, you'll have to go to a professional outlet to have your DVDs ripped. For a small fee, of course.

I think we must tip our hats to Warners, for coming up with a process to digitise a DVD that actually is more complex than obtaining the thing physically.

Movie companies sniff opportunity to rake in cash from Houston's corpse

You'll recall the cynical move of Sony Music, getting the news of Whitney's death and instantly hiking the prices of her records.

They weren't alone. It turns out Netflix had their rights to stream Houston films pulled, as the studios sensed a massive DVD payday.

Charming, eh?

Morrissey tells fans not to put their hands in their pockets

Morrissey's habit of criticising stuff released under his name is going to get him into trouble - surely he knows how much Morrissey hates even fair critcism?

His latest gripe is over the release of a DVD:

"The slapdash release of 'Morrissey Live At The Hollywood Bowl' is done by Warner without any consultation to me whatsoever, and is in breach of their terms as laid out by themselves in an agreement made for the film between Warner and my ex-manager.

"Being Warner, predictably the sleeve art is appalling. It is the work of cash-hounds, and I urge people NOT to buy it. I am not signed to Warner, and no royalties from this DVD will come to me. Please spend your money elsewhere. Thank you, MORRISSEY."

No royalties will come to him? Surely if that was the case, rather than issuing statements tutting at the choice of cover art, he should be getting on the phone and asking how come?

New format alert: Blu-Ray Audio

Although all attempts to try and interest the public in DVD-Audio came to nothing, that hasn't stopped Norway's 2L pushing ahead with Blu Ray Audio. They're releasing a classical album in the format, claiming a world first. And, we suspect, pretty much a last as well.