Another day, another format war rumor. Business Week has a lengthy writeup on the possibility of lone dual-format holdout Warner Brothers switching to Blu-ray exclusively, and how it could affect the outcome of the long-running feud between high-definition disc formats HD DVD and Blu-ray. The rumor gets its seed from vice-chairman of Lionsgate Michael Burns, who claims that Warner will be turning blue soon. With Warner on their side, the Blu-ray studios would hold a 70% market share for the DVD market. Of course, if Warner shifts red, then the studio market will again be split into two equal halves, and consumers are left to wait and see if one format can outsell, outspend, or outlast the other until only one format remains. The stakes are so high that top execs from both camps are banging down Warner's door with personal meetings -- and possibly even truckloads of cash -- to get Warner to turn to their side. One thing you can be sure of is that Warner is going to be keeping an extra close eye on the dual-format release of Harry Potter next week for guidance.

[Thanks, Michael P.]

At first glance, one may assume that being able to legally burn a DVD of a recent film download would be excellent progress in enabling consumers to better manage their media, but it comes as no surprise that the DVD Copy Control Association has laced the process in stipulations. Reportedly, the DVD CCA "hammered out an agreement with movie studios, electronics makers and computer makers and announced that it will license software to allow content to be burned onto one disc but not copied to others." Furthermore, the discs that you burn to will be "special" versions that have "preprinted codes in order to prevent copying." As if that wasn't enough, these unique DVDs will absolutely cost more due to royalties, users won't "be able to watch the downloaded version on a computer or portable video player," and many older DVD burners would have to be upgraded in order to use the process. Um, thanks?

[Thanks, Matt G.]

According to a report from Variety today, the Jobster and crew aren't stopping at iPhone price cuts. If you believe what the entertainment rag has to say about iTunes, the word on the street is that Apple is hoping to halve the cost of TV shows, dropping the $1.99 price to just $.99. Variety claims three separate sources have indicated that the Cupertino juggernaut has gone as far as telling networks and studios about the price drop, and that the plan was actually the cause of NBC's departure from the music / TV / movie download service. Apparently -- as with the Peacock network -- other providers are balking at the change, particularly when it comes to DVD boxed sets, as $.99 per-episode downloads could impact sales that many studios rely on. The paper goes on to claim that studios are interested in the idea of tiered pricing for older and newer shows (offering something like The Brady Bunch at a lower price than last week's episode of Lost), though Apple is resistant to the concept. Still, the report is largely hearsay at this point, so until we get some more solid facts, we're treating this as educated speculation.

[Thanks, Xavier]

We've seen a number of mixers incorporating iPods around here -- from the four-track Belkin TuneStudio to DJ models from Numark and iTRAX to gimmicky toys from MusicJam and others -- but none quite as polished as the upcoming eight-track iMultiMix 8 USB from Alesis, which combines 48-volt phantom power, 100 28-bit digital effects, and four high-gain preamps into a pretty snazzy-looking mini studio. Once your get your creations down pat, they can be easily transferred to your PC through iTunes, where they'll be converted into 16-bit / 44.1kHz or 48kHz recordings. Wired's Gadget Lab tells us to expect this sometime in the fall for around $500, so aspiring super producers take note.

[Via Gadget Lab]