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 As planned, the French copyright commission (La commission copie privée) met last Monday to vote on new rates that would apply to USB keys, memory cards, and external hard drives in France. It’s been some time now that those who have the rights to music and audiovisual material have wanted a tax on these supports. In exchange, they have accepted a lowering of the tax already on blank DVDs. This is something that is of course refused by the electronics industry, but also consumer groups.
Some consumer representatives seemed, however, to have changed their opinion, because in exchange for lowering the rate on DVDs from 1.1 € to 1 € (previously at 1.59 €) we have the following compensation:
- 120 GB External HDD: 6.08 €
- 320 GB External HDD: 9.16 €
- 1 TB External HDD: 20 €
- 512 MB USB key: 0.15 €
- 1 GB USB key: 0.23 €
- 2 GB USB key: 0.36 €
- 16 GB USB key: 2 €
- 512 MB Memory card: 0.07 €
- 1 GB Memory card: 0.09 €
- 2 GB Memory card: 0.18 €
- 16 GB Memory card: 0.95 €
Just to remind you, according to music and audiovisual copyright holders, external hard drives are used 23.1% to copy music and 25.9% for “ animated images”, which seems to justify their claims. These new rates will be applied sometime before the end of summer.
If you don’t think this is fair, because, for example, you find it shocking that your original audio files bought on line (already with DRM making them difficult to copy) are taxed, there is still one solution. With a screwdriver you can make your own external hard drive with a separate casing and internal drive. |
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 On the one hand, Samsung feels bad about the bad press, notably with us, following the polemic surrounding its SyncMaster 226BW. On the other, they recognize that this is a record selling screen after the 913N from two years ago, and that sales in France are noticeably below the international average. In the end, they will take the occasion to complete this product range to finish off the competition, which lacks innovation for this successful screen size.
At the end of the month, they will first release a clone of the current 226BW, the 223BW, for less expensive but it won’t be as reactive. It will have a 5 ms panel, and theoretically no possibility of activating the overdrive to go to 2 ms. Its expected price is around 300 euros, compared to the recommended 370 of the 226BW. While we know that the latter is found for as low as 335 euros, this could mean some good things for those who might opt for this younger sibling. Samsung specifies that all production of the 223BW will be with Samsung panels.
The SyncMaster 226BW continues on its way with just one change. Samsung now assures us that supplies arriving in stores are all with Samsung panels. So, the A and C versions are finished.
At the end of July, the SyncMaster 2232WG will arrive. It uses the Samsung 2 ms panel of the 226BW, but is in a new bezel inspired by TV models from this manufacturer.
Finally, the SyncMaster 226CW will come to stores with its 2 ms and wide gamut tubes. Samsung’s hopes are not as great here as the difference in price between the base and extended gamut model may give consumers cold feet. |
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 Dell will finally not (yet) move on to the series 08 on its 24 inch. This successful screen will simply be updated (as was done with their 30 inch) and the CCFL backlighting is replaced with wide gamut. According to Dell, this allow them to cover 92% of the NTSC color space. More specifically, this means the color table will be more complete will be displayed better and colors won’t be as flat. Differences should be noticeable for image professionals as well as movie fans.
The other specifications don’t change, and Dell stays with the PVA (Samsung) screen with a reaction time of 6 ms, 1000:1 contrast ratio, and viewing angles–a bit exaggerated in our opinion-of 178°/178° in H/V.
Nevertheless, we do remember that when their 30 inch went from version 1 to HC, there was another evolution besides the color space; the homogeneity of colors on the panel noticeably improved. Let’s hope this is also the case here.
After this, we can ask if the replacement of the current 2407WFP will be immediate. Dell didn’t say anything here, but we are guessing, no, or at least for the near future. With the 30 inch, the standard and HC version coexisted for a while, and there was a significant difference in price. It’s possible that the same will happen with the 24 inch, especially now that it has recently gone into version 5. Would they have done this only for a few days?
For the moment, Dell does not wish to communicate anything else except what is found on its websites. Yesterday, they launched this screen in Japan for a price of 108,000 yens, or only 740 euros (the difference in TVA for France added). Before some of you become too excited, in the Land of the Rising Sun, the first version 2407WFP is at 65,800 yens or 450 euros. In France, it’s still officially at 981 euros. We don’t even want to convert this back into yen... |
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