Blu-ray players to "punish" users who hack their gear?
posted September 2nd 2005 11:14AM
Of course the looming next-gen optical format war about to go down between Blu-ray and HD-DVD might be kind of interesting if it weren't taking place, well, in your very livingroom. But with talks broken down and devices starting to crop up, it looks like the first blows will soon be felt—but aren't they supposed to be hitting one another and not the end user? Because this little bit in a Reuters piece this morning left us a little unsettled:
On top of that, consumers should expect punishment for tinkering with their Blu-ray players, as many have done with current DVD players, for instance to remove regional coding. The new, Internet-connected and secure players will report any "hack" and the device can be disabled remotely.
Are they talking about PVP-OPM techniques and rejected HDMI keys, or something else far more sinister? Because apparently "A hacked player is any player that is doing something it's not supposed to do," which open to a pretty fair amount of interpretation—most of which egregious.
Things started out with no copy protection. Kids at school used to trade copied games on tape and floppy disk (and it still may happen) this hasnt brought down the games industry. Up until a couple of years ago people were still selling copied CD compilations and Albums on tape!! people put up with the crapper quality even though a collection of copied blank, visually dull, hissy cassettes and jumpy CDs looks aethetically shite compared to a set of Vinyl Covers (people forget that the art on the cover is part of the entertainment, plus copied media doesnt hold its resale value). Companies think that adding several layers of copy protection will put off the hardware hacking community (It doesnt put people off hacking cable TV, and this is ALWAYS connected) it will more or less alienate the average consumer who just wants a couple of hours of entertainment not all the pissing about that some of us will put up with.
So these big companies want us to start changing format every couple of years just so we can be in "Awe" watching Super High Definition on our little CRT Telly boxes or 21" Monitors(not everyone can afford 42" plasma/HDTVs)HD broadcast coverage is not that widespread.
Over here in the UK Transmitted HDTV is virtually none existant. Japan and America have had it for years (over Ten in Japan). I would be stuck with a small selection of Region 2 Blu Ray Discs to watch or play on my PS3 because the region lockout will not allow me to watch or play imported disks, this could give them the oppertunity to push prices though the freakin roof, who knows what they will cost being a new medium, Xbox games were £45 (approx $90)when they first arrived.
You cant just plug in and play anymore. We pay for it and put up with this shite from companies like Sony with their PS3 looking like its going to cost shit loads more than Xbox 360 just for this Blu-Ray crap that I and lots of other people cant afford to get the full benefits from (well for now anyway).
blue ray is a great idea (for storage) let them build it (let the hackers/reverse engineers unite and destroy DRM)
Maybe we need agreements where you hand over money for (product) and it is a silent contract that is in your wallet saying that you own the rights to what ever you buy!
and they have excepted it buy taking your money for said product !
im boycotting blu ray, for now. ill lift my boycott when they come out w/ some hardware which will attach to ur blu ray player and emulate a signal from the blu ray company, allowing ur blu ray player to play NO MATTER WHAT
I'll be boycotting this one, so will my fortysomething parents. The whole thought of owning a player that is capable of turning itself off is just bad. That and a lot of older movies and shows look crappy anyway in the DVD format let alone high definition DVD. Like I really want to play to see how poor the old style quality is on shows like Full House and McGuyver. And do I really want to see movie stars zits? Regular DVD is fine for now, and, frankly, I'm tired of all this copy protection crap. The only people it hurts are the honest consumers. I used to download songs illegally on Kazaa, the second I went legal and stopped doing that buying music was a headache. Now I only buy from ITunes, what with all this copy protection crap they put on CD's, and I'v also decided my next computer will be a mac or have linux on it, because neither of those two platforms even really notice DRM. The next gen DVD camps really need to think of the people who buy this stuff. I'm not buying this crap! If you think this is bad you should see what they are trying to do to Windows Vista, it will have even more DRM on it, which is why I will use Windows no more.
It's all part of a wider movement to remove control from the general population. We now subscribe to more and more services instead of owning them. We own far less and rent far more than we ever did - and what a wonderful way to generate revenue it is.
Internet would prob be via wireless connection on power-up. What band? packet- cdma-gma-sirius-some other frequency?? Who knows- since Congress sold 'em all (before that they were YOURS btw) does it really matter? You wont have a choice.
Only hope is to bone out the player and feed the data stream to some waiting pic-stamp thingy.
But we are talking about gilding the lily, anyway.
Most DVD discs have extra menu bullshit etc that robs them of their full bit-rate potential. A top notch DVD is still quite good.
Whats needed is a conventional DVD player that performs MASSIVE interpolation on standard definition DVD images- which are already quite good- and really gives your HD set a workout. Regular DVDs will be around a long time. The dual(triple?)-format wars will make certain of that.
Because then the only motivation for buying a Blu Ray or any other nonstandard DVD would be for the feature set not so much the performance. And really, how many menu extras can you have?
Don`t buy Blu Ray, please!!!!!
Well we've seen lots of commentary showing that the public really does not like the idea of purchasing a product that the originating company can disable at a whim. So is this really a good idea for movie companies to invest in? Doesn't matter how many movies are made on Blue-Ray because of the copyright protection, if 0 people buy Blue-Ray discs and players, $0.00 is all they'll make.
On a less protected medium, there will always be people who will buy the product because it's user friendly and cheaper, so movie companies will still be making a modicum of profit on their movies, rather than none at all. Then there will of course be the ones who make pirated copies of it, but with the major marketplaces being the internet and companies like ebay and the like, with rules and restrictions against such things, it can easily be left to the ISP's and Web Hosters to keep such a thing from being profitable.
I definitely believe there is a majority who believe that singers and song-writers and actors and actresses have enough cash to spend on their mansions and fancy cars that they can afford for us to make a pirated copy of their CD/DVD to give to Uncle Bob.