On Sun, 11 May 2008 18:12:08 -0700 Bill's News <billsnews@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
| I wouldn't argue that user control blocks (or whatever they're
| called) are, or are not, part of DRM, Disney, and/or Blu-Ray.
| However, they are also part of DVDs. Also, I don't believe,
| correct me if I'm wrong, that Disney is presently any worse or
| better than any other studio in employing user control blocks.
| I can't really think of anything different - restrictionwise -
| to distinguish Blu-Ray discs from DVD discs, except that the
| encryption is supposedly tighter, despite its having been broken
| in just a few days after the emergence of recorded media.
The user controls are essentially Java code that can choose to intercept
the request for any standard button. In theory, a DVD maker could make
additional buttons that forcibly do their functions, anyway. That may
cause some confusion to the Java code from the DVD when that happens.
There's a lot one could do on a DVD (and supposedly also a BR-DVD) when
literally writing their own Java code. I've heard that some hacker even
figured out how to update the player's region code from his own Java on
his own DVD, for a certain model of player. So he just sticks in a DVD
labeled "make me into a region 2 player", then puts in his region 2 DVD
to be played.
| That Bogart/Bergman rip-off of anti-piracy commercial takes the
| cake for user abuse - and that was on a DVD rental.
They will abuse as much as they can get away with. If they think it makes
them more profit to do so, even with the loss of a few customers figired
in, they will do so.
| It seems that you haven't come up with anything new to complain
| about! The DVD market did not wane due to attempted DRM and
| unskippable warnings, neither will the Blu-Ray market. If it
| doesn't affect playback, why would anyone care?
It's only a slight annoyance to me. Like I mentioned to the OP,
I go do something else while the warnings and promotions play.
They have not (yet) figured out how to make sure people actually watch.
| I'd probably agree with Iger's attributed statement that market
| penetration is shallow for Blu-Ray players (probably not
| considering PS3s), and with the OP's declaration that prices of
| players and media are a cause. However, these are still the
| early days of Blu media and there is no doubt that changes will
| happen (thus spake Solomon).
DVD even looks better on newer sets, especially with HDMI, even if there
is
no upconversion. With upconversion, DVD closes the gap a bit more.
What I think will happen is that BR-DVD won't grow as fast as DVD did,
to replace the predecessor format. Basically, DVD took off rather fast
and easily replaced VHS within a few years, especially when recordable
DVD came out. That was because of a significant improvement in quality.
BR has an improvement in quality, too. But unlike DVD, not everyone can
actually see that improvement. As more and more people get HDTVs, then
they will see BR as an improvement.
The risk to BR is that with this slower growth rate, it is more vulnerable
to something else coming along in the market:
1. A 4th generation video disc format that beats BR. But it will either
have to be ultra-definition and fast the very same growth issue as BR
does now, or merely extend the time that can be recorded. Neither of
these are likely to make this a very viable option.
2. Online content delivery. This faces the obstacle that most people do
not yet have the broadband capacity to make this practical. A movie
in HD might take 10 to 40 GB of transfer. Comcast is mumbling about
250 GB per month limits. So this is not so much of a threat to BR
until the USA catches up to many other countries in broadband
capacity.
3. Movies on demand. This is similar to online delivery, but is done via
the television programming provider (cable for now, but I am sure DBS
will catch up soon).
4. Piracy. Who knows how much this will grow or shrink in the future.
This is always going to be hard to beat since protecting content that
people are supposed to see is so much harder than protecting content
that people are NOT supposed to see (e.g. classified documents at your
favorite 3 letter agency).
| Side note:
| It seems to me that, in the recent month or two - others chime
| in if I'm wrong here - some Blu-Ray discs I've played get to the
| main menu much more quickly, immediately following the logo.
| And some skip the menu entirely, leaving it up to me to invoke
| it from the remote. I can not FF through the $250,000 and/or 5
| year warning preceding the movie, but that's it - then the
| movie. Oh, there are still those BD discs that also provide
| additional inane legalese in a variety of languages and others
| which still play commercials before the menu, but I may be
| favoring the few studios which get down to the business of
| playing the movie most quickly - without even paying attention
| to which studio(s) that may be. I think one of these nicer
| discs was from Universal?
I've been seeing a number of discs that no longer have an FBI warning.
Maybe
the laws are strong enough now that they feel they don't need to make sure
people are notified about it; everyone should know by now. That, and it
is
harder to copy (many DVD recorders will refuse to record from a playback
of
another copy protected DVD).
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|
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