Damed

Sounds like Sony has been talking to Micro$oft.

http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews...10_131820.html


There is NO way I'd buy a Blu-Ray player if this came into effect. What about people without internet access?

Damed

I know there will be hacks to "fix" this problem, but the gall of the manufacturers to force something like this on the public is incredible. Apparently HD-DVD is considering something along the same lines, but has yet to release details.

dx23

Yeah, this is going to help people dump their DVDs for a new format. WTF?!!!!

rw2516

Will never happen. This would prevent being able to play a disc in two different players you own. Also would prevent the sell or trade of used dvds. Once a dvd is played it could only be played in that player. Never happen.

speedy1961

Absolutely correct Sir!

Anomaly

If this happens, I'll be sticking with basic DVD, thank you very much.

Michael Corvin

Who comes up with these ideas? So a format war isn't enough to make the next generation players D.O.A. they have to do this? Wow. All but guaranteeing a failed format.

darkside

If all the stuff in that article turns out to be true I definitely will pass on any HD-DVD format. No HD through component out is bad enough, but all this DRM is bullcrap and only punishes honest consumers as most DRM does.

The fact they can just up and change the DRM at will causing my player to no longer work with new Blu-Ray discs is crazy. Who is going to have to pay for my player to be upgraded everytime their DRM is cracked? I'm betting I will have to.
I also don't want my player in constant communication with the Mother Ship and I definitely refuse to have my discs tied to any one player if that turns out to be true.

I have an HD-TV and have watched plenty of programming in HD. The improved picture quality is not in any way worth putting up with all this crazy DRM if it turns out to be true. I'll stick with 480P thank you.

DthRdrX

I'm not so sure this is accurate at all. There seems to be 100 different stories on how everything regarding the copyright features will work and no official reports of any of it.

From what I have read on AVS the outside connections are only needed for copying discs, with a fee attached. It's already a given that any format that requires a phone line to work is DOA. These companies aren't morons.

Johnny Zhivago

> "This controversial technology would require that disc players maintain permanent connections to content providers via the Internet"

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Good luck with that!

Iron_Giant

100% agreed!

Don't even waste a minute thinking this will happen.

Duality

The studios will *never* give the public perfect HD copies of their movies. To believe otherwise is silly. Furthermore, I'm beginning to suspect that the studios don't really want HD. They've realized that any HD disc will eventually be hacked and they will lose money - can't have that! Most likely they now actually prefer SD DVD for another ten years minimum.

Again, think about it: The studios are going to give us super high quality (HD/Blu-Ray) copies of their movies. I don't think so.

Class316

Yes this will definitely be fixed the instant it’s released if not before.

For reasons like this and many others, studios deserve no respect. And I’m supposed to think it’s wrong to pirate? LOL!

bboisvert

I'm sure that all of the studios would prefer to stick with the existing SD technology for decades if they could. Unfortunately, once the market is saturated with DVDs, sales start to flatline. (This has already begun to happen.)

Once studios release all of their major titles on DVD (we're basically there now), they are going to need to find other revenue streams. Right now, that's TV on DVD. But that isn't going to last forever.

Ultimately, money talks. If studios realize that the only way to increase revenue is to provide HD content, they'll fully support it. We saw this same attitude when DVD was first launched -- many studios were nervous about releasing such "pristine" copies of their films to the public. Obviously, that worked out beyond their wildest dreams. I imagine that the transition to HD will be similar, assuming that all of this format war/copy protection bullshit gets sorted out so the public actually starts buying.

Mike Lowrey

Expounding on that line of logic, one could easily conclude that if HD content is readily available to the home consumer, movie ticket sales would dry up even faster than they are now with SD DVD.

If anything is killing the box office it's the rise of HT systems. When we can now get 480p or up-converted resolutions with SD DVD and theater quality sound everytime we play a movie (provided you have good equipment) without having to play Russian Roulette when picking out a theater and braving the experience of a public audience, why bother going to the theater?

Until the theaters and studios adopt a totally new technology, such as 3D films, IMAX, or whatever, the cinemaplex is going to continue to lose its draw. Studios went to widescreen to get audiences back in the theater after TV was invented, but now that we have widescreen TVs, the studios are going to have to come up with a new gimmick in order to draw back the numbers they once had prior to DVD. Until then, the studios might as well start saving distribution costs in sending their movies to theaters and making direct-to-video movies. Besides, the music industry never needed a large public viewing or such to sell music. The only thing they had were concerts after the album release.

PixyJunket

I love all the little kids who come into threads like this trying to justify their theft and breaking of laws by putting down the "evil corporation" argument. How sad and pathetic. Sad, so sad.

Mike Lowrey

Well that does make sense and is probably true, but like I said above, what's HD DVD going to do to the box office numbers? Why bother going to the theaters if you can get HD content and sound at home? Since I started collecting DVDs nearly 4 years ago, I've only been the theater twice. Once for Episode II and the other for LOTR: TTT.

slop101

As if they're not making enough money already. If dvd had these same restrictions, it never would have taken off and become as successful as it did.

If they do this to HD/Blue-Ray, they will go the way of DIVIX.

scottp120

If this is true, i'll never upgrade from dvd. I'll be watching them until I'm 90. That's a bunch of crap

Spiky

Well, that's weird. You go for the middle movies? Only?

Spiky

The CP in HDTV, HD-DVD, BD is all very frightening, as the thread title suggests. We can throw in trusted computing, too. But it isn't possible. There's no way this will work for DVD. Even in their wildest dreams, there is no way every person will have their player hooked to the 'net for this to work. And someone will break it, anyway. Hardware mods, if necessary.

DIVX (the 1st one) is a good example. CC learned their lesson the hard way, you gotta think the industry will pay attention. If not, we simply won't buy them and it will collapse.

I'm waiting for announcements about recorders, anyway.

chanster

Never will buy anything with this in it. Sorry. I'm perfectly happy with DVDs as they stand now and any technology that forces direct connection with the Internet is not welcome into my house.

Spiky

I should go back on my last post a bit. We are heading for a time when there will be a lot more wireless connection possibilities. They even want to make telephone wireless to our houses. I suppose a player could connect by those means. But certainly not by the end of this year for HD-DVD. Or even 2007, I should imagine. I don't think the current RF signals that some small electronics contain could handle this CP issue, but I could be wrong. Our clocks set themselves by RF, for instance.

mzupeman2

I mean, if Blu-Ray eventually becomes the next DVD and is very very successful in that market, I may upgrade. But if they DO implement this technology, no way. There's no way I'm going to pay out the ears (most likely) for new technology that not only will prevent me from getting rid of used DVD's (or acquiring somebody elses), but also will only let me play discs that are able to be scanned from an internet source. That's complete garbage. I know that piracy is a big issue everywhere but that's absurd! There are people with an XBOX that don't want xbox live just becaues of the cost, there are people that don't want high speed internet because they can use dial up for much less. There will be people who won't care to upgrade to blu-ray, because they don't want to have to depend on an outside online source in order to play a DVD! There are times that internet can be down. How inconveniant would it be if you couldn't watch something you spent hard earned money for, just because your internet was acting dumb? Be VERY inconveniant if an entire evening with friends over was ruined because of this shoddy technology. I LOVE technology but this is just one of those examples where people just want to rely TOO MUCH on it...

Class316

What's SD DVD ?