I smell bs in all of this. But if its true, its another stupid idea that will cripple technology to the people who are actually paying for legits DVDs. If these studios really want to control or attack piracy, they should definitely start by going to local flea markets and the catch the biggets flea market of them all: EBAY.

I say go for it. This attitude just makes me want to continue to rent dvds thru Netflix and quit buying them altogether.

Next news item: Doctors will soon be implanting tiny nanobots using RFID technology as part of a secret government spy program

Give me a break. This story makes no sense.

I just simply cannot understand what the problem is when people are buying DVDs from region and playing them in another. For example, if something is not available in the UK, and is only available in the US, then I don't see what the problem is if the person is buying the genuine product? It all comes down to region control and telling people what they can or cannot buy.


Now if this nonsense does become reality, I too will stop buying DVDs.

Getting DVDs from different regions wouldn't be a problem if all tv series and films were released at the same time and at a similar price in every region. Its rediculous that the same product in one region can be alot cheaper than another.

...one answer would be to import a USA player to wherever you want to play r1 discs. Unless the player itself is gonna have a GPS receiver in it to check it's not being used where it shouldn't! Ooops must stop giving them ideas.

About half my DVD's are imp;orts cos the dumbass studios won't release the stuff I want where I live.

I think this load of BS will get as far as RCE did (which they gave up on).

if this dumb idea ever gets off the ground, and I have my doubts, to work it would mean either rendering every existing DVD/HD/Blu-Ray player in the world unable to play the RFID discs (wouldn't that make everyone happy!) forcing everyone to buy a new one or alternatively, old style players will just ignore the chip on the discs and play them. This I think is the likely scenario. And while a chipped disc might be able to detect an old-style player, I can't see how it would be able to tell it not to play.

And new style players would have to play old non-chipped discs, because otherwise people's existing collections would be rendered useless (which the studios might like, but I don't think even they would actually attempt it).

In any case, it would not take long for the system to be broken, and get mods to force the player to announce it was in any place you wanted. Just like region codes, you'd have to be able to set "geographical location" at the factory, so there's bound to be a way to access that process.

The studios are never gonna win this one. The market is lucrative, and there are so many people dedicated to breaking any system (and many of them are not criminals or pirates). It would be much better if they realised that geographical control should be dumped in the wastebin, and just released everything on a planetary basis.

I just don't see that DVD discs and players have enough "smarts" in them to make this work. What's to stop anyone just frying the RFID chip and making it a "non-chipped" disc to play in an old player which doesn't even look for the RFID?

Any number of ways aroun d this come to mind, and I'm nowhere near as clever as lots of other people in the world who'd want to find ways around this.

A lot of it stems from cinema releases. The studios want to stop people in different countries buying DVD releases ahead of seeing the film in the cinema.

This was always a problem (for them), because the USA typically gets films first, followed by a rapid DVD release, often before the film even reaches Europe etc. They believe this will cut into their profits.

The obvious answer is, of course, to release films worldwide. Which is happening a lot more.

But then the studios are control freaks whose philosophy is that they should have absolute control over what people see and when they see it, and the public should be content with that.

Anyone find it ironic that it's the Taiwanese coming up with this? Gee, if there aren't any more bootleg DVDs, the mainland's economy could collapse!

[snippage]

Home DVD players will eventually be able to check on the chip embedded in a disc, and refuse to play discs which are copied or played in the 'wrong' geographical region, the companies behind the technology expect.

[...]

So this is different from previous schemes like RCE (and even the Regions themselves) how? Within days of the release of this technology somebody will be offering either a hack or firmware that will make players all region.

Other than that, I have no problems with efforts to thwart bootleggers as long as it does not make consumers' collections obsolete or interfere with legitimate home-burned DVDs.

Best,
Scott
!

That you, J.D.?

[QUOTE=thundergod]I just simply cannot understand what the problem is when people are buying DVDs from region and playing them in another. For example, if something is not available in the UK, and is only available in the US, then I don't see what the problem is if the person is buying the genuine product? It all comes down to region control and telling people what they can or cannot buy.



There is another reason for the regional coding, of course: to allow governments to prevent their populations from viewing DVDs that they regard as subversive. You think Iran uses region coding to protect intellectual property? They uses it to restrict free ideas. (I use them as just one example, there are [unfortunately] many other examples I could use.)

Best,
Scott

[QUOTE=Nebiroth]A lot of it stems from cinema releases. The studios want to stop people in different countries buying DVD releases ahead of seeing the film in the cinema.

This was always a problem (for them), because the USA typically gets films first, followed by a rapid DVD release, often before the film even reaches Europe etc. They believe this will cut into their profits.
***

Funny: many of my DVDs (for example: NIGHT WATCH, BEOWULF AND GRENDEL, THE NIBELUNGEN, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, THE DESCENT) all came out overseas before they had US theatrical or television releases, so it cuts both ways. And some of these releases are superior to the R1 release (DTS sound, supplements, anamorphic, etc.). I will gladly support a legitimate release, but I want the best product available and will buy it where I find it (excluding bootlegs, of course, which are never ["What, never?" "Hardly ever!"] quality products.

Best,
Scott

I have to somewhat disagree. Maybe that may be in respect to movies, but not for TV series.

Where I live, half the time I don't even know if a tv series will be released or not.

I for one will not wait months and months and months trying to know if a TV series will be released here or not.

That is what I have to do. At least half of my collection are imports, not only because of titles not being available, but alot of times, its cheaper to get the R1 version rather than the R2/R4 version.

I used the example of the USA because the so called "problem" is most obvious for the big Hollywood blockbusters and because the majority of the big studios are American. Hence they have been the main drivers behind the "region" stuff. But you would probably find that most studios, anywhere, have the same idea.

It's the same thing with TV series.

The short story is, they don't want you to be able to see their product - be it a film or a TV series - in your country unless and until they decide that you should.

And in the case of TV series, that can sometimes mean you'd never see it, if a local broadcaster can't be found that is willing to pay sufficient monies to get the rights to broadcast it.

The studios are driven by just one thing; profit. They have decided that the way to maximise profit is for them to have control over what you see and when you get to see it, and they set those things to maximise the amount of money gained. This can sometimes mean that you don't get something because it's deemed unprofitable.

There can be rights issues (the release rights for a film may be owned by different studios in different countries) which can preclude a release - so Fox can release a film in the USA, but not in the UK, cos it would have to be done by Warner who don't see it being a moneymaker here.

But the main underlying reason is - viewer control.

The ability to import and play discs from other regions undermines this fundamental principle and the studios hate it.

That's why they will continue to hunt for ways to regain their control.

I call bullshit, too.

Sounds like something someone might seriously be considering, but will be too impractical to implement.

Remember when HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players were going to need to be hooked into a landline?

ANd then they still complain when their sales are low because people aint buying the products.

Sounds like an April Fools joke to me...except it isn't April. There's just too much wrong with this. They expect people to buy new DVD players so that they can play these copy protected discs??? Yeah, right.

Another thing that I don't see mentioned above is the obvious connection issue. For this to work, get updated, verify with home base, etc.... it will have to be connected to the net. Oh, and BTW, I just copied and pasted, that is not my grammar.

A connection to home base would not be needed. Effectively, it's just a fancier version of region coding. You get the disc and player to check each other and decide whether they are compatible with each other. At the moment, that's done by setting flags on the disc and player. With the RFID chips, the disc and player would exchange more complex information, but they'd still be checking the same thing: the disc would still say "Hey! I'm only for playing in North America and Canada, is that what you do?" To which the player replies "Sure thing! Off we go then" or "No way! I'm in Europe/Japan, and so I won't play you!".

True, but with such technology, you would think that those put these chips in the DVD's would like the ability to update the players just in case the [Elmer Fudd]wraskaly[/Elmer Fudd] pirates figure out a way around these chips.

We went through a phase, here in the UK, where the satellite broadcasters would regularly update satellite box viewing cards; they'd either update on air or occasionaly send out new viewing cards.

They were doing this more and more often, and invariably, the "dubious" stores would start selling fixes and new cards the day after.

Eventually I think they just gave up; the constant battle was costing more than it was worth.

I remember reading about this very idea a while back. I'm guessing it was around five years or so ago. I've tried searching for it, but no luck. Can anyone dig it up?

And after that, we will be having a further upgrade, becoming cybermen lol

how will i download my movies for free then?















lol

I think it'll be more a battle of attrition... the only DVDs they'll release will be the new RFID kind and whether or not people buy the players will be up to them. Again I think the only way for this to work effectively will be in a roll out of a new tech (such as the HD stuff). Maybe once blu-ray and HD merge into one format this RFID will become part of the standard. I just don't see how they are going to get people to accept it otherwise because at this point I think if they try the above (just forcing the issue on the current tech) people will protest/stop buying altogether.

Another thought is they may release these, and have 'exclusive content' that can only be viewed with 'specially equipped' dvd players. So this way, if you want to use all the disc, you have to have the right player. Or, they could limit the audio or video output quality.

And they will have people not buying DVD's and ranting up a storm on DVD forums.

Boycotts and terrible sales will follow.