Wow! They stopped a few US retailers from distributing this film.

That sure deterred us from importing it elsewhere (overseas) or buying it at our local Sam Goody or Suncoast (...yes, this Megastar title was available there).

The DVD forum has already formed a working group to decide on region coding for HD DVD, at the bequest of studios apparently. There are still studios fighting the legality of region-free DVD decks so I doubt they're going to give in on these next formats.

^

I understand that. My comments were not addressing region coding, but rather, the issue that studios would be upset about people importing HD DVDs and causing them to support BD more vigorously.

That to me sounds like schoolyard behavior and a serious oversimplification of studio release strategy.


You do realize that once region coding is (finally) implemented it will be cracked, right? This will shake out identical to the standard DVD situation, I suspect. Once they get coding up and running, there will be a lot more hardware available... people will have hacks to override it... cheaper players from China (where they 'forgot' to implement to coding) will show up... etc.

Unless its done quickly, these initial titles that will be released from studio canal will be region free.

Even if they implement region coding on the discs, the A1 has no region coding software according to Amir.

Oh really.

Did you not bother to read my quote from Amir?

Or do you have other sources I'm not aware of?

And I'd seriously love to know why you're a) arguing this and b) give a shit.

This is a difficult one to call. I suspect AACS will prove to be a tough nut to crack, since it's an updatable protection scheme. If the region codes are hidden behind this wall they may prove difficult to by-pass. As to
China, they seem to be heading towards their own HD standard which makes it less likely they'll become a factor here in the short term. While the DVD forum and BDA have made it more difficult for Chinese manufacturers to flout the rules (and avoid paying royalty fees) this time around, by ensuring the decoder chips are all revocable (they have individual keys imprinted at the manufactuerer) . That little tidbit was from Keith Jack of Sigma designs.

Oddly enough Australia may prove to be a key country in all this, with their firm legal stance against region coding. If region coding is not enabled over there then Americans can always just by Aussie players to view their movies on. Assuming the US released discs would work with a player lacking regional code.

His quote doesn't contradict my post.


something about keeping my friends close and my enemies closer...

A source would be nice though.

cool.

so which BD player are you planning to buy, then?

The Panasonic, which is due to launch in October over here. Though the PS3 is a possiblity, if reviews from reputable sources are decent.

The Panasonic that just got delayed to November?

So the Panny and Sony BD players are going to hit the market just as the PS3 is making it's debut?

What the fuck are they thinking?

People will simply flock to pay $1k+ for the Panny/Sony because they might not get their hands on a PS3?

Sounds like a very risky gamble.

I think they're thinking, "Shit, we can't get these things to work no matter what we do! Tell the press we're delaying it another 3 months!"

And is the Pioneer coming out in November as well?

How about this?

Does this shut you up?

Im not buying his statement anyways...he never told us a source.

Unfortunately, HD-DVD really needs the support of all major studios in order to succeed as a format. So even if only one major studio is actively requesting region-coding, HD-DVD might impliment it just to get that one studio's support. And once it's in place, it's likely that all the other major studios will use it as well, since I can't think of a major studio that releases DVDs region-free.

Your point was that they didn't care. They do.

Amir's post confirmed that the DVD forum are working on HD DVD region coding. If you want to take posts on internet message boards as any kind of "proof"...

I've quoted him twice and you've ....not quoted him at all. Please, feel free to share.

He's said several times in the last 24 hours that they're NOT working on it.

Is it possible that they are going to be working on it, but not working on it right now, making both of you right?

All we're asking for is a quote. He keeps saying he's right...but hasn't stated any facts or quotes.

Like I said... you could find that title at Sam Goody and Suncoast (that's where I bought mine).

If they really did care, they would've launched a major (ad)campaign to stop DVD Imports altogether.

linky

Excellent....thank you

It sounds like they are in the very beginning stage of the process.

Hmm, this makes me want to purchase the XA2 (when/if its released). Its very likely it wont have any region coding in the firmware since its probably coming out this fall.

As far as software, I bet none of the titles coming out over the next 6 months to a year will have it.