consumers should expect punishment for tinkering with their Blu-ray players

[Tsunamii]

"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. "

I picked up this on engadget but a decent read...

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=9543209&src=rss/technologyNews

With that type of buisness plan they will put HDDVD back into play.

 

[soundsfine]

Big Brother?

 

[Jedi2016]

Since I never "fiddle" with my players, I don't think that'll be a problem for me. On the flip side, it's not really convenient to hook it up to the internet.. I don't think there's a phone jack on that wall.

 

[goodman]

url]http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=9543209&src=rss/technologyNews[/url]

From reading the above article, you can surmise that Hollywood wants to move on from DVD to the hi-def formats, because of the better copy protection. Consumers, even those with new digital tv receivers, are still happy with the quality of DVD.

 

[MDS]

I am fundamentally opposed to these kinds of copy protection schemes. I don't care as much about movies as I do music, but the trend is the same.

The RIAA and MPAA would like for us to 'rent' music and movies and I cannot accept that. I hope it fails and in the long run it probably will.

 

[Audioholics]

On the flip side, it's not really convenient to hook it up to the internet.. I don't think there's a phone jack on that wall.

It will actually do it via future software that will simply view the current player as having a "revoked" license and refuse to play. You'll be able to play all your old stuff, but new movies and such will not work on the player with a revoked license.

It's a type of dynamic security... pretty interesting actually. Should take at least a couple weeks to break as opposed to a couple minutes.

 

[hifiman]

It's a type of dynamic security... pretty interesting actually. Should take at least a couple weeks to break as opposed to a couple minutes.

Well said. It's so laughable what hollywood and the music industry are doing: Ultimately it becomes us against them.

 

[nav]

The most naive solution is to take the key from a newer player and transpose it onto a "revoked" player. That should be very easy for an experience tinkerer with a couple hours on their hands (and maybe a soldering iron). That is, unless a radically different piece of hardware is added as the new key (meaning that the players will slowly get bigger -- on a microchip scale -- and possibly more expensive as legacy keys build up inside of them), which doesn't seem like the plan according to the specifications I have read (only so much). In that case, it'll take a little longer. Flashing or recreating whatever ends up holding the public key is the next step from there and then the public can do the same thing easily (well, relatively, like mod chips are today).

Still, even being the type of person who can keep up with of the work arounds, all the copy protection really has me soured on all of the high definition media formats. I mean, HDCP's introduction wasn't nearly as invasive, and look how many people are going to lose out on part of their investment because of it (only the innocent are punishable, really). It's too annoying to protect myself from this "loss", I'll just not invest in it.

Oh well.

 

[Tsunamii]

It will actually do it via future software that will simply view the current player as having a "revoked" license and refuse to play. You'll be able to play all your old stuff, but new movies and such will not work on the player with a revoked license.

It's a type of dynamic security... pretty interesting actually. Should take at least a couple weeks to break as opposed to a couple minutes.

LMAO, well said. All protection can and will be broken. When that sinks in maybe they can find a better way to approach things. The equipment you buy is yours and no if you don't want the "updates" you should not be penalized in having your player stop working. I am sure this will see the inside of a court if attempted.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

I am certainly not spending money on a player that has to be connected to the internet for the sole purpose of finding a reason to stop working! (whether I deserve it or not).

How long till some 15 year old L33t Haxx0r permanently disables every $1200 SONY ES-Blu*Ray player on the market? a day? 12 hours?

 

[WmAx]

Customer Is Enemy No. 1

I am confused.

It seems that the customer is considered to be the enemy today.

Did hell freeze over while I was looking the other way?

Does 1 + 1 = 3 today?

No longer do many companies[as in the core tech/software/media execs, I do not intend this to apply to the 3rd party manufacturers that are only licensing the core techs and must adhere to the policies of the core tech developers/licensors] seem to try to produce products that are really wanted. They seem to try to produce products that in 'essence' are wanted, but then [seem] to go out of their way to make it anti-consumer[?].

I am confused.

-Chris

 

[Jedi2016]

I am confused.

It seems that the customer is considered to be the enemy today.

Did hell freeze over while I was looking the other way?

That pretty much sums it up, I'm afraid. In their attempts to "secure" their content, it's actually the paying consumer that gets shafted the most.

It won't be long before the pirates and hackers end up with better content than what us paying customers get.

 

[Tsunamii]

Of course if this is "on line" you will need virus protections and other security. It will be a matter of time for a virus to target these machines. It is a bit of a Pandora's box to require a networked connection. It will end up with being more "hacked" then less.

 

[Jedi2016]

I just don't like the idea of having my player hooked up to a phone line all the time. What if I'm talking on the phone when I pop a movie in?

And, as you mention, Tsunamii, there's the security thing to consider. If all these BD players are networked, what's to prevent some malicious hacker from getting into the system and sending some sort of virus through to every connected player?

And what about BD players that don't even have phone jacks? Like the Playstation 3? It has only ethernet ports, and my modem is clear on the other side of my apartment, and upstairs to boot.

That, and I definitely don't like the "Big Brother" possibilities.. I don't need some marketing company keeping track of what I watch.

What I don't understand is why they don't just add something to the discs themselves. I mean, if you look at a DVD, you can see some sort of markings on the inside edge of the readable area.. could a disc simply have some sort of "marking" on it that tells the system that it's a legitimate, store-bought disc? A mark that cannot be duplicated except in a full-bore DVD pressing facility, that cannot be "burned" onto a bootleg disc? It seems that would solve the problem right there, and the paying customer would remain completely oblivious.

 

[Tsunamii]

Jedi, A watermark sounds like an interesting idea. Though I can't see anything that wont be duplicated or worked around. IMHO the industry needs to come to the realization that they are going to end up spending way more money in the long run trying to catch the minority in pirating then it was worth.
Making media easily accessible like Itunes and others did, IMHO, is the way to go. If you make things easy to get legitimately you will get people to do the right thing more often then not. I can get just about any movie or software known to man even before its been released for free, though I still subscribe to netflix and pay.
Making it an option to put you player on-line for firmware upgrades or some new bells and whistles is fine by me and hey if part of the agreement for this new firmware is the box is scanned to ensure its integrity that's fine with me also but making it required is not fine.

 

[claudermilk]

Boy is this ever a can of worms. I think Jedi's watermark idea is a basically sound one (therefore, the media companies will discount it out of hand). I agree that forcing an internet connection is BS & opens up the devices to a new class of virii. It seems the companies forget the 80/20 rule and are spending ay too much effort and money trying to catch or stop every little pirate in the world. With all these stories coming out I am in no great hurry to ever upgrade. If that means I can't get newer movies so be it; I suffer a bit (can't watch last year's blockbuster at home), and ultimately the studio suffers more (they don't make any money off me--or probably a whole lot of other people). Ultimately, I'll vote with my wallet.

 

[Pyrrho]

Even if they do such stupid things, there is a good chance that some Chinese company will make a player that will enable you to get around such things (and you will be able to buy it on the Internet, if not locally). Before I purchased my latest DVD player, I researched the matter to make sure I could watch DVDs from any region, and could properly convert between PAL and NTSC. I ended up with a Sampo DVE-612(N), which does all that I need it to do. I bought it online, as I have never seen one in a store.

Any manufacturer who wants my money will need to make a player that adequately deals with such issues. And as there are enough others who feel the same way, I expect that some manufacturer will come up with something for such a lucrative market.

As for claims that the security will be "perfect", that is, as always, a ridiculous claim. For the disc to be usable at all, it must be possible to get the information off of it. So it will be possible to do things with it that Hollywood may not like.