Phew, it's getting HOT in here!

My goodness, some people ARE getting hot under the collar.

If I can just add my own two-penn'th - I'm not a gamer (but I do play F1) and I bought my PS3 precisely because it plays Blu-ray and I didn't want an additional box in my living room as well as Sky HD, to go with my Pioneer 508. (I have an LX60D DVD/HDD home cinema setup which upscales DVD to 1080p)

So, count me as one of the 3m who watches BD on PS3, because it can.

4m after Christmas?

T

Managed Mandatory Copy - great feature in principle, probably going to be killed by execution...

Mandatory Managed Copy is a really great feature, however my guess is that it will use some kind of DRM, why else the need for AACS on the disc itself?

And since it will use some kind of DRM - who is going to deliver that kind of DRM, and how strict will the license requirements be, and will the quality of the Managed Mandatory Copy be reduced, compared to the original disc version? If it is going to be using DRM, I think it will be a lot easier for people to just use AnyDVD HD and just reencode the movie themselves or just simply plain rip it.

I think the best way to see how it will end, is to look at how Microsoft Media Center handles DVDs - it is required, per the DVD-license, to enable playback only at 480p if HDCP is not available (as I have understood it - I do not have a Microsoft Media Center nor a HDTV so please tell me if I am wrong). And ripping DVDs is not available (as per the license), even though Microsoft have the DRM technology installed that would lock that copy of the DVD to that machine specifically.

And the few companies in the US that actually tries to make networkable DVD jukeboxes are having a lot of legal trouble with the MPAA and DVD-forum, with the latter strongly trying to withdraw the DVD-license, because the movie companies fears that it would then be used for piracy, even if the product actually replicates the DVD DRM, or uses an even stronger DRM, in the copy stored in jukebox.

I would like Managed Mandatory Copy to be as great a feature as possible, I just think the downfall of that feature lies in the principle - it is "managed" - meaning DRM. And since it is managed per copy, how many copies are a single player allowed to make, and in what quality? For me, Managed Mandatory Copy is a really great feature in principle, that is probably going to be killed by the way it is executed.

Think of it - if you could make a 1:1 copy using Managed Mandatory Copy, you would just rent the movie and transfer it to your Media Center and then return the movie. That was a lost sale for the movie company, unless of course that Managed Mandatory Copy had an expiration date, and if expiration dates are going to be used, what is the timeframe, to make sure we still own the disc? - what good is a media center with a huge library then, if you still have to insert the disc into the drive, to prove that you own the disk every 3 days, for example, for the copy in the library to remain active? Or are we going to register our purchases of media on some website, and using that system we will be issued licenses for each device? What if we sell the disc, and "forgets" to delete the registration - since the disc does not contain a unique serial, how are they going to keep track of who has a real copy, and who just forgot to delete his registration?

I am sorry for the overly long post, and yes, I have posted this anonymously because I know some will think this is a critique of HD-DVD. It is not a critique of HD-DVD, but a critique of the principle behind Managed Mandatory Copy, and I think people have too high hopes for Managed Mandatory Copy. Judging by past behavior of the MPAA and DVD-Forum, and considering the rhetoric that the MPAA and DVD-Forum seems to be using these days, with MPAA initiating lawsuits almost daily, I will not get my hopes up for a great Managed Mandatory Copy, sorry.

It's the *software*, stupid

If a studio releases a movie on BD and HD-DVD, and the BD version outsells the HD-DVD by 2:1 or more, why would they give a flying crap whether the end-user has a standalone player, a PS3, or something they made themselves out of mirrors, bits of old string and a couple of ZX81s?

All that matters is which format they're shifting more units of, and what the trends in each format's sales figures are. A unit sale is a unit sale whatever the movie is played on, or even if it's stuck on a shelf and never played.

(Posted anon because the fanbois on both sides are getting *really* scary ;-) )