Same old, same old

....comments about "I'm not buying BR until it's 99p per disk" or "fk the DRM bastards" or "my DVD players looks just fine thanks". Fair play but get lost will you and read articles and comment on articles that are of actual interest to you. I don't know about other people but I am so sick and tired of the same old comments by the same people about things that are either 1) less of an issue than they were when BR first launched or 2) Not an issue any longer.

Prices... anyone who walks into a shop and pays more than £17 for a BR film is nuts and those still quoting prices selectively forget with little effort you can find films at or below £15. Those same people also forget that the financial situation the last six months has dramatically slowed uptake of BR just as it was reaching the same comparable point as DVD was at two years after launch (as in third generation players that were much cheaper and wider availability of disks below £17), and large scale uptake leads to reduced costs. They also forget that for the first year DVD new releases were nearly £30! The recessions have stalled BR by at least a year through no real fault of the product itself.

And DRM and slow disk loads.... Yes the DRM checking in the first generations of firmware really couldn't cope with the new profile disks and it lead to insane loading times, but that is a thing of the past. They screwed up and it’s fixed. DRM still exists but it does on DVD too and it is up to people to break that if they wish to. Or buy a third generation player. If you're an early adopter you know the risks and those who bought first generation DVD players were screwed when the second generation encoded disks came out (Gladiator for instance). Anyone who thinks companies AREN'T going to try and protect their intellectual properties are nuts. Shut up bleating about it now, it's getting old.

To comment on the article, it's manipulation by the government to try and show they have reduced inflation. Take out items that have matured as products and stabilised in value due to new versions controlling prices (MP3 players), and put in there products that are currently expensive but are on the verge of reducing in price quickly (BR disks). In a year Gordon will be able to say "ahh but look at the retail price index measures, look at the reductions in prices and lower costs of living as a result of Labour". There is a general election next year after all, and those obsessing about BR need to realise this has NOTHING to do with BR itself.

@EvilGav

RE: "Please post a link to the stories of the DRM killing players."

@Luis Ogando

Here, read from the source: http://www.aacsla.com/marketplace/overview/aacs_technical_overview_040721.pdf

QUOTE:

3.2 Media Key Block (MKB)

The Media Key Block enables system renewability. ....... If a set of Device Keys is compromised in a way that threatens the integrity of the system, an update MKB can be released that causes a device with the compromised set of Device keys to be unable to calculate the correct Km. In this way, the compromised Device keys are "revoked" by the new MKB.

UNQUOTE:

Your player by design cannot reject a system renewability message with the new MKB, so you can't protect yourself from it. Any new disc you insert in your player can be the last. They are actually quite proud of it as a procedure "to provide system renewability in the form of device revocation."

The only mitigation is to rip everything to your PC, provided someone had already found/published/leaked the necessary keys on the internets.

@Mark

Oh, I hear a BD fanboy talking :-) You might want to substantiate your accusations. Or get a valium or something...