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Someone needs to emphasize this in such a way that the right people see it: people who pirate software enjoy cracking it. The game itself is orders of magnitude less amusing. And their distributed ingenuity will smash your firm, secure edifice into beach absolutely every Goddamn time. There are no exceptions to this rule.

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Interestingly, one of the reported reasons that Blu-ray Disc went with a more restrictive copy-protection scheme than just Advanced Access Content System (AACS) is that it only allows for revoking hacked encryption keys on software-based players - not set-top, stand-alone hardware. HD-DVD uses only AACS, while Blu-ray Disc has added the Self-Protecting Digital Content (SPCD) system (which verrifys "the integrity of both the disc and the hardware before playback" and presumably allows the remote disabling of either if said "integrity" is compromised). There are also other content-protection schemes being discussed, including one that would allow future DVD players to recognize watermarks imbedded in the video image of camcorder-pirated theatrical films (and presumably refuse to play burned discs containing such content). It's a fascinating editorial, and it illustrates a concern we've had here at The Bits about these new formats for a while now.

Look... the need for Hollywood to protect its film and TV content from PROFESSIONAL video pirates is undeniable, particularly as better and better quality video is encoded on the discs. But what about your average, well-meaning consumer? Just how intrusive are these measures going to be on the fair use of that content by the rest of us... those of us who AREN'T criminals? That remains to be seen. Also yet to be seen is how willing the studios and manufacturers are going to be to offer consumers guarantees and protections against the excessive or unwarranted use of these copy-protection measures. It's worth being concerned about, lest these new formats turn out to be just another version of Circuit City's Divx, where the industry has as much control over your players and discs as YOU do, even after you've opened your wallets and purchased them. The last thing WE want is yet another scheme where players monitor our viewing habits and report them back to the studios, and where we end up having to rent DVDs from our own purchased collections. Or worse, a system where some of your movie discs (if their encryption keys have been hacked by pirates) can be revoked without your knowledge, so they no longer play normally. In other words, discs you've already paid for and legally own can be made coasters, with no guarantee of replacement, all though no fault of your own. You can bet we'll be watching this issue closely in the months ahead.

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Originally posted by chronicthehedgehog:
SD DVD will continue for the simple reason that HD DVD is only good for software, for movies it can hold more special features, it can have more commentaries but they find enough trouble filling a 4.7gb DVD with special features, let alone a 50gb one. Give people an improvement like DVD over VHS and they'll flock to it, an improvement like HDDVD over DVD is pointless.

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Originally posted by Howard:
Are you using a PC or MAC to type on this
post?

My point is the day you bring home a PC
you cannot use it until you register with
Microsoft. You have to click "I AGREE" if you
click "I DISAGREE" you can't use your PC.

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Lord of the Rings is a special case, each extended version was essentially 2 films. One movie and one making of movie. But the point is, that's three movies. HDDVD lets you put all that one on disk but even then you've still only filled 1/10th of the available space. Hundreds of DVDs are released every year. What about non-epic movies, what are they going to do with it?

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You'd be surprised how much space good-quality video takes up

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But are you kidding? You could include games and a bajilliion audio commentaries and all sorts of neat things in anamorphic widescreen with a whole bunch of audio and sub tracks.

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You could even include footage of premieres, or of the orchestra recording the movie score, or audition tapes (like the one for Alan Tudyk on the Firefly box set), more featturettes...

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When you buy a PC in order to be able to
use it you have to register with MICROSOFT
if not you cannot go on line and do many other
functions. This is the real world not some
navy boy fantasy land.

Be careful who you call stupid Mr.

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Which would be nice but aren't going to change the way we view movies in the way DVD did. People bought DVD because they were so different, because of the promise of things they couldn't do with their video players, freeze-frame, zoom, skipping, special features, commentaries. The new selling point seems to be DVD but better. Why would Joe public, a guy who has little to no interest in hearing 'Best Boy commentary', buy it when DVDs look and sound exactly the same on their standard old TV set?

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