Blu-Ray ain't that great.

[sugarpoultry]

So... wondering around the internet, I discovered that Blu-Ray isn't all its cracked up to be.... all these points are extremely valid.

I'ts huge, but it covers everything. Source. (Don't get all freaked out by the title, its just their opinion on it obviously).

Why you should boycott Blu-ray and HD-DVD
It is with great regret that I inform you of the ways in which the movie industry wishes to ruin your enjoyment of high definition movies at home. If you've ever watched HDTV, you know how amazing it is. At 5 times the resolution of normal television, it looks fantastic. And the quality of the movies on a Blu-ray or HD-DVD disc is even better, because of less compression. I want it, and you want it. Right?

Well, there's just one problem. The movie industry assumes you are a criminal, and has added technologies to Blu-ray and HD-DVD that vastly restrict your potential enjoyment of their HD movies. I don't want it, and you don't either. Here's why.

(Note: There are a lot of acronyms on this page, so first, some quick definitions.)

DRM - Digital Restrictions Management - technology to restrict what you can do with media you purchase
AACS - Advanced Access Content System - the DRM infection used for both Blu-ray and HD-DVD
BD+ - an addition to AACS for Blu-ray discs, that provides additional restrictions to what you can do
MMC - Mandatory Managed Copy - a theoretical way for you to make a legal copy of a movie
HDCP - High-bandwith Digital Content Protection - Encryption of data over digital connections
HDMI - High Definition Multimedia Interface - A digital connection found on most new HDTV's, all HDCP compliant
DVI - Digital Visual Interface - Precursor to HDMI, found on many older HDTV's. However, many DVI connections are not HDCP compliant, making them worthless for Blu-ray and HD-DVD.
ICT - Image Constaint Token - Downsamples HD output to standard resolution when hooked up over analog (component) cables.
MPAA - Motion Picture Ass. of America - trade organization representing the major movie companies
RIAA - Recording Industry Ass. of America - trade organization representing the major music companies


Reasons to be outraged
* How old is your HDTV? If you bought it prior to 2005, and there are over 3 million of you who did, the MPAA thinks you shouldn't be able to watch HD movies in high definition. They are insisting that your TV supports digital encryption via an HDMI port or an HDCP-compliant DVI port, which these earlier TV's lack. If you have to stoop so low as to hook up your shiny new player via, God forbid, analog (component), the industry thinks you're not worthy. There's a fun little surprise they built in to Blu-ray and HD-DVD for people just like you, and it's called the Image Constaint Token. If it's enabled on a movie, and your connection does not support HDCP, then the movie is downsampled to 1/4 its native resolution, which is essentially the same as a standard DVD. While no movies have yet been released with the ICT enabled, know this: It will happen. It's just a matter of time.

* Thinking about buying a new HD-DVD or Blu-ray drive for your computer? If you want to use it to watch movies, think again. You'll need to buy a lot more than just the drive. Remember, analog = BAD, digital encryption = GOOD. You'll need to open up that wallet of yours for a brand new HDCP-compliant video card, AND, an HDCP-compliant monitor. Notice the word compliant. That is very important. There are some products that just claim to be HDCP "compatible", but they will NOT work for viewing high definition movies.

* AACS means that Blu-ray and HD-DVD will never be compatible with free software, affecting nearly everyone that wants to view these movies on their computer but isn't running Windows or Mac OS X. While this is a minority of computer users, they should not be ignored. Some might say history is doomed to repeat itself.

* Excited about Mandatory Managed Copy? Don't be. While it theoretically allows things such as making legal backups and streaming content from one part of your house to another, the studios have the option of charging you money to do that. Current HD players don't even support MMC. Your player also has to be connected to the internet. That's not inherently bad, but is certainly open for abuse. What if you don't have an available internet connection close to your home theater? What if you don't have broadband? The MPAA humbly requests that you cry them a river. It's hard to believe they even considered something like MMC, considering this. Choice quote: "Even if CDs do become damaged, replacements are readily available at affordable prices". Translation: please purchase another copy of content you have already paid for, thank you. There is a very interesting interview with an HD-DVD rep here about MMC.

* Ladies and gentlemen, I have proof that the MPAA and RIAA want to eat your children.
To them, DRM is more important than human life. Wow.

* "Hacking" your player, for example to remove the region coding, or playing a bootlegged disc, may lead your player to self destruct. (Applies to Blu-ray only).

* There are a few other restrictions the MPAA originally requested, but since they're such a nice and friendly group of people, they went easy on us. They had planned to require that your player be connected to the internet at all time for it to function, so they could monitor its usage and make sure you weren't up to no good. Also, they considered having each disc being playable by only one player, meaning that if you played a new movie in your player, your friend couldn't watch the same disc in his player. How thoughtful!




Other reasons you don't need HD-DVD or Blu-ray
* The jump from VHS to DVD was dramatic and obvious - superior video quality, digital surround sound, non-degrading storage format, multiple audio tracks, etc. The jump from DVD to the next generation does not provide any benefits other than higher resolution, which to be fair is a great reason to want that upgrade, but there is nothing else. Cool menus and new interactive layer? People just want to watch the stinking movie. Better sound? Bah. 5.1 channel Dolby or DTS is pretty much the best it's going to get. Do you really want more speakers behind you than in front of you?

* Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD will be a format war, leaving both consumers and retailers very frustrated. Do you want to gamble with investing thousands of dollars in a technology that may not be around in a few years? Some studios will only release their movies on one or the other format (Sony Pictures obviously will only do Blu-ray), which means if you want access to all possible movies, you will either have to buy both players or get a dual-format player.

* New technology is expensive. HD-DVD players are $500+, and Blu-ray is $1,000+. Most of the movies retail for over $30. For computer storage, blank media will also cost around $30 minimum. Surely these costs will drop over time, but at the very least, you should consider waiting a while before joining the herd.

* The biggest lie of all is that we even need these new technologies to have HD video on a disc. DVD video has been around for almost 10 years now, and since then vastly superior video compression technologies have been introduced, namely MPEG-4 and all its variants (h.264, DivX, XviD, etc). These compression formats are absolutely amazing in regards to size vs quality. A hi-def movie in any of these formats could easily fit onto a dual layer DVD, which holds about 9 GB. The only problem is that you can't really 'update' your existing player. In the consumers' best interest, what they would do is release new DVD players that not only supported these newer formats, but also had the ability to be upgraded for future technologies. We wouldn't need these expensive blue lasers to fit more data on a disc. Unfortunately, this solution doesn't line the pockets of shareholders and executives, so it is unlikely to happen.

* The public is not ready for a new format already. A lot of people have spent a lot of money building their DVD collections, a format that just became mainstream ~5 years ago. Do you really want to go out and replace all of those movies? These new players will be backwards compatible with your old movies for sure, but if you just blew a grand on a shiny new player, you're going to want to watch your favorite movies in all their HD glory, right? Haven't you ever heard someone say, "Well, looks like now I have to buy another copy of the White Album" ?

[DrZaius1]

Blu-ray already won, and HD-DVD is dead.

[sugarpoultry]

Originally Posted by DrZaius1

Blu-ray already won, and HD-DVD is dead.

Thats not the point of this article, is it?

[nighthawkx]

by good graphics you mean not ****ty then... well there you go
standard DVD is pretty ****ty

1080p is a 625% increase in resolution. That's a fairly significant leap and its long overdue.

interpolating and filtering an image to hell only goes so far.


personally I'm hoping for some major advances in NAND and the like rather quickly. Flash is the future

[Ingo]

I don't care about all this new dvd formats and stuff. I got a normal dvd payer and it's really all i need.

[Slime]

Meh. It's the new standard and it's HD. Regular DVDs look mediocre at best when upscaled, and since SDTVs are going to become less and less relevant in the years to come, it makes sense to invest in one at some point. Maybe not now if you're still watching things on a SDTV and don't want to spend the money, but in a few years, it won't make sense not to have one. That is, unless there's some huge digital media revolution soon, which seems unlikely.

As for the points you posted...none of them really effect me, or the average consumer, so I don't really care.

How old is your HDTV? If you bought it prior to 2005, and there are over 3 million of you who did, the MPAA thinks you shouldn't be able to watch HD movies in high definition. They are insisting that your TV supports digital encryption via an HDMI port or an HDCP-compliant DVI port, which these earlier TV's lack. If you have to stoop so low as to hook up your shiny new player via, God forbid, analog (component), the industry thinks you're not worthy. There's a fun little surprise they built in to Blu-ray and HD-DVD for people just like you, and it's called the Image Constaint Token. If it's enabled on a movie, and your connection does not support HDCP, then the movie is downsampled to 1/4 its native resolution, which is essentially the same as a standard DVD. While no movies have yet been released with the ICT enabled, know this: It will happen. It's just a matter of time.

HD stuff looks blah through everything other than HDMI, so that doesn't bother me either. That's more a standard issue of early adoption than a problem with Blu-ray.

Thinking about buying a new HD-DVD or Blu-ray drive for your computer? If you want to use it to watch movies, think again. You'll need to buy a lot more than just the drive. Remember, analog = BAD, digital encryption = GOOD. You'll need to open up that wallet of yours for a brand new HDCP-compliant video card, AND, an HDCP-compliant monitor. Notice the word compliant. That is very important. There are some products that just claim to be HDCP "compatible", but they will NOT work for viewing high definition movies.

Why would people without HDCP-compliant cards even bother with a Blu-ray drive?

AACS means that Blu-ray and HD-DVD will never be compatible with free software, affecting nearly everyone that wants to view these movies on their computer but isn't running Windows or Mac OS X. While this is a minority of computer users, they should not be ignored. Some might say history is doomed to repeat itself.

This sucks for non-Windows/Mac users, but a ton of hardware and software fail to support other operating systems. Sad truth, really.

Excited about Mandatory Managed Copy? Don't be. While it theoretically allows things such as making legal backups and streaming content from one part of your house to another, the studios have the option of charging you money to do that. Current HD players don't even support MMC. Your player also has to be connected to the internet. That's not inherently bad, but is certainly open for abuse. What if you don't have an available internet connection close to your home theater? What if you don't have broadband? The MPAA humbly requests that you cry them a river. It's hard to believe they even considered something like MMC, considering this. Choice quote: "Even if CDs do become damaged, replacements are readily available at affordable prices". Translation: please purchase another copy of content you have already paid for, thank you. There is a very interesting interview with an HD-DVD rep here about MMC.

HD-DVD is dead, so this isn't really an issue.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have proof that the MPAA and RIAA want to eat your children. To them, DRM is more important than human life. Wow.

DRM sucks, but it's basically in everything now, so there's no use fussing over it.

"Hacking" your player, for example to remove the region coding, or playing a bootlegged disc, may lead your player to self destruct. (Applies to Blu-ray only).

I think the last piece of hardware that could be easily modified without the risk of damaging it was the SNES, which only required you to snip off a couple pieces of plastic inside in order to play games from different regions. It's true that BD+ is extreme, and pretty lame (like all DRM), but not really an issue if you just want to watch movies legally, like most people. Besides, it's already been cracked.

The last group of points is mostly outdated, so I won't touch them.

[GDwarf]

I've got to agree that excessive DRM is a stupid idea that only affects legitimate customers.


That said, Blu-Ray is a massive step up from DVD, both in terms of storage capacity (6 times the storage, minimum) and image quality.

[Mr. Wonderful]

What is this? 2006? Most of the DRM is not detrimental, and it's not like the ICT was ever implemented.

[Lantean]

Well, I'm not worried about HD DVD and Blu-ray yet. I'm still in the DVD era, and I don't see any problems with it. DVD's are cheaper than ever, and I'm having fun taking advantage of that. For instance, all four Tremors movies are being sold at Wal-Mart as a special edition collection for only $13.

[GDwarf]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wonderful

What is this? 2006? Most of the DRM is not detrimental, and it's not like the ICT was ever implemented.

None of the DRM should be detrimental, since it doesn't actually serve a purpose.

[Slime]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wonderful

What is this? 2006? Most of the DRM is not detrimental, and it's not like the ICT was ever implemented.

I guess I should have clued in, because I know you can use component cables with the PS3. It's good to know that standalone players let you use them too. And given the fact that the stuff about "bootlegged DVDs = dead player" was debunked pre-release, I'm going to assume that this probably is from 2006. And while I don't have a Blu-ray player myself to confirm, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other points are outdated as well.

[GrandMoffTarkin]

I own a PS3, and a 1080p HD television I just bought last year. The difference in quality is breathtaking.

I have an upconverter for standard DVD's, but I can tell the difference.

Blu-Ray by far has the best picture, hands down.

[V99]

At the moment I couldn't care less.
HDTVs are still too expensive and so are Blu-Ray players and discs.

I'm still sitting tight until the format fully matures and comes down in price.

[nighthawkx]

Originally Posted by GDwarf

None of the DRM should be detrimental, since it doesn't actually serve a purpose.

it's only detrimental if you're a pirate.
and if you are a pirate you can circumvent it.

well it might be detrimental since it adds an additional bit of complexity to the units, but that's probably negligible in terms of overall quality and cost.

[sugarpoultry]

Originally Posted by gerudoman

I own a PS3, and a 1080p HD television I just bought last year. The difference in quality is breathtaking.

I have an upconverter for standard DVD's, but I can tell the difference.

Blu-Ray by far has the best picture, hands down.

Yeah sure, its good quality, but for a little difference its not worth the price.

Plus, all the crap that comes along with it (from the article posted), more DRM, you have to have access to the internet to update, not everything will work with it... its just annoying and I'll never deal with it. DVD's are just fine and I have a wonderful experience watching them.

[nighthawkx]

Originally Posted by sugarpoultry

Yeah sure, its good quality, but for a little difference its not worth the price.

Plus, all the crap that comes along with it (from the article posted), more DRM, you have to have access to the internet to update, not everything will work with it... its just annoying and I'll never deal with it. DVD's are just fine and I have a wonderful experience watching them.

depends on what you mean the price.

if you spent $5000 on a TV, $600 on a PS3 you'de have bought regardless, $1500 on an audio setup, etc. I highly doubt that spending an extra $100 here and there will matter all that much

and the difference between blu ray and DVD is greater than the diference between DVD and VHS from what I see. Higher end VHS tapes were in my opinion not too bad. Same way that some photographers still prefer film over digital equipment in some cases. Analogue is usually more expensive and less precise, but it has it's place in the scheme of things.

[sugarpoultry]

Well, I've always said if you want to buy blu-ray, PS3 is the way to go.

But even if you get all your equipment and you can afford it, you still have to deal with lame DRM.

[nighthawkx]

Originally Posted by sugarpoultry

Well, I've always said if you want to buy blu-ray, PS3 is the way to go.

But even if you get all your equipment and you can afford it, you still have to deal with lame DRM.

or you have to circumvent the DRM, last time I checked every encryption scheme which was to last 100 years lasted... 100 hours or so.
and if you legally purchased the disc who cares?
or hell why not go the HTPC route? $200 blu ray drive + harddrive and stream it to the screen pause rewind etc. a lot of features when you go that route and if you've decrypted the DRM scheme and saved the image to the hardrive.. well...

[sugarpoultry]

Originally Posted by nighthawkx

or you have to circumvent the DRM, last time I checked every encryption scheme which was to last 100 years lasted... 100 hours or so.
and if you legally purchased the disc who cares?
or hell why not go the HTPC route? $200 blu ray drive + harddrive and stream it to the screen pause rewind etc. a lot of features when you go that route and if you've decrypted the DRM scheme and saved the image to the hardrive.. well...

Sure, you can crack it, but the system makes you update your blu-ray... so you'll have to crack it multiple times.

It's the fact that honest people can't use it conveniently... it's the pirates who get all the benefits for free.

[nighthawkx]

Originally Posted by sugarpoultry

Sure, you can crack it, but the system makes you update your blu-ray... so you'll have to crack it multiple times.

It's the fact that honest people can't u