Slashdot Mirror


Microsoft Invents A 'Play-Once Only' DVD

auckland map writes "Microsoft has developed a cheap, disposable pre-recorded DVD disc that consumers can play only once." From the article: " Buying an ordinary DVD of a new film costs between £15 (E22, $26.40) and £20. Microsoft's new disc will enable the studios to release a "play-once, then throw away" copy for as little as £3, much the same as renting a video or DVD. But unlike a rented DVD, the new disc allows consumers to decide when they watch films and there is no need to return it. The new generation of DVD disc will spearhead a fresh assault by Microsoft on the home-entertainment market." Update: 10/06 03:38 GMT by J : Kinda important to read the followup story.

18 of 740 comments (clear)

  1. Already here by robertjw · · Score: 5, Funny

    Already got this - it's called Netflix. You just throw it away in any mailbox.

  2. Re:Here we go again... by stoolpigeon · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's like watching a fly repeatedly run into a glass window. I can only guess that these companies can't help themselves any more than the fly.

    --
    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
  3. Re:Dealing with waste? by mysqlrocks · · Score: 5, Funny

    do they have a plan for millions of now-useless single-play-DVDs and the associated packaging?

    Yes, they're going to resell them to AOL use to then send out their software on the re-formatted discs. You'll be able to throw the same disc away twice.

  4. Bill Gates auditioning for Titanic by TomServo_1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    They didn't mention in the article how this would be done... some sort of DRM (new format) or is the disc itself made out of some material that will corrupt the data shortly after being read by the laser?

    From the article: "Showing a video of himself dressed in a sailor suit pretending to audition for the blockbuster Titanic, Gates pitched Hollywood with the proposition that only Microsoft could solve its piracy problem"

    Is there a pirated video of this available anywhere?

  5. Re:Play once ? by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hush, hush, Don't tell them!

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  6. Reminds me of a cartoon by geoswan · · Score: 4, Funny
    This reminds me of a comic I read decades ago:

    Two scientists in lab coats. One is holding up a test-tube. He says:

    Finally! Success! A moth that eats synthetic fibers!

  7. Re:Explode by generic-man · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wow. Remind me never to watch DVDs in Michigan.

    --
    For more information, click here.
  8. DIVX II? DIVX XP? VISTA DIVX! DIVX++ HD-DIVX? by cepler · · Score: 3, Funny

    Here we go again, DIVX take two! I wonder if Circuit City will be selling them...

  9. obviously... by Gogo0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Microsoft Invents A 'Rip-Once Only' DVD

  10. 50 years later... by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 5, Funny

    Microsoft developed a "view once" neural movie format that will erase the corresponding contents of your memory after you play a video. This way you won't be able to remember what you saw and copy it to the unprotected and forbidden physical media.

    Microsoft expects to ship its "Amnesia(TM)" DRM technology by the next year. However, the first people who tested it complained that their enjoyment experience was erased too. Microsoft is currently working on a bugfix.

  11. Re:Here we go again... by wljones · · Score: 4, Funny

    I will file news of the "Play Once Only" DVD in the Write Only Memory on my home network.

  12. Re:"Revolutionary" by jmichaelg · · Score: 4, Funny
    You obviously don't have kids. When your kid lets out a yell that says "I'm being murdered and if you're not here in 10 seconds flat I'm going to be dead," the last thing you're going to be doing is rummaging around for the remote.

    Generally the scream is almost accurate. When you find out said kid yelled because he couldn't find his favorite toy, his 10 second demise forecast turns out to have been only off by 30 seconds.

  13. Re:Here we go again... by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Funny

    But being that it runs on windows, it will probably be hacked by simply holding down the shift key. Just like all those "Copy Protected" cds they are putting out lately.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  14. Re:We buy disposable cars, why not DVDs? by vsprintf · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why spend all this time and effort to make something last only once, when it should last forever??

    Microsoft is giving the studios what they really want: a pay-per-view product on media. (I'm sure the RIAA would love to have the same thing for CDs.) The problem is that the MS solution requires special DVD players, which makes all existing DVD players unusable with these discs. Even then, I don't see what's to stop me from running the output to my Linux PC's TV card and burning a regular DVD (unless MS also intends to require special TVs). I hereby declare this DRM scheme DOA.

    What Microsoft really wants is that lock on DRM servers that was mentioned, but the studios are so avaricious that they will jump at any dumb solution that's offered and fill Microsoft's coffers while chasing the ghost of a dead business model. Everybody think about the great (new) movies you've seen in the past year that came from the major studios and shout 'em out . . . Okay, nevermind.

    What's funny is the title of the linked article, Microsoft invents a 'one-play only' DVD to combat Hollywood piracy. Hollywood has always been a great promoter of piracy. There must be hundreds of movies glorifying piracy. The most recent I can think of is Pirates of the Caribbean, where the pirates are the funny, intelligent, good guys. Is Hollywood sending us mixed messages?

  15. Re:We buy disposable cars, why not DVDs? by mattspammail · · Score: 3, Funny

    Shoot, Saturn goes that many miles in 10 1/3 hours, its average orbital speed being around 9.6 km/s.

    But then, I guess that's not really a domestic vehicle then.

    --
    Now accepting PayPal donations!
  16. Re:Here we go again... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    ok, you wanted to watch your shit ... but what does that have to do with driving there? Or was your car like Knight Rider and it watched over your cloths for you?

    A shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man with heavily soiled underwear. Night Washer, a young loner on a crusade, to clean those stains, the organic, the chemical. In a world of laundromats that operate 24 hours a day...

  17. Re:Here we go again... by jigyasubalak · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now, that's a give-away. Now that this new technology doesn't require new DVD players, I say, what stops us from making a copy of it during the first and only play that it allows? Admitted, not everyone will be able to make it. But not everyone is as aware of their digital rights, privacy, blah, blah like the /.ers :) Atleast, the /.ing l33t crowd can rest assured that nothing can come in their way of perpetual record of their p0rn.

    --
    The best planning can be done after the project completes.
  18. Re:DixV the codec is not DIVX the failure by CreatureComfort · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you need information about Circuit City's DIVX, you might try the DIVX Owners' Association.
    Yeah, the three of them need a forth for bridge.

    --
    "Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
    Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar