First Blu-ray Drives Won't play Blu-ray Movies

aapold writes "Sony officially announced its BWU-100A product at its "Experience More 2006" event in Sydney yesterday, all the while acknowledging that there's significant room for improvement before the product is viable for integration into media centre PCs. Sony's product manager for data storage, told CNET.com.au that due to copy protection issues and lagging software development, the drive will only play user-recorded high-definition content from a digital camcorder, and not commercial movies released under the BD format." All this hullabaloo makes me want neither side to win. If only I didn't desperately crave HD content on my TV!

Comments

Genius!

[C0R1D4N]

That's gonna take the market by storm for sure.

if companies from the past behaved

[yagu]

If companies from the past behaved as companies today:

• Transistor radio announced. Will not play radio transmissions other than those from owners' transmitters.
• Color TV! All Shows reproduced in realistic black and white (those are colors, aren't they?)
• 100,000 mile car tires! Guaranteed for 10,000 miles!
• 10-speed bicycles! (speeds are produced by owner pedaling at various cadences)
• Stereo Hi-Fi! Two channels of high-fidelity sound through one speaker!
• Windows! (opaque)
• Digital Cable! oh wait, never mind.

But hey, not all is lost, from the fine article:

Bautista is optimistic that both issues will be resolved "soon", and says that despite not being able to play commercial content, the drive is still useful as a "storage device"...

So the drive is "useful as a storage device". Cool! Now I can get rid of my 250GX2 SATA Raid and keep my data on something useful. Technology just doesn't get any better than this.

Note to providers of stuff: It doesn't matter why your machine can't do what it's even named after(!), it can't. Don't bring us your tired, your poor, ... the wretched refuse of your product lines until they do what they're supposed to do! What a Colossus boner.

Re:if companies from the past behaved

[muyuubyou]

Funny that you mention a couple of technologies that were pioneered by Sony back in the day.

Ibuka and Morita must be spinning in their graves. They could as well power the PS3 by installing dynamo generators in their graves.

How low has Sony fallen since they passed away?

They encourage piracy....

[krell]

But won't the player play BD content that has been cracked and then burned onto a BluRay disc in the format that the player will accept?

Is it really worth it, anyway?

[mark0]

I'm looking at a Superbit copy of 5th Element on my Oppo OPDV971H upconverted to 1080i and it looks great. I'm sure Blu-ray would look better, but would it really look so much better that I'd be ready to toss my current DVDs and player for that difference? Especially considering all of the baggage that comes with it?

I'll wait for the price to come way way down and all of the DRM to be cracked... probably when the next format is announced.

Re:So much for Sony in the coming format war!

[Bonker]

This is really typical of Sony. For the last 30 years Sony has iterated this process over and over again.

1. Develop really nice content format.
2. Promote the hell out of new content format.
3. Artificially CRIPPLE THE FUCK out of new content format.
4. Wonder why people aren't buying new content format.
5. Abandon new content format.

See also: BetaMax, MiniDisc, MemoryStick, UDF, etc...

I should say this is really typical of Sony USA. Things like MiniDisc were really popular in Japan, but the restrictions imposed on the format came from pressures from Sony's U.S. media divisions.

Sony execs and marketing people refuse to learn from their mistakes, so they keep repeating them. They've been doing it over and over again for literally decades now.

As a matter of fact, unless HD-DVD manages to be as easy to uncripple as DVDs (and it appears that it will be), it too will be stillborn.

Bittorrent has already won this war.

[plasmacutter]

All this hullabaloo makes me want neither side to win. If only I didn't desperately crave HD content on my TV!

go to torrentspy or any other large site and search "hr hdtv"..

blu-ray and hd-dvd are overhyped and already obsolete.

h.264 encoded matroska at 600 mb or so an hour can do the job of these overbloaded and DRM ridden things.

and what's with this.. they expect pc owners to accept the kind of draconian superuser control over their pcs which are specified in their AACS restrictions? Give me a break, it'll never happen.

Re:Next media should be defined by the community.

[plasmacutter]

yes, it's called matroska with h.264 video, aac audio, and srt subtitles ; )..

it's been the standard with anime groups for the past couple years.

In other news...

[brainnolo]

rumors say that the first Blu-ray player won't even have a laser, because they want to introduce the technology gradually.

Sheer moronitude

[Dachannien]

Sony Electronics: Well, we're ready to sell the first Blu-Ray players, but there's this little unfinished DRM issue preventing us from getting started before HD-DVD makes any headway.
Sony Pictures Entertainment: Sorry, we need our DRM.
Sony Electronics: We could be selling these players and achieving market dominance, though.
Sony Pictures Entertainment: DRM.
Sony Electronics: You could also be selling tons of brand new Blu-Ray discs now.
Sony Pictures Entertainment: Hello? DRM?
Sony Electronics: Our players could be in homes across America and around the world in time for the winter holiday season this year, and you'd be selling high def movies like hotcakes.
Sony Pictures Entertainment: What part of "DRM" don't you understand?
Sony Electronics: Fine, DRM, whatever. I just hope we don't become laughing stocks when we go to Australia this summer.

Also

[DysenteryInTheRanks]

"Sony also unveiled a 120-inch plasma screen television limited to black-and-white programming; a version of the PlayStation that only plays games toggled in on the front panel in assembler; and the 'BurnMan,' a silicon-over-plexiglass contraption that scans in and verifies $100 bills before slowly igniting them for your viewing pleasure, one at a time."

Great Idea!

[the jerk store]

...and says that despite not being able to play commercial content, the drive is still useful as a "storage device", .... The Sony BWU100A has a write speed of 2x and will be available this month for AU$1399.

I'm a little short on storage space in my house. I think I'll go buy a new Range Rover, put it on blocks on my driveway and fill it with junk from the attic.

*cough* *cough*

[Cynonamous Anoward]

a little tip - www.divx.com - DivX 6.1 Supports 720p. plans for 1080i and even 1080p in the works, all with advanced MPEG-4 encoding features, to preserve high quality at extremely low bitrates. DVD players should be out in time for Xmas, at price points only slightly above current SD DVD players. DivX 6 can squish a full length HD movie onto a single DVD, including multiple audio and subtitle tracks. screw new discs, new hardware, new DRM, and new high prices. kthnx.

Re:You for got 4.5!

[Keith Russell]

The devil in the details is Sony's split personality:

1. Consumer Electronics division develops really nice content format.
2. CE division promotes the hell out of new content format.
3. Big Media division catches wind of new content format, and demands DRM shackles.
4. Accountants see how much more profit Big Media division brings in, and forces CE division to comply.
5. New content format lands with a thud in the marketplace.
6. One division or the other abandons new content format.

I say "one division or the other" because it varies. CE will hang on to formats that are useful outside of Big Media's influence. Beta lived on in professional circles, MiniDisc found new life in NetMD, and Memory Stick is still their preferred camera memory format. UMD looks like it's dead to both sides. (PSP : UMD movies :: chicken : egg) Looks like CE is already losing interest in Blu-Ray, with this non-Big-Media-compliant drive.