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RFID To Track Play of DVDs And CDs?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the long-arm-of-DRM dept.

jayp00001 writes, "A Taiwan-based maker of DVDs and CDs for major studios is about to begin putting RFID chips in disks. The eventual aim is for DVD and CD players equipped with an RFID reader to prevent copied or out-of-region disks from being played."

7 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. What a bargain by LividBlivet · · Score: 3, Informative

    Costs more, does less.

    1. Re:What a bargain by tomhudson · · Score: 5, Informative

      Costs more, does less.

      Sony ... is that you?

      Seriously, I've always told my friends to steer away from name-brand dvd players for exactly that reason. My supposedly crappy Apex is region-free out of the box, plays everything I can throw at it, and "just works". Other brands that my friends and relatives bought AFTER I WARNED THEM NOT TO just don't.

      And when I go "I told you so" they go "yeah, but its a name brand and it costs more. It SHOULD work better."

      People don't listen. The worst part ... when their name brand unit dies ... AND THEY DO IT AGAIN! Rrrrr! (And its not even Talk Like A Pirate Day until tomorrow)

  2. Warning Label by celardore · · Score: 4, Informative

    As long as they include a warning label on the CD case (like the 'copy protected' ones), so we can choose not to buy it that will be fine.

  3. Re:If it won't play in my DVD player, it's not a D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    HD DVD doesn't have region encoding YET, but they're planning to add it via firmware update.

  4. Article at ArsTechnica doubts if it will work by Krishna+Dagli · · Score: 4, Informative

    New chip to thwart DVD piracy is a long way off and faces considerable challenges

  5. Re:If it won't play in my DVD player, it's not a D by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · · Score: 3, Informative

    On another, rather important, note, they mention it for HD-DVD. HD-DVD doesn't even _have_ region encoding, so they can't tell me the disc is from the wrong one; that's why I want HD-DVD rather than Blu-Ray.

    This statement needs to be changed to say that HD-DVD doesn't have region encoding now. The fact that it is not being imposed now does not mean that it won't be imposed in the future. A web search can provide some interesting comments on this.

    The thing that I find most interesting about HD-DVD is that the whole idea of PAL or NTSC discs is going away. At least so far it appears that HD-DVD's standard will be 24 fps video and it will expect the hardware (HD-DVD player and TV) to correctly display the image in whatever format is necessary.

  6. Re:Dear USA and a couple of others.... by 91degrees · · Score: 3, Informative

    You'd still sell the different format discs, encoded for the appropriate country. Just not the region coding. I don't think it would matter though. Australia (PAL) and Mexico (NTSC) are in the same region. And Europe (PAL/SECAM) is in the same region as Japan(NTSC). There have even been a few NTSC region 2 encoded discs sold in Europe. Many people in England import US discs, and they don't complain about the drop in quality.