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New Sony DVDs Not Working In Some Players
An anonymous reader writes "It seems that the most recent DVDs released by Sony — specifically Stranger Than Fiction, Casino Royale, and The Pursuit of Happyness — have some kind of 'feature' that makes them unplayable on many DVD players. This doesn't appear to be covered by the major media yet, but this link to a discussion over at Amazon gives a flavor of the problems people are experiencing. A blogger called Sony and was told the problem is with the new copy protection scheme, and they do not intend to fix it. Sony says it's up to the manufacturers to update their hardware."
Sony DRM pissing customers off. Why does that sound so familiar?
I have a question. Is this allowed under the DVD spec? If so, I think the spec is very loosely defined. If not, maybe we could talk to the outlets about not stocking these discs under the "DVDs" section? IANAL, but wouldn't consumer protection laws prohibit that kinda thing?
Sony embeds unreadable data which is just an unnoticeable blip on most players, but halts copying and some playback apparently.
The music studios got in trouble with Phillips on that score: they were told flatly that if it doesn't conform to the published spec they can't use any relevant tradmarks, call it a Compact Disc, use the CD logo, etc. But given how the DVD industry is structured, I doubt much will come of this.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
That's what I was thinking as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the Sony reps didn't lead him down the wrong road.
Reading the comments at Amazon and the blog, it sounds like it's just certain NEW models of players that aren't working. So instead of saying "It's our new copy protection and we won't fix it, but you can update your machine,' they should have said, "There's a bug in these models of players and they need a PATCH, which we are working on."
I guess they need to tell the truth (hah hah hah) but it seems unlikely that it could be the players and not the disks.
However, I guess if it's a relatively SMALL set of disks that have problems on these players....
I don't know. I still vote that there's nothing changed about the DISKs, and it's just a flaw with the devices.
--Welcome to the Realm of the Hawke--
They may have found a way to fully comply with the DVD specifications while at the same time taking advantage of a flaw to implement copy protection of sorts.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Torrent + living in the Netherlands + DVD writer = no problem (and legal)
What would you do without a monitor? Sit and look stupid behind a keyboard and a mouse
Fair enough, we do not intend to support your arrogance. Welcome to our blacklist.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
Buy a copy, open, find out the DVD is "broken" take back for exchange. Rinse - Repeat a few times. If everyone does this they'll fix it.
Dallas Real Estate
the gf made me download the movie,
I wonder, honestly, what the legal status of your download is. You paid for a copy of the movie, you now have a copy of the movie, but an unauthorized format was used when the authorized format failed.
We are all just people.
Where did you buy it that they let you return it after it was opened?
Some standards are holding up just fine. My 60 year telephone still works in any north american phone outlet. I can get music and news on my 60 year old radio, and I can listen to new records on my 60 year phonograph...once.
What?
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I see a lot of people saying that encryption is futile because all it takes is one person breaking the encryption for it to be all over the internet. This is certainly true, but I don't think that's the kind of piracy Sony is trying to stop with these particular measures. They're probably just trying to make it a pain in the ass for me to pop a rented DVD into my PowerBook and rip or copy it, for myself or my friends. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who don't use p2p (either because they don't have the bandwidth, or they're intimidated by the MPAA, or they think it's immoral), but wouldn't hesitate to burn a copy for a friend. After all, even the courts considered that "fair use" for cassettes at some point, didn't they?
Most stores wont do refund for an opened title - most will only exchange for the exact same title. However, you take the new one home, find it defective as well, then go back. If stores have to ship enough opened units back there will be some reaction, maybe. Assuming they dont just re-shrink wrap it and sell it again.
Agreed.
I started DLing video games (my prior last bastion of copyright respect) when I got NWN and was angered at the number of bugs out of the box (most reportedly fixed by the 1.23 release. Let me repeat 1.TWENTY-THREE, implying there were 22 other releases post-shipping) and a forum post suggested that with the no-CD crack it played better. It didn't. But, in searching for a solution (that ironically didn't work) I found out about the world of game downloads and No-CD cracks. I had never noticed it until then.
Then I downloaded the no-cd cracks for the other games I had purchased and played.
Then, next time I wanted to buy a game, I downloaded it and the crack "to see if it was bug free before I bought it". Honestly, I realy intended that. But low and behold, I got around to the buying part less and less.
Now, years later, I rarely play games anymore (life is too hectic) but when I do, they are downloaded and cracked.
The Library for DVDs & CDs.
BitTorrent for the 5 TV shows I watch (1 US reality show, 1 AU show, 1 UK show, 2 HBO shows).
Did you report the dvd's as defective? It should be plan that if they do not play in a stand alone dvd when all other dvds to that they are defective. When you rent/buy these disk and they do not work simply return them as defective. Once walmart gets a stack of these fucker a mile high they will smack down sony nice and good.
As evil as walmart is sometimes being the 10,000 pound gorilla does have it's uses.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
left hand: make decent hardware...Profit!
right hand: break hardware made by left hand...don't tell left hand about it....Profit?
Java has no friends.
I grabbed a torrent of Casino Royale a few days ago because it came up in conversation with some friends, and really liked it, liked it enough for me to buy it the next time I was near a video store - I wanted the better picture quality, and the extra features, and to free up the space on my drive. Now that I know it's copyright protected to the point of being unplayable? Sorry Sony; you just lost my twenty bucks. Sucks to be you.
Triv
This will depend very much on the local laws. In Australia a DVD that fails to play in a significant number of DVD players meets the statutory definition of unmerchantability, which requires goods to be suitable for every purpose for which they are normally bought (unlike other places where they have to be suitable for just one of the purposes for which they are normally bought). This will give the consumer the right to a refund, but won't lead to any penalty.
The US is similar, there is an implied warranty that items will work for the purpose there sold.
Of course, I think a more effective solution is to return enough to major vendors such as Wal Mart to get them to slap Sony upside the wallet.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
"but like some "CDs" in the past that incorporated some copy protection and couldn't carry the CD logo/seal any longer on the cover"
"Some?" A pseudorandom sample of CDs inspected at some local big-name stores that sell CDs have produced no CD audio logos that I could find. These newfangled "FBI warnings" seem to have taken their place.
You need to use dd_rescue instead. This version of dd basically ignores the errors and was initially intended to be used to recover data from failing or failed disks. You can tell dd_rescue to null load the "bad" data areas.
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
advocating passing the buck
It's the shop's choice to stock a product that will not work in some perfectly alright DVD players. The customer has is in a business relation with the shop, not the manufacturer or the supplier of the disc. The shop is in a business relationship with the supplier. If the customer gets a product that is not "fit for purpose" (and there is no doubt that that is the case here), then he takes it up with the shop. If the shop also has a problem with the product, they need to deal with it on their end.
I'll say it more delicately than the other guy who got moderated "flamebait!"
While many aspects may have been indistinguishable between Bush and Gore/Kerry, there are still many which are. While it's not clear that 9/11 wouldn't have happened with Gore in office, it's entirely possible. The current administration steadfastly and deliberately ignored the Middle East until 9/11. (Their #1 priority was getting out of the ABM treaty so they could begin testing and deploying the stuff.) Then there's the Clean Air Act, Katrina, not to mention Iraq. (And I haven't even mentioned Peak Oil or greenhouse.)
No matter how Libertarian or Progressive you want to think you are, you simply can't say that there is no distinction whatsoever between Democrats and Republicans.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Where this all breaks down, of course, is the fact that many commercial DVD copying tools already can "pad bad sectors" on read.
My non-computer-tech neighbor (who is a Mac user like me) and I struck up a conversation at the mailbox when I got my Netflix discs recently. We talked about what movies we rent and buy, and he picked up a copy of Casino Royale at the video store down the street. It didn't work on his fairly new (Sony branded, I might point out) DVD player.. and..
(here's the punchline)
".. Here's the part I don't understand. When it didn't work, I tried to copy it using Fast DVD Copy.. the copy works just fine, so I just play the copy."
Sucks to be Sony. This guy had to have me help set up his DVD player, for cripes sake.
Second, if "CD" is a trademark, then selling a CD-like device as-if it were a CD can violate the trademark, and the trademark holder can pursue a remedy against the misrepresenter
What's troublesome here is that Sony and Phillips that established the red book standard. Now if Sony holds that trademark, along with Phillips, it might be a bit tricky for Sony to sue themselves.
That's why the market should be deathly afraid of a Blue-Ray DVD victory. It'll mean that Sony will control the standard and move it around as it suits Sony. Amongst other reasons that is. It might certainly be [slightly] more superior than HD-DVD, although who's eyes can tell?
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I don't pirate DVDs (or CDs) - I know how to, but to date I have only copied CDs I own to play at work (after some original discs were stolen after hours) and in the car, and the odd DVD I own to play in the laptop when I am away for work (don't want to lug/lose the original). I am not that fussed that other people do, but my basic ethics mean I don't. Here we have a Fair Trading Act that means that product that is not of merchantable quality can be returned. Were I interested in Casino Royale (I am not) I would officially now have no moral qualms about purchasing it, copying it, and returning for a refund.
Sony, you have just changed the rules - you dont respect my rights, I won't respect yours, GAME ON!
That's why the market should be deathly afraid of a Blue-Ray DVD victory. It'll mean that Sony will control the standard and move it around as it suits Sony. Amongst other reasons that is. It might certainly be [slightly] more superior than HD-DVD, although who's eyes can tell?
Actually, the point that Blu Ray is superior to HD-DVD is actually a misconception and factually wrong. Blu-Ray was considered that way because of the fact that it discs capacity is larger and the technology of using a blue high intensity laser is new technology. However that being said, The Blu-Ray standard uses MPEG2 encoding which is old technology (which explains the reason for new technology). This means that Blu-Ray needed to be brought to the market because it required a disc large enough to capture the same quality of video that HD-DVD offers which the new video compression H.264 that it uses (the newest format on the market widely used by Apple, Nero, and Divx). HD-DVD uses less space since it is better compression method to achieve the same picture, and since Toshiba just announced HD-DVD capicity that is now 51 gigs (Making it 1 gig bigger than Blu-Ray) and being backwards compatiable to original DVD's, I think everybody isn't getting the full picture but a smokescreen.
Blu-Ray new DVD manufacturing process but old compression requiring a large disk
HD-DVD old manufacturing process with newest compression requiring less space + backwards compatible and now larger disk
In Australia a DVD that fails to play in a significant number of DVD players meets the statutory definition of unmerchantability, which requires goods to be suitable for every purpose for which they are normally bought (unlike other places where they have to be suitable for just one of the purposes for which they are normally bought).
What purpose other than "to watch in my DVD player" would normally be applied to a video DVD?
If it doesn't work in my DVD player yet every other disk I own does - along with a number of other new ones purchased at the same time - it's perfectly reasonable for me to conclude that the disk is broken and demand a replacement. If several replacements don't work - must have been a bad batch at the factory. The folk on minimum wage or very near it at my local record store aren't likely to be experts on Sony's copy protection, and it's totally unreasonable for them to expect their customers to be.
...and do it at Walmart.
There are a few resons for this...
#1 walmart will always give you a refund or exchange
#2 it's a hassle for Walmart too (2 birds 1 stone)
#3 if Walmart tells Sony they won't carry it anymore Sony will cave.