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."

Comments

Gee.

[Khaed]

Sony DRM pissing customers off. Why does that sound so familiar?

Re:Gee.

[Ledsock]

Indeed. When it didn't work for me, I just launched DVDFab Decrypter, temporarily copied it to my computer, and it played perfectly. Ironic that the only way I could watch a movie I had legally rented was to illegally copy it.

Re:Class action lawsuit anyone?

[ScrewMaster]

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.

Re:Works For Me

[Marc_Hawke]

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.

Sony arrogance to a new low

[AnalogDiehard]

We Do Not Intend To Fix It

Fair enough, we do not intend to support your arrogance. Welcome to our blacklist.

Easy

[RealEstateGuy]

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.

Re:Stranger than Fiction

[Original Replica]

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.

Re:Class action lawsuit anyone?

[digitig]

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. Yes -- and when did you last see any of those things on what-looks-like-a-CD packaging? Hereabouts it all seemed to vanish from the packaging at about the time Philips made that clampdown.

Re:Xine

[Lord Apathy]

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.

The best comment from the blog entry

[ween14]

I love this quote right at the top of the entry about Sony:

they have in fact made their latest releases unplayable on some DVD players, including my Sony DVP-CX995V DVD player. I don't think we even need another sign of the incompetence of Sony then the fact that they break their own hardware with their ill-conceived protection mechanisms. Obviously Sony divisions no longer talk to one another about what they are doing. This is a shame considering that communication between units was how Sony invented one of their most profitable items ever...the Walkman.

left hand: make decent hardware...Profit!
right hand: break hardware made by left hand...don't tell left hand about it....Profit?

Re:That's the problem

[Guppy06]

"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.

Re:Bait and Switch

[dpilot]

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.

Re:That's the problem

[rainman_bc]

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?