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Avatar Blu-Ray DRM Issues
geekd writes "Once again, DRM only hurts legit content purchasers: 'An unusual glitch has angered some Avatar Blu-ray owners. For these unlucky people, since the disc won't play on their Blu-ray players, their new Avatar DVD serves no real purpose other than to sit idly on the coffee table. ... It appears the main culprit concerning playback issues with Avatar is, ironically, the disc's DRM (digital rights management). ... Even with updated firmware, a lot of Blu-ray players weren't prepared for these security measures. Despite the security problems, bootleggers are having a field day. Pirated copies of Avatar, according to Los Angeles Times, were available as early as January.'"
Reader Murpster adds that this problem isn't specific to the Blu-ray version: "Got a regular Avatar DVD and it won't play on either of my DVD players. It will play on one computer DVD drive, if I want to watch it on a 12-inch screen."
Everytime they shoot themselves in the foot like this, public awareness and knowledge of DRM goes up. Even though the consumers are being hurt by this, it will make them realize that it's not always as easy as "buy, own, use however I want" anymore -- word of mouth is a powerful force in this industry.
And right now, the word is... fail.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
One could argue that DRM actually fixed this movie. :)
http://www.beanleafpress.com
It isn't worth the price premium when you can't backup and it won't play without more tools to prevent you from backing up or even watching it.
the main culprit concerning playback issues with Avatar is, ironically, the disc's DRM (digital rights management).
What's ironic about that? If you had expanded the acronym correctly, you would probably understand that it's just consequential.
This was a bare-bones release anyway. I'm waiting for the double-dip release which will inevitably contain a metric assload of extras. I have no desire to watch the movie again (although I did enjoy it strictly from an entertainment point of view)...I do, however, have great interest in watching any making-of featurettes that may be included.
DRM issues or no, I'm steering clear of this release.
Living With a Nerd
has verbiage on the back that says "This disc is copy protected" Didn't stop a direct show based solution from ripping it (never does), It played fine on the portable DVD player, played fine on the $20 dvd player on the kid's TV, played fine on the computer.
I still haven't bought in to blu-ray though so I can't speak to that.
Also from the op... 12 inch screen... a 23 inch 1080p monitor is like 150 bucks, come on.
Too bad you don't have a choice to buy it. The movie company is treating you like a Criminal, making you sit through FBI warnings, and is providing a product that may or may not work compared to the pirate version, which is what most people want.
From TFA:
In reality, the disc works fine; the problem stems from the Blu-ray players themselves. In order to run optimally, the firmware for these fancy Blu-ray machines needs to be updated regularly via a download from the Web. ...
If a Blu-ray player owner doesn't have a home Internet connection, the chances are good the player's firmware will be out of date.
Wow, this is cringe-worthy. I mean, Blu-ray quality is so awesome, it needs a connection to the internet! Did someone from Ubisoft work on the blu-ray spec, or was it the other way around?
It breaks my pluginses, my precious!
If you want the problem solved, take your copies back to best buy or walmart and exchange them 4 or 5 times. Tell them this wont play, it must be faulty. If that becomes so much of a problem with hundred of returns at each store, they will complain to the distributors about how many returns they are getting and how much it is costing them. If walmart is not happy, things will be changed.
TFA says "In reality, the disc works fine; the problem stems from the Blu-ray players themselves. In order to run optimally, the firmware for these fancy Blu-ray machines needs to be updated regularly via a download from the Web. "
Uh, no, Mike Ryan, the disc does not work fine. If it did it would play in existing Blue-ray players without requiring a firmware update. Instead, the disc uses newer DRM that was essentially guaranteed to cause this problem, and the blame for the defect is put on consumers for "failing" to keep their Blue-ray player permanently attached to the internet so the Blu-ray DRM overlords could update (and rescind) earlier DRM. And media shills like you repeat the lie.
A disc that works fine would, you know, work fine. And failure to play *at all* isn't an examples of Blue-ray players not behaving "optimally", it is an example of **failure**. DRM fail.
When will the studios ever figure out that the DRM isn't stopping piracy at all, and only hurts the honest customers?
It's a bitter irony that the pirates offer a better product: it will play in any player (no DRM), it probably doesn't force you to watch an "FBI warning", it probably doesn't have a commercial about how evil it is to pirate things, and it probably doesn't have endless trailers for other discs.
And it seems like discs get more and more annoying over time. Now it's not just the FBI warning, but also a studio logo, a distributor logo, a warning that "if you listen to the commentary, the views expressed may not represent the official views of the movie studio", and then finally an annoying long intro sequence (that may contain spoilers) before the menu finally appears to allow you to actually play the movie. The trailers are usually skippable but all the rest are not! You have to put up with this stuff anytime you want to watch the movie! Again, I'm pretty sure that the pirates don't do all this stuff, making the pirated product better.
Once anybody, anywhere in the world, has released an illegal copy of your content, it's all over. No amount of DRM that punishes the honest customers can get that content back once it's on the Internet. Why do they even try?
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
"It appears the main culprit concerning playback issues with Avatar is, ironically, the disc's DRM"
That word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual.
When only criminals can watch movies then everyone will know how to hack their way into watching a movie they bought with their hard earned money.
If DRM needs to be bypassed it will be bypassed.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Come on now - you know that getting around the protection to a legally purchased product is illegal. Not only illegal - but it encourages terrorists and heroin addicts. Think of the children, please ?
the answer seems to be yes.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
DRM will always need to be bypassed as long as it exist.
The people responsible for the DRM are hoping that this need won't apply to the average consumer, who doesn't want to make backups, to utilize their fair use rights on the movie, or to play it on Linux. And while I feel bad for everyone that got fucked up by the DRM now, I'm happy that they failed to make it seemingly unobtrusive. If DRM issues were more widespread, the DRM would slowly die and stop breaking it for us, the minority who are crazy enough to do things that are outside of what the movie makers intended to be done with their work.