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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."
Yeah, I got the release and I'll probably buy the double/triple dip version when it comes out. I will admit though, that the mastering is quite good and the bitrate is high (the movie's 46GB). Perhaps my one and only complaint would be the lack of high-bitrate audio (it's just 48kHz/24bit - not 96/192. And no, the reason for the high bitrate is not because you can hear those high frequencies, it's the aliasing - a brick-wall 20kHz filter causes tons of distortion. But let the filter work from 20-odd to 48/96kHz, and it can be really linear).
It is one blu-ray to use to show off your home theatre setup, though. Also, there's less dynamic range compression, so you'll have to crank it up, literally.
Conceivably, Internet speeds will only increase in the next decade. I think 60-100 mbps average household connection by 2020 isn't that far-fetched (and it may, in fact, be significantly more). At that point, streaming HD video into homes would not be difficult at all, and I think more and more distribution houses are going to start doing just that.
Case-in-point: DRM on streamed video can be implemented significantly more thoroughly than via physical medium. I wouldn't be surprised if Blu-Ray/DVD releases stopped being the norm and instead people bought streaming rights to a film from a co-op like Hulu, or straight from distributers like Universal/Paramount/etc. They can continue to charge ridiculous fees like $25-$30 per film, with extras, etc. And you get "lifetime" access (lifetime in quotes, of course, because it will never be like that if you never actually own a physical copy) for that price... or they can do things like "rent out" movies (which would put rental houses out of business; precisely what these publishers want, since because of the doctrine of first sale, they don't see any profit from rentals; this would eliminate that completely) for $5 a day or something. They can even sell the extra features separately for a few dollars a piece.
And if they implement the DRM correctly, encrypt the stream itself, and black-box the decryption system (via a TPM-like chip or something along those lines), it's very possible that it will be *extremely difficult* to pirate future content such as movies. They can even somehow embed the user's ID into the stream (via watermark/stegonography; I'm not an expert here so bear with me), so if pirates did manage to grab and release the stream, somehow, they can track down the source and prosecute.
Finally, this system would basically always work. Users wouldn't see the problems they're having right now with DRM, and, on top of that, they won't have a bunch of DVDs/Blu-Rays lying around that they'd have to find room for. Plus they get a searchable catalog and a bunch of other stuff that comes with having a purely digital library.
Not saying it's a good thing, necessarily, just that it's probably inevitable.
This is not from the master. This is from an analogue print
WTF?
I watched the movie in 3D at a Digital Imax theatre. Clearly there exists a really beautiful digital copy they could have downsampled. They instead did a transfer from film? Why oh why would they do that?
Are you sure of this? Do you have a reference?
I tend to think of it as lost revenue. Because of this issue, people could be forced to return the BD+. Then some percentage of them will download it as opposed to wait for the problem to get fixed.
Hell, the people who ripped it and uploaded it may already returned it, claiming to have been affected (people who rip and upload movies not being well-known for honesty concerning disk purchases).
Your ad here. Ask me how!
I am running across this more and more with disc I have been buying....
My solution is first RIP the disk to remove all DRM crap.
Sometimes my software can not copy the disk...
A so next solution is to download THE MOVIE I BOUGHT TO WATCH and copy it to a disk then watch it.
As DRM crap just gets more and more in the way of actually using the products I, and many others, will just skip that buying process and just down it - it is quick and more reliable. It is like buying a car and then the dealer not giving the keys to it.
I bought the Blu-ray the day it came out, gave the DVD to my in-laws and downloaded a phone version off Pirate Bay. Pay attention big content, this is how we consume media in the 21st century.
Good-bye
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/2915/avatar.html
'As for its other image quality attributes, this 'Avatar' Blu-ray is, frankly, perfect. I can find nothing at all wrong with it. The digital video picture is razor sharp and has enormous amount of fine object detail that puts the comparable DVD to shame. There is absolutely no grain or noise in any shot. Nor are there any digital processing artifacts such as artificial sharpening, Digital Noise Reduction, or compression flaws. The vibrant, vibrant, vibrant colors are stunningly beautiful. Cameron uses colors in 'Avatar' that you just don't see in other movies. The contrast range has solid blacks and excellent shadow detail. For a 2-D image, the picture has a terrific sense of depth. Really, this is the best-looking demo material yet released on Blu-ray, regardless of which aspect ratio you watch it in. I'd give it 6 stars if I could. '
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
To further this point. I've talked to "consumers" till I'm blue in the face, but each time I do, I have to repeat what I mean by DRM and Digital Rights Management. My wife finally understands it and usually gives me that "Oh he's going to rant on again to someone else" look when I start on about it. But the rest of my family and friends hardly care, even when they do get burned by it. Half of them are looking at Apple as a viable alternative to Microsoft! (Oh! what wretched state the industry would be in if Macintosh had one the home and business computer war.)
Like Best Buy is going to take back an open movie.
No, but they will exchange it for the same thing. Do that a bunch of times. ("This one doesn't work either")
If piracy was as bad as they claim though, every movie, music and software company would've been out of business years ago.
I think your key word "rampant" needs to be quantified...
Sure they do, they go ask an IT guy at work. We politely tell them what happened and that they can either spend lots of money to replace their player,rip the disc or find it online in the usual places. What they do is up to them.
And some players do not have an update to make this work. Even better will be when they discontinue an old player and you can't play new films on it. Just wait it will happen.
To be fair, they'll exchange it for a closed version of the same movie. Were it a more reputable shop, this would be useful since the store would have to deal with the return to the manufacturer. As each Best Buy has a shrink wrap machine on-site, they'll just wrap it up and stick it back on the shelf.
Which is illegal. Its OK to re-shrink-wrap merchandise returned because the customer didn't like it and it is in like-new condition, but re-shrink-wrapping merchandise that is returned because it is defective is illegal in all 50 states. Since BBY and most other stores won't accept returns of opened media for any other reason than it being defective, any store shrink-wrapping DVD returns has a massive legal liability.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Yup, I happily bought the Combo pack of the Blu-Ray and the DVD. Put the Blu-Ray in and it flat out would not work. It helpfully informed me that if it didn't work it was the fault of my Blu-Ray, which I bought to oh I don't know - PLAY BLU-RAY videos! Three days later, a USB Gigstick and two tedious updates later it finally got to work. A horrible horrible experience I didn't expect to have to go through and I should not have had to go through. Insane to make it harder for me as a customer to use the product. The DVD? Oh it plays alright, but it plays with english subtitles permanently on and there is nothing I can do to turn them off and they cover the bottom third of the screen. Absurd. Thank you for creating a unusable product FOX. Of course, there was no place to complain except at Amazon - I gave a bad review of the Blu-Ray and DVD and I complained to the website of my Blu-Ray player. DRM - Broken by design.
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
Avatar plays fine on my PS3. Looks fabulous. (I blogged about the movie here.) Still not clear why anyone would buy a Bluray player other than a PS3. Horsepower (and therefore loading speed), up-to-date-ness, ability to play games, music, etc... just can't see why you'd want something else. We've got a lot of Bluray titles. They all play flawlessly on the PS3. If I buy a new Bluray tomorrow, I've every reason to think it'll play just fine, too. Sony's been 100% on the ball for us. If my PS3 were to break, I'd complete the purchase of a new one within the hour.
"Works for me."
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.