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."

Comments

your opinion is not a consensus one

[YesIAmAScript]

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. '

Bought the Blu-Ray and DVD Combo - Both Broken

[gadlaw]

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.