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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.
Because when only criminals can watch movies, then ... er ... all the children will have guns. Or something.
"Lost time is not found again."
The stable release of AnyDVD HD (6.6.3.4) doesnt support Avatar, but the beta version does ( http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=40115 ). It took me longer to update the firmware on my bluray player than it took me to update AnyDVD HD. Though the actual ripping still takes about 4 hours...
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!
FTA:
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.
Of course they need this, to try and avoid the problems with older DVD encryption that had to store the keys on the disk and the player.
Hence easily broken.
Still, it's a bit of stretch to think that everyone who has a Blueray DVD, (especially a stand-alone one), will be able to keep it updated via the tubes.
As always, DRM punishes the honest customers, and is busted fast by the hackers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AACS_encryption_key_controversy
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.
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
Due to restrictive policies put in place by the big evil corporation to restrict the power of people who own the material, I can't watch a movie about a big evil corporation who is restricting and stealing from a people who own the material?
Wow. I think I figured out why the natives were blue.
"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.
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.
the answer seems to be yes.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
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
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.
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.