Did Blu-ray score a goal in its own net with BD+?

" Fantastic Four has BD+ , but will it play?

Blu-ray and DVD news

By Henning Molbaek
First published Oct 3, 2007

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Reports of people having trouble with the new BD+ copy protection are starting to surface. The movies in question are Fox's Blu-ray releases of "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer."

BD+ is an extra layer of copy protection. With it, Sony should be able to change the keys used to unlock it. In short, this means that if a BD+ disc is hacked and copied, Sony can change the keys that secure future discs from being copied.

All in all, a good idea. However, reports of difficulties playing these BD+ protected Blu-ray releases are starting to surface.

Here is what we know so far:
Some Samsung players may be unable to play the discs, but a firmware upgrade should be available or in works. However, other people say they will not play on the latest firmware from the company. Panasonic players will play the discs but load times are high. Again, Playstation 3 seems to be the safest bet when it come to Blu-ray. It seems to play BD+ without problems.

What could be another major problem is that each time the studio changes keys, a firmware upgrade may be needed on some players. To make things worse, many Blu-ray players don't have an Internet connection, making firmware upgrades more difficult.

We hope this is not the case. If so, the Blu-ray camp may have scored a goal in its own net. Copy protection shouldn't make life hard for those who pay hard-earned money for their legal movies. This in the end may push people into downloading illegal movies, where at least they know the movies will play.

Whether you have problems with BD+ discs or whether they work as a charm, please post your comments below. We will return with our own comments when we have tried these discs out ourselves.

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khwiggins2

Oct 3, 2007 - CDT 10:09 AM

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I'm one of those with the affected Samsung player. Extremely irritating that I get home and I'm excited to see that I received my copy of Fantastic Four: RotSS. I load it in the drive and it says loading for about a minute, then I get a big red screen telling me that I need a firmware update in order to play the movie. This SUCKS!. I pay almost $30 dollars for a movie that I can't watch.

So I go to Samsung's web page and the most recent firmware is from May. Hmm, I already loaded that back in May, so I apparently have the latest firmware. So I call Samsung tech support and they are clueless about the issue. The tell me to manually download the firmware and burn it to a cd. I tell them that I had downloaded it through the ethernet connection on the player and it says it's the same version. She says to try it manually. Well, I can't even get a download to complete from their site, the connection keeps dropping (their end, not mine).

Is this what we have to look forward to???? Needing a firmware update to get new titles to work??? What about companies that are notoriously slow with firmware releases? What happens with discontinued players a couple of years down the road?

[Post edited by khwiggins2 on Oct 3, 2007 - CDT 10:09 AM]

kucoloco

Oct 3, 2007 - CDT 10:14 AM

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i feel your pain, i would feel the same way if it were me

Henning

Oct 3, 2007 - CDT 10:58 AM

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Thanks for the comment. It looks like Blu-ray just took it a step to far.

Enough is Enough. One thing is that all special features are not compatible but the movie sure has to be.

We will follow the development and keep you posted. If others have other or similar experiences let us know and reply to this thread.

Falcon01

Oct 3, 2007 - CDT 11:01 AM

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Bluray has been completely messed up since its inception. The bluray camp rushed to release players on the market because HD DVD was out first and they didn't want to be too far behind. Now look who's paying for it. The early adopters which are supposed to be the most important customers. You buy a new hi def movie and can't even watch it on your $1000+ bluray player. And people think bluray is great because??

I won't even buy a PS3 because it has a bluray player in it.

sneakerz

Oct 3, 2007 - CDT 11:06 AM

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Thats why you go buy an HD DVD player. We all knew this would happen it was just a matter of time. I feel for you though and you are right you should be able to sit down and just watch your movies with no problems. And what about the people that are not computer savvy and can't burn firmware updates to a disc, did the companies think about that and not to mention not everyone has internet connection or high speed connection.

danbala

Oct 3, 2007 - CDT 11:22 AM

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Will they accept returned disks under this scenario? Usually, retailers won't accpet returns on opened disks. If so, this situation is a begging for a class action lawsuit.

jackfrost

Oct 3, 2007 - CDT 11:25 AM

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I cant play Fantastic four either

This is annoying. I have both HDDVD and Bluray. I run them on a 1080p TV and cant see any difference. I will tell you one thing these Bluray "Glitchs" are getting stupid if you put out a product it should work..... Just my thoughts

posters5

Oct 3, 2007 - CDT 12:09 PM

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where is johnson316? i'm wondering what lame BS he has to shovel with regards to the blu-ray camp selling discs that can't even be played because they were designed that way.

Falcon01

Oct 3, 2007 - CDT 1:23 PM

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I was thinking the same thing. He's probably in some bluray forum talkin about how great it is to have 50GB disk capacity for all those interactive features...that don't work

posters5

Oct 3, 2007 - CDT 2:35 PM

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interactive stuff on hd dvds and blu-ray discs are stupid anyway. the game on "300" hd dvd is really lame. there is lag time between the remote control and the player chip trying to process the battle. by the time the player accepts your commands, your army is already destroyed by the persians. (N)

as for "rise of the silver surfer"...i have zero interest in being either the silver surfer or galactus.