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

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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.

Please Note - More details:
Be sure to check out the full details under related releases.

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