Yet, another Fox BR title delayed. (1 Viewer)

[Ryan-G]

Well, the whole key to the thing was irresponsible AACS or PC Software player code that left open things it shouldn't have. There have since either been updates, or the promise to update, which should close the hole for the moment.

It's also important to note that the whole thing falls onto the bandwidth/storage problem for pirates at the moment. The bandwidth is so low it'll take days to d/l, and the storage so huge that one cannot realistically store more than a few.

By the time this is no longer an issue, most of the market should be migrated over to Vista. Between Protected Path Video, and Vista Players, the whole problem should go away. This problem anyways.

As such, once the AACS keys are revoked and changed, with updated players, the damage should be fairly limited for the present time. Which means that even with the hacks floating around, it's better to get the library out there and push the format and let storage/bandwidth limit the damage for the present.

 

[BrettB]

BD+ ready to go. Should start seeing Fox, MGM, etc. announcments quite quickly. It's a story on the main page now but I can't figure out how to snag urls/text via the PS3 and diNova kb so you'll have to go get it yourself.

 

[ppltd]

Here you go, Brett. BD+ Fox Story

While I hope you are right about a quick Fox/MGM announcement, I certainly did not see that stated in the report.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Paidgeek from Sony said that a Fox BD with BD+ should be streeting in a couple of weeks. Not sure what the title is...

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Does anybody know if BD+ will be backward compatible with the early Samsung Blu-ray players? My local Best Buy is selling one of these players for $300 on the "Open Box" table.

 

[Cees Alons]

That might be a tricky question, because BD+ requires the player to play a script from the individual disc. AFAIK that functionality is already present in all current players. So, if some sort of key would be generated by a specific script, yes it will probably work.

But because future scripts could do *anything* in principle, there can't be a guarantee for 100% compatibility now. Running a script also means: there's a "language" with agreed-upon commands. Furthermore, future scripts may want to consult a site on the Internet and/or transfer some info from/to it. If your player doesn't have an internet connection, that could be pose a problem when (if) this occurs.

It's highly improbable, though, that the very first releases would do anything that made an existing player incompatible. It would damage the format and certainly force them to replace the disc. (And, BTW, expect several firmware upgrades to your player in the near future!)

So, I think the bottom line is: don't worry!


Cees

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Cees:
Thanks for the reply!

If that player is still on the "Open Box" table tomorrow, I may be ready to go "format neutral"!

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Cees,

excellent points though since BD players aren't required to have an internet connection, I can't see how a particular BD+ application could require one.

 

[Jason Roer]

David,

How do Bluray players get their firmware updates? Are you sent a disc from Sony?

Cheers,

Jason

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Jason,

it all depends. If you have a PS3 with a wireless internet connection, you just select "update" from the menu of your PS3 and it downloads and runs the update software all by itself.

Some brands have networking/internet connections and do something similar. Other manufacturers offer CD-ROMS etc. with the firmware.

There's nothing "Sony" about this... it's just manufacturers updating the firmware of their products like any other products they sell (I had updated the firmware for my Panasonic DVD player twice via a CD-R).

BTW, BD+ *should* require no fancy new firmware updates as the BD+ virtual machine should contain everything it needs on the movie disc itself.

 

[ppltd]

You request a disk sent to you or download the update and burn a dvd. This is one of the many reason Stand Alone BD players will not become a commodity purchased by the general public.

With the PS3, you download just like any HD DVD player.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

You mean like stand-alone DVD players didn't become a comodity because you had to burn a DVD for firmware upgrades?

:rolleyes

Thomas, as someone who enjoys pulling out the "sure am glad I put my boots on" comment at every turn, perhaps you should reconsider your own FUD remarks in this case and fasten those laces up knee-high.

Not only are firmware upgrades going to become less and less of an issue with 2nd and 3rd generation machines that already provide full-functionality out of the box, but any BD player with a network connection could be upgraded just like the Toshiba. But again, the issue of needing "firmware upgrades" only applies in a meaningful way to early-generation hardware that lacks full specification-functionality. A year from now this will be a NON ISSUE regardless of format, and any upgrades a manufacturer offers at that point will be purely optional... just like the upgrades that I applied to my Panny RP91 DVD player (which the average consumer would have cared less about).

The firmware upgrades matter more to first and second-gen BD and HD DVD players because most of those products don't provide full functionality according to the HD DVD and BD specs. Once DTS decoding chips and HDMI 1.3 become more widespread (and the next round of BD players arrive with full BD-J interactiveity already onboard), "upgrades" will become almost a non-issue except for the serious videophile looking for the latest and greatest performance.

 

[Cees Alons]

No, as I said (twice ) future scripts. Of course the discs would have to be labeled to make the buyer beware.


Cees

 

[ppltd]

By the way David, just what are those stand alone players that have network capabilities?

 

[Shawn Perron]

Seeing that HD-DVD players don't ship with wireless internet, what do you think the percentage of owners that actually have run cables for the net connection is? Updating via a disc inserted into the players is most likely the method most often used to update set top HD-DVD players. Since everything is going wireless, having to run a cable to your player would actually seem like a waste of time to most people.

 

[ppltd]

At least the HD DVD stand alone players give the user the option.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Had firmware updating been available with early-generation DVD hardware, I could have upgraded my Sony 7000 for DTS-output and possibly progressive-scan output.


The reason that we needed firmware updates to get 5.1 TrueHD out of the A1 and to get BD-J interactivity out of some BD players was because these early-gen products were designed with allowing the user to provide those updates from the start. Had we been back in DVD-times, you would have had to buy a whole new HD DVD player for 5.1 TrueHD.

 

[ppltd]

Has any one ever questioned why firmware upgrades are needed? Of course not. And the argument of the acceptance of these products into the general public has absolutely nothing to do with why the upgrades are needed, but rather that they are needed at all. If these products had been complete prior to their release, this would not even be an issue. And until they are complete, the idea of these products sitting in the average Joe's home is an unlikely prospect.

 

[Shawn Perron]

But what good does it really do? The people that need the ease and simplicity of the net connection are the ones least likely to run a cat5 cable to thier HD-DVD player. Those that know enough to run the cable to the player are most likely the ones that can attain an ISO and burn a disc on thier own. It seems like a situation of helping those that can help themselves and leaving the rest to the same situation they'd face with a BR player.

 

[ppltd]

Spoken like someone trying to justify why the network connection was left off of their BD player.