CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[greg_mitch]

http://www.cepro.com/article/blu_ray_managed_copy_coming_in_2010/

The devil M$ and AACS are working up a DRM scheme to allow one legal copy of BR's but we need new stuff to make it happen (good way to sell more stuff).

Allows at least one copy.
Studios are allowed to charge for the copy.
Copy right from the BR menu.

Is this a total BS move or pushing us in the right direction?

Oh yeah...Apple HW is not supported in the agreement,

[ecrabb]

Steve Jobs obviously wasn't kidding when he said Blu-ray was a "bag of hurt". I mean, seriously... All this rights-management stuff - it's total bull****. Total anti-consumer, anti-fair use, pure, unadulterated bull****. ANOTHER new spec for Blu-ray players? All new licensing? Again? All just so a consumer can make a single f*cking copy of a movie they BOUGHT and PAID FOR?!?!? Sounds like a complete cluster-f*ck to me. Sounds like one of those things that won't even work right and that nobody will use or even care about.

You know the only reason they're doing this is because the DRM on Blu-ray has already been cracked and people are already making copies without all their licensing bull****. The tide is turning against DRM, and the studio owners know it. What will be hilarious is after they spend millions developing this new standard and bring new products to market, is if nobody buys it. I mean, seriously... The only people who want to make copies of BD's are mostly already doing it. I don't know... maybe this will help companies like Kaleidascape or smaller companies that wan to offer similar functionality.

Personally, while I admit it is annoying to me that I can't watch Blu-ray on Apple hardware, in a way I'm kind of pleased that Jobs and Co aren't bending over and taking it up the ass for the studio cartel like Microsoft did. I kind of like that they're standing firm and sort of saying, "Come talk to US when your new product/tech has a decent market penetration and when licensing isn't RIDICULOUS."

SC

[greg_mitch]

You've got to be kidding right? You are making the case that Apple is smart for not putting BR's into their computers. That is like the poor man saying he didn't need money anyway.

[ecrabb]

Yes, I AM saying Apple is smart for not putting Blu-ray into their computers... So far. I disagree with it being like the poor man saying he didn't money, anyway. If Apple thought there was a good business case for it, they'd have don it already! In case you haven't noticed, they're doing pretty well, lately.

From the sound of it, BD licensing is/was a train wreck, but more importantly, BD is still a pretty small part of the overall home video market. It's an even smaller percentage of the computer market. Specifically, the number of people shopping for computers with a Blu-ray drive is tiny at this point. While that will certainly change in time, I imagine Apple is waiting until the market is there to justify the cost and licensing hassles. Apple was first to market with affordable hardware that included a DVD-R. They saw a market for it, and went after it. Obviously, in this case, they have their reasons for not doing the same with BD.

If you want to add a Blu-ray drive to a Mac, you can do so. You'll have to boot into Windows to watch a movie, but you can use the drive and media on the hardware and under OS X.

SC

[jask]

Of course it is crap!! (M$ involvement aside...) this is a small media conglomerate trying to get the public to pay MORE for a "privilege" that they were responsible for taking away from us a couple years ago- hypocrisy you say!!? naw, this is just good business.It seems that those protection measures designed to thwart piracy were as useless as we all said they would be; and now they are trying to pick whatever meat is left off the stinking carcass.
I think they know the courts will be very supportive of the rights of individuals to use private property in alternate forms if they are not distributing the content.They are fishing for any concession or potential revenue they can get. BD should run away from this deal as it does nothing for the format,and will add another black mark to a growing list that will continue to stall mainstream adoption.

[akajester]

I'm not a mac hater or an advocate. However, I find it funny that whenever apple doesn't do something, the reason is always that they must be really smart for not doing it. That's like those music videos that you think are so "deep" because you can't understand it. Then you find out the musician was on crack and it really meant nothing at all. Apple should've switched to Intel hardware about 20 years ago, but instead they hung on to motorola and shunned anyone who wanted to try to improve the mac platform (outside of apple). Remember the mac clones?

In the end, Apple will do what Apple wants, regardless of what anyone else thinks.

Personally though, if I was going to drop $2k on a new laptop I'd definately want bluray playback.