Twentieth Century Fox to release Blu-Ray movies

Macworld ^ | 7/29/2005 | Peter Cohen

[Lauretij2]

Perhaps it’s not a huge surprise, since filmmaker Twentieth Century Fox has been sitting on the board of the Blu-Ray Disc Association since last October, but today the company formally announced that its home entertainment subsidiary will release new TV programs, films and other titles on the Blu-Ray disk format when Blu-Ray hardware launches in North America, Japan and Europe.

[Lauretij2]

I know a lot of arguing over HD-DVD and Blu-Ray were going on lately on here. I'm frankly very excited about Blu-Ray..

[Mr. Jazzy]

Does this mean I have to buy a NEW DVD player?

[Lauretij2]

Yes, or a Playstation 3..

[Mr. Jazzy]

Forget it.

I'm going back to my 8 track and quadraphonic system.

[Boundless]

> Does this mean I have to buy a NEW DVD player?

Yes. Different laser frequency for starters. But the
new player will play all your existing 5-in and 3-in
media (except the video on the long-gone LaserDisc
CDV-5 format).

And you may need a new TV display, and not just because
the res is HD. The Hollywood lawyers want to make sure
it's a "secure" display that won't let you do anything
but watch.

Will you have to pay money every time you watch the
disc? Stay tuned.

[LibKill]

This may just be the new Beta-Max. With bazillions of DVDs and players in place it will take a lot to make people like me buy new stuff. And the new stuff would have to be inexpensive.

[InterceptPoint]

Yes, or a Playstation 3..

I'm about to buy myself a Samsung or Sony HDTV and was thinking that I should buy a PS3 for my grandkids so they could play some HD games

Are you telling me that I will be able to use the PS3 as a DVD and a Blu-Ray player? That would be a very big plus.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Will I continue to let them make movies and watch them themselves? Yes.

[Mr. Jazzy]

"Will you have to pay money every time you watch the
disc? Stay tuned."



If this is the result of the newer technology, I believe that book publishing stocks will increase in value.

[Lauretij2]

Yes, a PS3 will work as a blu-ray DVD player.

Despite the naysayers on here, they'll eventually all move to this format. HDTV is just too big of a thing. Old DVD players and movies still have another 6-8 years left in them though.

Eventually, you'll want the HD stuff. 480p is all DVD can do. Blu-Ray can do 1080p

[Lauretij2]

Pay per view died forever, IMHO, with the utter failure of Divx (not the codec we know today).

[Terpfen]

He was being sarcastic with a veiled reference to failed pay-per-play schemes.

You won't be paying per-view.

[Boundless]

> This may just be the new Beta-Max.

Indeed, because there is also a competing HD standard
called HD-DVD.

We could see a period of dual-stocking, and then, as
with DVD-R v.DVD+R and DVD-RW v.DVD+RW,
dual-standard players.

Or one std could just go belly-up, or both replaced
something that doesn't require so many fragile layers.
The computer industry would like to have NN GByte
optical recorders for backup, and their preference
(and the archival data reliability) may bias which
standard succeeds.

[Lauretij2]

An awful lot of heavy weights are behind blu-ray now. I think hd-dvd is DOA.

I'm kinda glad too, because blu-ray's just got so many advantages. Better bitrate and raw storage space.

[Mr. Jazzy]

I hope you are right.

But I wouldn't be surprised to see them try some new tech to achieve the pay per view scheme.

[Boundless]

> He was being sarcastic with a veiled reference to
> failed pay-per-play schemes. You won't be paying per-view.

I'm not so sure.

I haven't deeply studied these standards, but some things
have that caught my eye enable such possibilities.

The industry would love to have one-way rentals, for
example. That implies tiered media: few-play and
multi-play. Once you have tiered, there could be any
number of levels, including various kinds of timebombs.

Yes DIVX was a failure. Don't assume that the IP sharks
learned from that what we'd like to think they learned
from that.

[Terpfen]

I'd definitely be surprised to see DivX-like schemes make a serious comeback.

The content protection schemes in HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, not to mention the HDCP connection requirement to get HD footage out of those DVDs, will be enough to placate the content providers.

Content protection like BD+ will probably be the reason why Blu-Ray wins.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Won't matter since I threw away my TV sets.

[clintonh8r]

So...are there DVD players available now that are compatible with BluRay? Does this mean that BluRay will be the standard? I'm going to be looking at HD equipment this weekend.

[PAR35]

Eventually, you'll want the HD stuff. 480p is all DVD can do.

That's about all my eyes can do.

[LibFreeOrDie]

I use my PS2 now to play movie DVDs on my non-HDTV. Saved buying a separate DVD player...

[InterceptPoint]

Eventually, you'll want the HD stuff. 480p is all DVD can do. Blu-Ray can do 1080p

But the HDTVs that are out now can only take 1080i as a digital input. If you want a 1080p input you have to go digital to analog and out the (I assume) the VGA port on the PS3 and then back to digital in the TV. That's not good. We need true 1080p HDTVs. Probably have to wait another year or two for that. Too bad since I am assuming that the Blu-Ray and the PS3 will output true 1080p at either an HDMI or Firewire port.

True?

[Lauretij2]

Hold off. 1080p DVD players are coming out. Search for - 1080p hdtv - on google.

I wouldn't buy a 720p now with these new ones coming out. That is, unless the 720p is at a serious discount.

[Lauretij2]

I'm sorry, I meant 1080p TV's!

[monkapotamus]

"So...are there DVD players available now that are compatible with BluRay? Does this mean that BluRay will be the standard? I'm going to be looking at HD equipment this weekend."

1) No. 2) Don't know yet. There are two competing formats: HD DVD and Blu-ray. The HD DVD group recently announced a scaling back of proposed titles for 4th quarter 2005. Blu-ray is is supported by many electronics manufacturers and PC makers - dominated by Sony. HD DVD is supported by just Toshiba and NEC. The movie studios are about equally divided between the formats. There may be a compromise but nothing seems imminent.

[supercat]

the HDCP connection requirement to get HD footage out of those DVDs

You mean, to limit cracking to those who hack into their monitors to get the RGB electron-gun signals and post their warez on the net, as opposed to those who bought a disk and want to play it in their own unapproved player?

[Lauretij2]

Samsung and Mitsubishi have 'real' DLP 1080p players that are now out.

The Mitsubishi will convert all signals to 1080p even. Not some pseudo 1080p, but the real display.

The TV's are coming out. They're in the $4k range at the moment, but next year should be in the $2k range and a good time to buy.

[Lauretij2]

Oh, and I'm not sure at the PS3's output. I hope it's HDMI.. That seems to be the best standard for sure.

[oceanview]

until 1080p TVs are available and cheap, this will be a very small market.

[Lauretij2]

Not really, 720p TV's can take a 1080p signal and display them well at 720p. However...

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_SessionID=@@@@2122424943.1123817737@@@@&BV_EngineID=cceladdfgleigjjcegecegjdghldgfk.0&vertical=SEARS&sid=I0093600040004300085&pid=05754175000

Suckers like that baby are starting to come out.

[rwfromkansas]

Good grief.

It will keep you from doing anything with the disc?

Sounds awful.

Well, I hope these do not catch on for awhile.

[rwfromkansas]

No, but we will be prevented from backing up our DVDs for personal use so whenever our disc stops playing, we will have to go buy a new one.

The MPAA can go to hell for all I am concerned.

[Lauretij2]

They'll crack it just like they cracked current DVD's protection. Though it might take awhile, if the TV itself is aware of the code.

[Boundless]

> Good grief.
> It will keep you from doing anything with the disc?

How 'bout a disc that only plays in the first player
it's ever put in?

That also may be technically possible with the HD discs.

[monkapotamus]

Blu-ray Disc Accociation

HD DVD Promotion Group

HD DVD's holiday bash in doubt as majors pull back

ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING

High-definition Videodiscs: The Route to a Single Standard

[monkapotamus]

More on that...

[clintonh8r]

Thanks. This is all really confusing for someone not technically proficient. That's why I've been looking at HDTVs and doing research for over a year and haven't bought one!

[oceanview]

not likely, its fairly strong encryption:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/H/HDCP.html

[BurbankKarl]

I read in the Hollywood Reporter they are going to be missing the Holiday Season with this...

[Lauretij2]

The worst is a lot of plasmas out there, for the last couple years, have been going for over $5k.. And they were just what's called EDTV. Extended Definition TV. Those only do 480p! Not even HD, but they are flat screens.

I really like the DLP systems. JVC has another pure digital system called ILA, which is decent competition.

However, ILA is 720p max now. DLP's moving into 1080p very quickly. LCD and Plasma seem to be more or less stuck at 720p.

I think plasma may end up being a dead tech. They don't last very long, 5 years or so, depending on altitude! They're expensive, and just don't seem like a good tech to me.

Like I said, hold off a little bit. I'm going to start saying for a late next year purchase. It'll need to be 1080p..

[monkapotamus]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/zd/20050809/tc_zd/157706

Blu-Ray DRM Plans Released

Mark Hachman - ExtremeTech Tue Aug 9, 8:27 AM ET

The Blu-ray Disc Association said Tuesday that it has settled upon the AACS rights-management system to secure its discs, together with an additional watermarking and DRM update scheme.

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Both the competing Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats will use the Advanced Access Content System, which was specifically designed for next-generation optical discs. However, the Blu-Ray group will also secure its discs with ROM Mark, a watermarking scheme identifying authentic Blu-Ray discs, as well as "BD+", which will serve to dynamically update the rights-management schemes in case workarounds or other cracks are discovered and exploited.

The Blu-Ray Disc Association is comprised of 143 members, including Apple, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Mitsubishi, Panasonic Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sony, TDK, Twentieth Century Fox, and Walt Disney Pictures and Television. Blu-Ray officials weren't available for comment at press time.

"The level of unauthorized copying and industrial piracy associated with DVD not only jeopardizes studios and other content creators, but also results in increased costs and limited flexibility for consumers," said Maureen Weber, general manager, of Hewlett Packard's Optical Storage Solutions, in a statement. "It is good news for everyone that the BDA has adopted a series of measures that gets it right for the next disc format."

While the ROM Mark scheme doesn't appear to have quite the scope that the Video Content Protection Scheme scheme that Hewlett-Packard and Philips proposed at the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it does embed "a unique and undetectable identifier in pre-recorded BD-ROM media such as movies, music and games," according to a statement released by the Blu-Ray association on Tuesday morning.

The embedded code would prevent BD discs from being played on unlicensed players, preventing unauthorized copying of Blu-Ray media. Unauthorized disc copying costs the industry $3 billion a year in lost revenue, according to the organization.

Furthermore, the BD+ mechanism would appear to serve as a content update model for player firmware, similar to the manner in which drivers, BIOS software, or other code could be patched. How the code would be patched isn't exactly clear, although some have speculated that it could involve a "tree and leaf" model, where rights-management keys for entire manufacturers, regions, or subsets of each could be revoked while a pirate organization was tracked down.

[clintonh8r]

Aren't there some 1080 LCD screens?

[Lauretij2]

Don't underestimate the hackers. They've broken everything more or less that's big. The only ones that are really hard to keep cracked are satellite systems that the codes change on.

A disc, a player, a TV. That can be cracked eventually.

[Lauretij2]

There are some LCD 1080's out there, but they are $2k more than DLP's and are smaller.

[Ramius]

I thought so... My Toshiba LCD is supposedly 'true' 1080p. But it's impossible to believe anybody anymore.

All I know, with regard to standards, is to watch SONY. Wait and see which standard SONY picks, and then go with the other one. They've managed to masterfully blow it every single time, and there's no reason to think they'll stop now. :-)

[clintonh8r]

I have limited space for it, so I'm looking at no larger than 42 inches.

[Lauretij2]

Remember that these are 16:9, and 42 inches of 16:9 don't correlate to the 4:3 standard TV's.

I'm looking for something 1080p in the 50 inch range for $2k or something next year. DLP's should be close to that in 6-9 months at this rate.

Nothing wrong with the 1080p LCD's though, but looking them up on froogle.. They seem to go for $5-6k versus the $3-4k for DLP.

[TAquinas]

What's a Blu-Rays?

[Lauretij2]

HDTV format.. Next-gen movie watchin' stuff.

[clintonh8r]

I found a web site that automatically converts 16:9 and 4:3. I'll look at the DLPs this weekend. A friend has, I think, a 60" Samsung DLP that looks spectacular.