The Inquirer: Blu-ray = Greedy, DRM-infected technology

[cakefoo]

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...es-tank-reason

BLU-RAY PLAYER SALES are sucking wind as well they should. According to Cnet, sales of the DRM infected format players are dropping like rocks.

The not so bright people out there had expected sales to skyrocket once the format war was done, but it didn't. They thought was people would ignore the massive defects of Blu-ray and buy like the dumb sheep that they are, handcuffing themselves to the Sony bank account.

Surprise, it didn't happen. US consumers are still dumb sheep, but this time they are realizing what is being done to them and they aren't biting. Sony's hope of having 50% of disc sales this year be Blu-ray are more likely to happen because of falling DVD sales than rocketing Blu-ray.

The format has three problems, DRM infections, BD-J and greed. The greed part is obvious, Sony won the format war and are trying to charge people between 50 and 100% more for a product with marginally better quality. Sure, it looks better, and the 0.07% of people with 7.1 channel audio setups will be overjoyed, but for the rest, it is a small step at best over an upconverting DVD.

Are you going to buy the DVD version for $16.99 on new release sale or $29.99 for the BD? It doesn't take a genius to realize that the next iteration of Hollywood Formula #7 with Big Stars #3 and #8 isn't worth it. The movie studios have yet to convince me that The Water Horse is worth spending my money on at all, much less at twice the price for DRM'd HD versions.

That brings us to the next down side, there is no up, DRM. Every Blu-ray disc is DRM infected even if the producer doesn't want it to be, in order to get a company to manufacture it, it must be infected. Sony gets an infection kickback fee as well, so don't think it is purely for protection unless you mean it in the -racket sense.

Blu-ray DRM infections do not protect anything, Slysoft has cracked it with their excellent AnyDVD HD product, something I can't recommend enough. Basically, new DRM schemes are broken before you can buy discs with them on it, protecting nothing. It will however prevent legitimate users from using legally purchased media on legally purchased hardware. If you pirate though, no more compatibility issues, once again making Piracy the Better Choice (TM)(C)(R).

Basically the new format has DRM baked in and in your face. It costs you money, hurts only legitimate users, and is laughably insecure. Until it is abolished, just say no to Blu-ray and spend your money elsewhere, try books for example. If you must stoop to the DRM infected media, crack it and run it from your HD, it will save you immense frustration.

The last thing that makes people want to run for the hills is the badly broken BD-J abomination. Basically, when Blu-ray was 'finished', it wasn't close to done. HD-DVD on the other hand was well thought out and thorough, HD had a robust virtual machine that did all the work it needed to, and BD had none. Sony rushed a hacked BD v1.1 out, followed by 2.0, and instantly obsoleted all the money spent by the early adopters. All except those who bought Sony players of course.

There are two problems with this, other than the fact that morons spent money on a Sony format, it works like crap and it phones home, both comprise the third negative. Working like crap is the obvious one, to test it, look at one of the flagship titles, Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Disney insists on BD-J, customer be damned, and it shows. If you click on any of the options from the title menu, it pauses, you hear the disc seek, you wait, it loads, you wait more, and it decrypts, you wait a little more, and then the menu animates. It is nothing short of a disaster that you can't skip. Unless you pirate the title, once a gain making piracy the better choice (TM)(R)(C).

In any case, the BD-J support is so half-assed and broken that using it is nothing less than misery, but you also get the BD benefits as well. That is incompatibility and higher prices to soothe you while you wait and wait and wait. Whoever forced this on people should be shot.

The other down side is that to support the so called Profile 2.0, you must have internet capabilities and access. Anyone here trust Sony? Remember, these are the people who unashamedly rootkit paying customers and then tries as hard as they can to bury it, but never apologizes.

With the new BD Profile 2.0, they can run arbitrary code on your player, download and install whatever they want (You read the EULA didn't you?), and take any data they want. In return, you get the privilege of watching your legally purchased media on your legally purchased players. Fair trade, right? Once again, Piracy is the Better Choice(R)(TM)(C), it doesn't rat you out to unrepentant rootkitters even if they have a EULA behind them this time.

In the end, if you buy Blu-ray, you get a more expensive product that is likely incompatible with your hardware, DRM'd to the hilt, slow as dirt and it rats you out for good measure. All this for slightly better rez, be still my beating heart. Player sales are tanking when they should be soaring and Sony is probably wondering why. Caveat emptor

I plan to print this article and wipe my rear-end with it.

[moviefan]

So much anger!
Suggestions:
Don't buy Blu-ray discs ... those of us who think it's worth it still will.
If piracy is your thing, go to it ... hope you get caught!
No one forces you to connect to the internet, but it makes firmware uodates easier.
Seek consoling!

[Blaumann]

Once again, Piracy is the Better Choice(R)(TM)(C), it doesn't rat you out to unrepentant rootkitters even if they have a EULA behind them this time.

I guess that pirate just had a little bit too much rum....

"Why is the rum gone?"

[Spankey]

US consumers are still dumb sheep

Baaaa Baaaa

Another bunch of sour grapes from people who picked HD-DVD. I stop reading the second the name calling starts. Didn't get very far, did I?

[Blubaru]

Originally Posted by Spankey

Baaaa Baaaa

Another bunch of sour grapes from people who picked HD-DVD. I stop reading the second the name calling starts. Didn't get very far, did I?

Ya rly. One second he's saying that the consumer is smart enough to know what DRM is. The next second he's saying that they are stupid.

What a tool.

[xtop]

whats funny is the letters theyll recieve and post about this article. i wonder if the editor is even serious

i only go there for the rumors anyways

[CassilineKnight]

Originally Posted by Blubaru

Ya rly. One second he's saying that the consumer is smart enough to know what DRM is. The next second he's saying that they are stupid.

What a tool.

Where did he say the consumer is stupid?

I think he said some stupid people thought player sales would rise...

And he's right about DRM...

I'm not doing anything illegal but it does create a hassle for just average, everyday users.

And if you don't think sony is greedy thats your opinion. Others don't feel the same way.

Bluray needs to make some changes if it really wants to win the hearts and minds of most if not all consumers.

[CptGreedle]

Does anyone really read the Inquirer? Seriously it is just a newspaper for idiots who think they are right, or believe in conspiracy theories. I wrote this on another thread:


I wrote this to the guy, but the inquirer PRIDES itself on openly biased ignorant reports, thinking they are cutting-edge or reporting truths so one can handle, which is really sad cause they are not truths at all, just ignorant babble.

Quote:
Wow. Just wow.
Never had I read any article for any kind of organization that is so openly biased and so full of ignorance, hate, stupidity, and malice.
You should be ashamed of yourself for writing such an article. It is very apparent you were a supporter of the now dead HD DVD format, and unlike other supporters, you were unable to accept defeat and continue to fan the flames of hate and spread biased and ignorant lies.
Shame on you.

If you knew anything about the industry, you would know that DVD sales did not take off until the end of the year when it won its format war against DIVX, but they did not really skyrocket until the following winter. If Blu-ray is to follow suit, it will have to increase sales to the level you are talking about by September 2009, which it is well on its way to doing. Furthermore, Blu-ray sales have increased 351% this year, already picking up the slack from the declining DVD sales.
Right now is not the time to buy Blu-ray, but this winter, and next year will really show what Blu-ray can do, as most of us who support Blu-ray have been saying since the war ended.

I suggest you remove this article from your site, and remove yourself from this field altogether, for you will not be satisfied with what is available in the home media market for several years.

Won't do anything, but such an ignorant and biased reporter should not be reporting, in fact, they should be restricted to the flaming fanboy websites and ignored by the rest of society. I hate to think what will happen to him when he has to get a real job and realizes he has to actually WORK and be PROFESSIONAL for a living.

[CptGreedle]

Originally Posted by cakefoo

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...es-tank-reason



I plan to print this article and wipe my rear-end with it.

You should then snail mail it to him.
seriously.

Let him know what we all think about this.

Sure BD isn't perfect, sure Sony is not perfect and is greedy, but ALL COMPANIES are greedy! PERIOD! There will always be someone to complain about no matter what happens, and since Blu-ray won this war, it is the big target.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by CassilineKnight

Where did he say the consumer is stupid?

"They thought was people would ignore the massive defects of Blu-ray and buy like the dumb sheep that they are, handcuffing themselves to the Sony bank account."

[Spankey]

Where did he say the consumer is stupid?

Did I misunderstand something in this line?

US consumers are still dumb sheep

I'm not doing anything illegal but it does create a hassle for just average, everyday users.

The average everyday user is not going to rip 50GB movies to a hard drive or spend money on Blu-ray recording software at the moment. Trying to explain Blu-ray sales figures with DRM is silly. The "author" is stuck on a talking point as all HD-DVD supporters did in the past. If it wasn't PIP, it was Internet connectivity. When it wasn't internet connectivity, it was player price. HD-DVD entered the market at the holy grail price of $500. Then it was $400, $200, $99.

Just another hit piece from a "willing to misinform" fanboy.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

You should then snail mail it to him.
seriously.

Do it.

[CassilineKnight]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

"They thought was people would ignore the massive defects of Blu-ray and buy like the dumb sheep that they are, handcuffing themselves to the Sony bank account."

@ Spankey...

Looking at that quote I think its clear that he's saying SONY thinks the consumers are dumb sheep.

Not that he thinks that way...

But w/e you wanna believe...

[quirkmanly]

Originally Posted by CassilineKnight

@ Spankey...

Looking at that quote I think its clear that he's saying SONY thinks the consumers are dumb sheep.

Not that he thinks that way...

But w/e you wanna believe...

You aren't looking at the line Spankey was referring to.

[PA_Kid]

Originally Posted by CassilineKnight

@ Spankey...

Looking at that quote I think its clear that he's saying SONY thinks the consumers are dumb sheep.

Not that he thinks that way...

But w/e you wanna believe...

And right after that he says:

Surprise, it didn't happen. US consumers are still dumb sheep, but this time they are realizing what is being done to them and they aren't biting. Sony's hope of having 50% of disc sales this year be Blu-ray are more likely to happen because of falling DVD sales than rocketing Blu-ray.

We can have a debate on language and intent if you want, but it's pretty clear in that line that the author is saying that he thinks the US consumers are still dumb sheep in general, but not falling for the blu-ray "trick" in particular.

But w/e you wanna believe.....

[owa]

Heh, raising FUD to a whole new level but that's fairly typical for The Inquirer. Skip the article, read the comments afterwards instead. They're a lot more entertaining.

[Teazle]

Originally Posted by owa

Heh, raising FUD to a whole new level but that's fairly typical for The Inquirer. Skip the article, read the comments afterwards instead. They're a lot more entertaining.

Hell no, that site is _not_ getting a hit from me.

[Neo65]

The author is generally wrong on various points, but if I had a penny for every internet reporter-author-wanna-be who is wrong, I'd be resting on my private island off maui with a shot of Tequilla watching the waves roll in and roll out every day.

There's really a simple way to track how well BD is doing and that is to see the ratio of BD : DVD sales.

This latest week has this :

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ques...m262891WCV/#/2

BD is 6 : 94 against DVDs, check again next month, 3 months from now, and over December. It should be fairly obvious that as Dreamworks and Universal also release in BD, the ratio will creep towards 10%. Once BD crosses 10% of DVD sales, the trip from 10 - 50 may take less time than the trip from 0-10%. .

[Spankey]

BD is 6 : 94 against DVDs, check again next month, 3 months from now, and over December. It should be fairly obvious that as Dreamworks and Universal also release in BD, the ratio will creep towards 10%. Once BD crosses 10% of DVD sales, the trip from 10 - 50 may take less time than the trip from 0-10%.

Of course. The guy makes no mention that Paramount/Dreamworks and Universal are out of the picture until July. Other studios have been quiet and that other economic factors are having an effect. Instead he has a bone to pick with DRM. Okaayyyy...

[david2189]

LOL what a clueless hd dvd fanboy, get over it you LOST!