Latest FOX movies have new anti-theft feature, Has created playability issues

[wallendo]

Originally Posted by sunedaz68

This is a continuation from a previous post about my Panasonic BD10A not playing some of the New Fox Movie titles.

I found an article in Bluraydigest.com that spells it out loud and clear.

Fox has decided in an effort to stop fraud and coping of movies to put a new security patch in thier latest movies. It appears it started around mid 2008.

Fox is pointing the finger at the manufatures stating that it is the manufactures responsibility to update thier Firmware updates so the players can play these new and improved movies. I have not had any success with emails to Panasonic regarding thier first generation blu ray players and when an update may come around.

I can understand a company does not want thier product to be copied or stolen. I am ok with that. What I am not ok with is that it appears that they did not get together with the manufactures first to allow them to create the firmware updates before these disks came to market.

Fox at this time is losing money from me if I can't play thier movies

Do you expect FOX to contact every single manufacturer?

Your issue is with Panasonic. Try contacting them via telephone or regular mail. At many companies, e-mail is ignored.
If this has been going on since mid-1980, it does not appear likely that your problem will ever be resolved. You may need to upgrade your blu-ray player (This is a risk with all new technology ).

[Captainhawk1]

Originally Posted by wallendo

Do you expect FOX to contact every single manufacturer?

Uhhh... Yes?

Not for nothing, there aren't that many manufacturers of BD players. Is a mass email out of the question?

IMHO, opinion, though, this is the price that you pay for living in a digital media world. The truth is that no matter what Fox or anyone does a certain little company out of Antigua who coincidentally has a logo of a fox is going to keep breaking any security feature they try to add.

Manufacturers are wasting time and money trying to fight this. What they should do is focus on what they have now as far as security is concerned, leave it at that and work on marketing strategies that make pirating less appealing to consumers.

If you eliminate the demand, you eliminate the crime.

[sunedaz68]

I checked the Japan site as suggested and still no update for my player.

Also, I have tried calling Panasonic and the phone number is not thier company anymore.

I know I have a first generation player but i just received the first 2 volumes of Bond movies and they are hanging up as well.

I will not buy or rent any more Fox movies and may hav to dump this player on Ebay and will never by another Panasonic player again.

Like most people out there, I am not made of money and it's hard to drop $300-$500 for another player.

[Jeff Kleist]

Are you sure you're updated to the latest version now? Planet of the Apes and the original Bonds work just fine on 2.5

When you say "all James Bonds", are you talking about the first round, or just the ones that just shipped

BD+ is a fact of life, and more studios will be adopting it in the future.

Manufacturers are wasting time and money trying to fight this. What they should do is focus on what they have now as far as security is concerned, leave it at that and work on marketing strategies that make pirating less appealing to consumers.

If you eliminate the demand, you eliminate the crime.

How do you compete with free, or $1 discs of your new releases? It's impossible.

The only thing they can do is continue to delay the inevitable with new versions of BD+

[Captainhawk1]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Are you sure you're updated to the latest version now? Planet of the Apes and the original Bonds work just fine on 2.5

When you say "all James Bonds", are you talking about the first round, or just the ones that just shipped

BD+ is a fact of life, and more studios will be adopting it in the future.



How do you compete with free, or $1 discs of your new releases? It's impossible.

The only thing they can do is continue to delay the inevitable with new versions of BD+

I'm not in marketing, it's not my job to come up with those answers but where oh where are there bootleg BD's for a buck or free? You can't even get bootleg DVD's for a buck.

[Jeff Kleist]

I'm not in marketing, it's not my job to come up with those answers but where oh where are there bootleg BD's for a buck or free? You can't even get bootleg DVD's for a buck.

There are no answers, because it's absolutely impossible

You cannot compete with free, and you cannot compete with prices that low when you actually have to pay for the content

Many places in Southeast asia, bootleg DVDs are well under $2 each. Since their cost of producing the material is virtually zero, and the cost of the disc and a paper sleeve like they're sold in is under $0.50, and the mob making the boots owns the outlets they're being sold from, you can see how this is still quite profitable for money laundering purposes. People sell public domain DVDs here for under $2 each (and often $0.99 in my supermarket)

[graf1k]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Are you sure you're updated to the latest version now? Planet of the Apes and the original Bonds work just fine on 2.5

When you say "all James Bonds", are you talking about the first round, or just the ones that just shipped

BD+ is a fact of life, and more studios will be adopting it in the future.



How do you compete with free, or $1 discs of your new releases? It's impossible.

The only thing they can do is continue to delay the inevitable with new versions of BD+

I don't have any problem with studios protecting their copyright, but obviously what they are doing is not working. I never understood how publishers of any media think that making things more difficult for the people that pay for their product is a good idea. I guarantee you that if this affected pirates at all, it probably delayed them a day or two at most while people that buy their discs legit are going to have exponentially larger problems because of this and future updates. I think they need to accept that there is a certain group of people that just aren't going to pay for their media period and make it more desirable for everyone else to pay for the stuff, whether it's something like BD Live features, or some other form of added value, or lower prices.

[Jeff Kleist]

I don't have any problem with studios protecting their copyright, but obviously what they are doing is not working. I never understood how publishers of any media think that making things more difficult for the people that pay for their product is a good idea. I guarantee you that if this affected pirates at all, it probably delayed them a day or two at most while people that buy their discs legit are going to have exponentially larger problems because of this and future updates. I think they need to accept that there is a certain group of people that just aren't going to pay for their media period and make it more desirable for everyone else to pay for the stuff, whether it's something like BD Live features, or some other form of added value, or lower prices.

I assure you it's doing the job it's meant to do quite satisfactorally. Everyone knows a certain segment won't pay for their stuff, but the goal of copy protection is to be as big of a pain in the ass as possible, and to protect the release window where 50% of the lifetime copies are sold on your average title, not protect it forever.

If you notice, the BD10A has only had 2 firmware updates in the last 18 months (10/07 and 8/08). With 2.0 quickly becoming the standard player, and with all the major bugs in the format essentially worked out, all these problems are growing fewer and farther between.

DVD had many of the same difficulties the first few years

[Mr. Cinema]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

DVD had many of the same difficulties the first few years

This is true. However, the non-early adopter/HT enthusiast, who the BDA is now trying to sell to, is not going to tolerate these playback problems. They're not going to update firmware. They will say "screw this, my dvds play fine." They don't care that dvd had this same problem. They likely didn't experience it as they are not early adopters.

This is why the studios and manufacturers need to make sure these discs work before they're released. Year 3 is supposed to be the mainstream year, right?

[Clark Kent]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I assure you it's doing the job it's meant to do quite satisfactorally. Everyone knows a certain segment won't pay for their stuff, but the goal of copy protection is to be as big of a pain in the ass as possible, and to protect the release window where 50% of the lifetime copies are sold on your average title, not protect it forever.

That is exactly the goal of BD+. All Fox cares about is that the first few weeks of the release window does not have to compete with a freely available download. 75% of a dvd's projected lifetime sales occur within the first month of release.

[PlacervilleGuy]

Originally Posted by wallendo

Do you expect FOX to contact every single manufacturer?
).

If they are doing something outside of the norm, i.e. some proprietary non-standard security code, hell yes!

[Jeff Kleist]

If they are doing something outside of the norm, i.e. some proprietary non-standard security code, hell yes!

BD+ is neither proprietary nor non-standard. It's an official part of the spec that player manufacturers are required to support, and anyone can use the tech

[sunedaz68]

In an answer to the previous comment. I have updated my player to the latest firmware 2.5 last September. I even tried to reinstall it to make sure there was not a problem and it still does not work.

finally after 4 emails to Panasonic they have emailed me back. Of course it was the same day I gave up on them and went out and bought a new Pioneer BDP-51FD. Of course everything works on this machine and I haven't even completed the firmware update.

The Bond movies I was talking about were Vol 1&2 I just purchased.

I will keep updating as I get info as I probably won't even be able to sell the Panny on Ebay until this is resolved.

Stay away from Panasonic is my advice and Buy either Sony or Pioneer for the money. Especially since the Pioneer is $200 off at Best Buy right now

[badboi]

Originally Posted by sunedaz68

[COLOR="Red"]

finally after 4 emails to Panasonic they have emailed me back. Of course it was the same day I gave up on them and went out and bought a new Pioneer BDP-51FD. Of course everything works on this machine and I haven't even completed the firmware update.

Hope this machine works out for you. But if you think you had problems with the Panasonic . . .

FWIW, my Panasonic BD30 has been solid as a rock. Even plays Twilight, and all the problem Fox titles. Guess I've been lucky.

[Clark Kent]

The only foolproof Blu-ray player that will play all Blu-rays is going to be the Sony PS3. As a large percentage of the installed player base, all releases will be checked out on that player first. But firmware updates usually do come out for the standalone players to catch up.

[SatinKzo]

Originally Posted by badboi

Hope this machine works out for you. But if you think you had problems with the Panasonic . . .

FWIW, my Panasonic BD30 has been solid as a rock. Even plays Twilight, and all the problem Fox titles. Guess I've been lucky.

Well, my 51fd has played everything I have ever thrown at it. Even stuff my Bd55 had issues with (audio drops mostly on panasonic) and to me the 51fd BD PQ is slightly nicer than the panny and it's a top notch upscaler.

Sundaze, if you can still return the player at bestbuy, you can get it even cheaper on 6ave.com with coupon code COUPONCABIN.

[sunedaz68]

The Pioneer BD51F I bought does not even have the firmware update and has played everthing I put in it. Shows how much of a superior machine it is to the Panasonic.

I finally got a call back from Panasonic and they say they are having some issue with the BD10a and playing the movies I listed.Tthey are to get back to me regarding what thier tech team may or may not be doing about it.

[AlaskaDon]

Originally Posted by sunedaz68

Stay away from Panasonic is my advice and Buy either Sony or Pioneer for the money. Especially since the Pioneer is $200 off at Best Buy right now

Sorry that you had a problem, but I have to disagree with this conclusion. The Panasonic BD-10A was a very early player. I have had a BD-30 for a long while now, and as others have stated in this thread, that player is rock solid. I don't even have the latest firmware installed in mine, yet I watched Twilight and a couple of the latest Bond releases this past week with absolutely no problem whatsoever. In fact, my player has never failed to play anything. It works first time, every time.

My guess is that time finally caught up to your 10A, but hey, that's the price sometimes of being an early adopter. Panasonic players have always been among the most reliable though. FWIW if I had to replace mine today, I would probably take a look at the Pioneer. I've heard it's also very good.