Stay away from Blu-ray and HD-DVD

AfterDawn delivers a reminder of why the new Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats, which are loaded with digital restrictions management, are to be avoided:

People taking home copies of the new Blu-ray release from Fox, The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, may be disappointed, depending on what model of player they have.

That's because of reports that are coming in, particularly on AVSForum, that neither Samsung's BD-P1200 and LG's BH100 (dual format) player can play the disc.

It's not surprising that this would happen as the BD+ protection used on the disc is very new. Players that have problems give the viewer a message suggesting a firmware update. This isn't exactly a surprising development with adoption of the additional DRM measures. However, it may highlight an inherent weakness in the strategy of protection that can be upgraded, therefore requiring mass player updates.

Right now few households have either a Blu-ray or HD DVD player, even if they do have an HDTV. That isolates the problem to a small number of mostly tech savvy A/V enthusiasts. These are the kind of people who typically don't have a problem with a firmware update. The same can't be said for much of the general public. What will their reactions be if they buy into Blu-ray and have similar problems in the future?

Unless you like being frustrated by incompatible discs and players, stay far away from Blu-ray, HD-DVD, and other formats that are built with DRM junk like the Advanced Access Content System or BD+.

NPI opposes the use of digital restrictions management to hinder consumers from completely legitimate use of purchased content such as movies, e-books, or music.