New Sony DVDs Not Working In Some Players 651
An anonymous reader writes "It seems that the most recent DVDs released by Sony — specifically Stranger Than Fiction, Casino Royale, and The Pursuit of Happyness — have some kind of 'feature' that makes them unplayable on many DVD players. This doesn't appear to be covered by the major media yet, but this link to a discussion over at Amazon gives a flavor of the problems people are experiencing. A blogger called Sony and was told the problem is with the new copy protection scheme, and they do not intend to fix it. Sony says it's up to the manufacturers to update their hardware."
Gee. (Score:5, Interesting)
DVD Spec? (Score:2, Interesting)
Unreadable (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Gee. (Score:1, Interesting)
I think it's a little bit naive to expect one branch of a multi-national corporation to talk very well with another.
Stuff like that happens all the time.
Oh and TFA "was posted on Monday, March 19th, 2007 at 4:49 pm"
Re:Class action lawsuit anyone? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Works For Me (Score:5, Interesting)
Reading the comments at Amazon and the blog, it sounds like it's just certain NEW models of players that aren't working. So instead of saying "It's our new copy protection and we won't fix it, but you can update your machine,' they should have said, "There's a bug in these models of players and they need a PATCH, which we are working on."
I guess they need to tell the truth (hah hah hah) but it seems unlikely that it could be the players and not the disks.
However, I guess if it's a relatively SMALL set of disks that have problems on these players....
I don't know. I still vote that there's nothing changed about the DISKs, and it's just a flaw with the devices.
Re:Class action lawsuit anyone? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Xine (Score:2, Interesting)
Sony arrogance to a new low (Score:5, Interesting)
Fair enough, we do not intend to support your arrogance. Welcome to our blacklist.
Easy (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Stranger than Fiction (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder, honestly, what the legal status of your download is. You paid for a copy of the movie, you now have a copy of the movie, but an unauthorized format was used when the authorized format failed.
Re:Happened to me (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:once... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Class action lawsuit anyone? (Score:5, Interesting)
P2P isn't the only source of illegal copies. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Simply return the Sony DVD's (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Alternatives (Score:3, Interesting)
I started DLing video games (my prior last bastion of copyright respect) when I got NWN and was angered at the number of bugs out of the box (most reportedly fixed by the 1.23 release. Let me repeat 1.TWENTY-THREE, implying there were 22 other releases post-shipping) and a forum post suggested that with the no-CD crack it played better. It didn't. But, in searching for a solution (that ironically didn't work) I found out about the world of game downloads and No-CD cracks. I had never noticed it until then.
Then I downloaded the no-cd cracks for the other games I had purchased and played.
Then, next time I wanted to buy a game, I downloaded it and the crack "to see if it was bug free before I bought it". Honestly, I realy intended that. But low and behold, I got around to the buying part less and less.
Now, years later, I rarely play games anymore (life is too hectic) but when I do, they are downloaded and cracked.
The Library for DVDs & CDs.
BitTorrent for the 5 TV shows I watch (1 US reality show, 1 AU show, 1 UK show, 2 HBO shows).
Re:Xine (Score:5, Interesting)
Did you report the dvd's as defective? It should be plan that if they do not play in a stand alone dvd when all other dvds to that they are defective. When you rent/buy these disk and they do not work simply return them as defective. Once walmart gets a stack of these fucker a mile high they will smack down sony nice and good.
As evil as walmart is sometimes being the 10,000 pound gorilla does have it's uses.
The best comment from the blog entry (Score:5, Interesting)
left hand: make decent hardware...Profit!
right hand: break hardware made by left hand...don't tell left hand about it....Profit?
Nice way to blow it (Score:4, Interesting)
I grabbed a torrent of Casino Royale a few days ago because it came up in conversation with some friends, and really liked it, liked it enough for me to buy it the next time I was near a video store - I wanted the better picture quality, and the extra features, and to free up the space on my drive. Now that I know it's copyright protected to the point of being unplayable? Sorry Sony; you just lost my twenty bucks. Sucks to be you.
Triv
Re:Class action lawsuit anyone? (Score:3, Interesting)
The US is similar, there is an implied warranty that items will work for the purpose there sold.
Of course, I think a more effective solution is to return enough to major vendors such as Wal Mart to get them to slap Sony upside the wallet.
Re:That's the problem (Score:5, Interesting)
"Some?" A pseudorandom sample of CDs inspected at some local big-name stores that sell CDs have produced no CD audio logos that I could find. These newfangled "FBI warnings" seem to have taken their place.
Re:ARCCOS, use dd_rescue (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Happened to me (Score:1, Interesting)
It's the shop's choice to stock a product that will not work in some perfectly alright DVD players. The customer has is in a business relation with the shop, not the manufacturer or the supplier of the disc. The shop is in a business relationship with the supplier. If the customer gets a product that is not "fit for purpose" (and there is no doubt that that is the case here), then he takes it up with the shop. If the shop also has a problem with the product, they need to deal with it on their end.
Re:Bait and Switch (Score:4, Interesting)
While many aspects may have been indistinguishable between Bush and Gore/Kerry, there are still many which are. While it's not clear that 9/11 wouldn't have happened with Gore in office, it's entirely possible. The current administration steadfastly and deliberately ignored the Middle East until 9/11. (Their #1 priority was getting out of the ABM treaty so they could begin testing and deploying the stuff.) Then there's the Clean Air Act, Katrina, not to mention Iraq. (And I haven't even mentioned Peak Oil or greenhouse.)
No matter how Libertarian or Progressive you want to think you are, you simply can't say that there is no distinction whatsoever between Democrats and Republicans.
Re:Prevents casual "rent and burn" (Score:3, Interesting)
My non-computer-tech neighbor (who is a Mac user like me) and I struck up a conversation at the mailbox when I got my Netflix discs recently. We talked about what movies we rent and buy, and he picked up a copy of Casino Royale at the video store down the street. It didn't work on his fairly new (Sony branded, I might point out) DVD player.. and..
(here's the punchline)
".. Here's the part I don't understand. When it didn't work, I tried to copy it using Fast DVD Copy [fastdvdcopy.com].. the copy works just fine, so I just play the copy."
Sucks to be Sony. This guy had to have me help set up his DVD player, for cripes sake.
Re:Gee. (Score:3, Interesting)
Might actually stand up in court (at least for the title(s) involved)
-nB
Re:Gee. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:That's the problem (Score:5, Interesting)
What's troublesome here is that Sony and Phillips that established the red book standard. Now if Sony holds that trademark, along with Phillips, it might be a bit tricky for Sony to sue themselves.
That's why the market should be deathly afraid of a Blue-Ray DVD victory. It'll mean that Sony will control the standard and move it around as it suits Sony. Amongst other reasons that is. It might certainly be [slightly] more superior than HD-DVD, although who's eyes can tell?
Re:Gee. (Score:3, Interesting)
This new encryption started sometime around october/november... I believe it was mentioned here before. I know I had an issue with "Butterfly Effect 2" and did most of the steps you stated... The DVD shut down the player so I took it back to the store as defective; then when it didn't work a second time I dispensed with calling manufactuers because my player was 2+ years old. So I ended up Using DVD-Rip from Automatix and then watching the movie on the PC. An asside is that at Christmas I had to rip and reburn a CD because it wasn't "compatible" with the car's stock CD player. I finally did break down with the latest round of movies and got a new upsampling player just for fun... but it still feels "dirty".
Like you said, these guys are making enemies of the common people... my wife and sister thought DVD/CD ripping was silly up until disc stopped working on the stuff we already had. Now they're getting used to ripped DVD's online video, and iPods to cart stuff around the house or so the kids can watch it later.
Re:Gee. (Score:3, Interesting)
It's pretty well known that anti-piracy stuff doesn't stop pirates, it simply stops regular users. Great job guys, just wonderful. Now, if only someone like you was in power to be able to bring peace to the Middle East! Oh yeah, never mind.
Does this change the morality of copying? (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't pirate DVDs (or CDs) - I know how to, but to date I have only copied CDs I own to play at work (after some original discs were stolen after hours) and in the car, and the odd DVD I own to play in the laptop when I am away for work (don't want to lug/lose the original). I am not that fussed that other people do, but my basic ethics mean I don't. Here we have a Fair Trading Act that means that product that is not of merchantable quality can be returned. Were I interested in Casino Royale (I am not) I would officially now have no moral qualms about purchasing it, copying it, and returning for a refund.
Sony, you have just changed the rules - you dont respect my rights, I won't respect yours, GAME ON!
Re:That's the problem (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, the point that Blu Ray is superior to HD-DVD is actually a misconception and factually wrong. Blu-Ray was considered that way because of the fact that it discs capacity is larger and the technology of using a blue high intensity laser is new technology. However that being said, The Blu-Ray standard uses MPEG2 encoding which is old technology (which explains the reason for new technology). This means that Blu-Ray needed to be brought to the market because it required a disc large enough to capture the same quality of video that HD-DVD offers which the new video compression H.264 that it uses (the newest format on the market widely used by Apple, Nero, and Divx). HD-DVD uses less space since it is better compression method to achieve the same picture, and since Toshiba just announced HD-DVD capicity that is now 51 gigs (Making it 1 gig bigger than Blu-Ray) and being backwards compatiable to original DVD's, I think everybody isn't getting the full picture but a smokescreen.
Blu-Ray new DVD manufacturing process but old compression requiring a large disk
HD-DVD old manufacturing process with newest compression requiring less space + backwards compatible and now larger disk
Re:Class action lawsuit anyone? (Score:3, Interesting)
What purpose other than "to watch in my DVD player" would normally be applied to a video DVD?
If it doesn't work in my DVD player yet every other disk I own does - along with a number of other new ones purchased at the same time - it's perfectly reasonable for me to conclude that the disk is broken and demand a replacement. If several replacements don't work - must have been a bad batch at the factory. The folk on minimum wage or very near it at my local record store aren't likely to be experts on Sony's copy protection, and it's totally unreasonable for them to expect their customers to be.
Re:Gee. (Score:2, Interesting)
Not only does Sony manage to fubar these discs so badly you can't play them on standalone players, but if you can rip it with DVDFab, that's not saying much for this new scheme. You usually need to wait for AnyDVD updates before you can rip new types of CP.
Re:Time to buy some DVD's... (Score:3, Interesting)
There are a few resons for this...
#1 walmart will always give you a refund or exchange
#2 it's a hassle for Walmart too (2 birds 1 stone)
#3 if Walmart tells Sony they won't carry it anymore Sony will cave.
Re:Gee. (Score:3, Interesting)
Absolutely. I've been good about not making illegal copies, I haven't subscribed to Netflix and done the copy-and-return bit, I haven't copied DVDs I've rented or borrowed from the library, etc. I have occasionally made copies of discs I legally own either because the disc is flaky or I needed an MPEG for in-car watching on a notebook PC.
But each time these bozos come up with an ever-more-stupid scheme like this, I question why I bother. If they don't respect me...