Blu-Ray and HD-DVD "anti-piracy"/content control systems?

[drbob]

Hello,

I've read a lot about the new HD-DVD and blu-ray formats recently, but can't find anywhere that gives details of what sort of DRM (digital restrictions managment) the new formats will have.

I already feel that asking people to switch to a new format so soon after dvd's launch (vhs was the dominant format for 20 years, how are people going to react to switching after only 5-6 years?) is unlikely to work. If the new HD discs are "locked" to an individual player so you can't lend them to a friend or play them without plugging your player into a phone line then it will kill the format for sure in the same way that DIVX (the disc format, not the video compression standard) died in the early days of dvd.

Will there ever be blu-ray or HD-dvd computer drives? I can't find any mention of these either. Could it be because the industry isn't planning to create any, having had their fingers burnt by dvd piracy using consumer dvd burners? I can imagine a situation where the new formats can't be played on a computer at all, particularly if sony wins the format war. I'm sure the Home Theater PC people will have some thoughts on that.

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drbob

[Corkonian]

Doesn't really matter what protection they put on them, there'll be some site offering a crack for it after a few weeks

[AML]

There are in fact going to be Blu ray PC drives in the near future. Dell and HP (i think) said they will support blu ray by incliding drives in their PCs. Check out bluray.com for more info.

[BrianC]

I'd like some links detailing how they are planning on implementing the DRM as well

The only ways that they can tie a disk to a particular machine is to either burn a unique number onto each disk (pricey for the numbers of disks involved) or go with a registration key ala retail copies of windows. Only the former offers any real protection (until you can burn your own disks) as code generators are common place.

Obviosuly both systems will be linked to your machines unique ID (and I'm guessing this can be changed), I'd also hope that each disk can be registered to more than one player, perhaps 4 or 5? And what would rental companies do?

[brifobwad]

Look at the HD vs Blu Ray thread in DVD recorders forum.