Blu-ray Drive, DRM, HDMI Requirements

[Robert Robinson]

Blu-ray drives are now available for a fairly reasonable cost. The most
interesting drive is perhaps the LG GGW-H10N which can read both DVD HD
and Blu-ray media in addition to the older DVD and CD-ROM formats.
One catch, which is believed to apply to all the HD and Blu-ray drives,
is the requirement to have a video adapter and a connected display that
are both HDMI compliant if one is to play DRM protected media.
Any experience with this PC based high definition technology, especially
in regard to the video adapter and display HDMI requirements ?

 

[Saran]

Blu-ray drives are now available for a fairly reasonable cost. The
most interesting drive is perhaps the LG GGW-H10N which can read both
DVD HD and Blu-ray media in addition to the older DVD and CD-ROM
formats. One catch, which is believed to apply to all the HD and
Blu-ray
drives, is the requirement to have a video adapter and a connected
display that are both HDMI compliant if one is to play DRM protected
media. Any experience with this PC based high definition technology,
especially in regard to the video adapter and display HDMI
requirements ?

Yeah its all a load of crap... the media companies + Microsoft pushing
the DRM... the artificial requirements to play media you've bought...
it's like treating the people who actually pay for the goods liek they
are the criminals, forcing us to jump through all the hoops while
patting our heards and rubbing our stomachs... while at the same time
anyone with a properly configured bit-torrent client can download HD
rips and play them on any divx compatible player, no special hard ware
or DRM infested software needed, and quality that looks great... no HDCP
(HDMI interface at all) required.

With all that, I find it hard to blame the average downloader of such
rips, illegal or not. If you bought an HLTV more than 2 years ago it
wont support HDCP most likely and you wont be abel to use set top
players or output from your computer in HD quality using
HD-DVD/Bluray... How the hell is this fair, someone please tell me.

who is more in the wrong, those download HD rips or the companies that
screw their customers?

 

[fj]

A bit off topic - but, Blu-ray drives are at a fairly reasonable cost?
Reasonable is in the eye of the beholder - for me, less than $50 would be
reasonable.

 

[Dale]

You could always buy the movie and download the rip.

Dale

 

[Wayne M. Poe]

While that is true... is it really worth it to purchase something you
cannot use fully (if you have an HD TV wthout HDCP and such), to spend
money on something you wont actually watch, but instead of shelve it and
go download the same...

Honestly, I'd have no trouble embracing HD optical formats and such if
the media industries would just play fair and quit trampling all over
Fair-Use rights, and in the case of HDCP and HD monitors that do not
support it... completely screwing people.

While one could do as you suggest, I still find it hard to give me money
to those who want to rip me off.

 

[Dale]

Me

While that is true... is it really worth it to purchase something you
cannot use fully (if you have an HD TV wthout HDCP and such), to spend
money on something you wont actually watch, but instead of shelve it and
go download the same...

Honestly, I'd have no trouble embracing HD optical formats and such if the
media industries would just play fair and quit trampling all over Fair-Use
rights, and in the case of HDCP and HD monitors that do not support it...
completely screwing people.

While one could do as you suggest, I still find it hard to give me money
to those who want to rip me off.

Me too. I refuse to by any DRM music but there is no legal way to buy
non-DRM movies. While I could care less about buying movies anyway, the
kids and grandkids like them so I do buy them.

I heard that one of the new HD-DVD formats will let you make up to 6 copies
to a hard drive. At least that will let you play those DVDs from your HTPC
to appropriate hardware for up to the lifespan of 6 HTPCs.