Fox finds Play Station 3 support good enough to back Blu-ray updated

December 5, 2005

Fox Film Entertainment has cited Play Station 3 support as reason enough to back Blu-ray and has decided to release all films exclusively in that format. This news comes on the heels of wavering support for Blu-ray due to recent reports of it's restrictive copyright protections policy. While both formats have embraced Advanced Access Content System or AACS for anti-piracy measures. HD-DVD has added Managed Copy and iHD and made the spec part of the mandatory format for their discs, all discs would have to have the ability to provide a copy of the original for private use and the iHD portion is a navigation or menu system to accomplish the goal. With this scheme, we know that we will be able to make at least one copy of a disc and also, it could be streamed from a PC through a home network. Whether this will be free or at added cost is anyones guess at this point, as this is left up to the content provider. It is definitely possible to charge for this feature. As we can read in the correction below, recently, Blu-ray has added Mandatory Managed Copy to their spec but they prefer to not use iHD and have instead decided to develop a Java based navigation system to accomplish their interactivity goals.

Correction: In this story from Reuters we can read that Blu-ray has made Mandatory Managed Copy a part of their spec:

"Mandatory managed copy will be part of Blu-ray format, but while HP's request (for interactivity) is being considered, at this point in time, the Blu-ray group is still proceeding down the path of Java," Blu-ray spokesman Andy Parsons told Reuters in an interview. "We are taking their request seriously, but are not willing to delay the launch and are going to go forward with the Java-type option," he said.

The public backing by Fox comes amid wavering support from the computer industry due to Blu-ray's restrictive copy-protection scheme. HP has retreated from Blu-ray's camp after Intel and Microsoft strongly pledged their support for HD DVD instead.

But Fox and other studios like the strict technology that will prevent consumers from utilizing future movies as freely as current DVDs. HD DVD employs more lax copy controls and ensures support for streaming movies to different locations throughout the home.

"We believe that Blu-ray not only has the superior technology and backing in terms of strength to market but also the superior content protection," Fox Filmed Entertainment co-chairman James Gianopulos told attendees Thursday at the Reuters Media and Advertising Summit in New York.

We have to realize after reading such bold statements, that the real reason behind studios migrating to a new format, is not to give the consumer a more enjoyable experience through high definition. At least with Fox, they are honest about it up front, promising to not use HD-DVD due to it's added features. Good luck with that one Fox!

Sadly, it appears this once exciting new blue laser format has been torn from the brilliant engineers grasp, handed to marketing and become nothing more than a tool to wean us off DVD. Soon, the possibility to charge the end user for actions that we now can perform for free will be possible to implement, thereby increasing cash flow to the studios. This is only possible by divorcing themselves from the weak Content Scrambling System or CSS that is present and easily defeated on todays DVDs. The use of a blue laser makes the switch irreversible and complete.

Too bad Microsoft did not include an HD-DVD drive in the Xbox 360, but it is also possible, that they knew this was trend with the studios was coming and did not want to saddle their consoles with a dead format! You may read the article in it's entirety over at BetaNews by following this link. You can read more about Managed Copy and iHD in this Hewlett Packard press release.

Source: BetaNews