Cinavia DRM: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Blu-ray’s Self-Destruction
by Ganesh T S on March 21, 2012 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Blu-Ray
- DRM
- Cinavia
Blu-ray Profile Updates
Despite setting out to clear the air about Cinavia in today's piece, we will also take the opportunity to provide a few comments on how the BDA is insulting the intelligence of the consumers. When Blu-ray Profile 1.0 was released, it imitated the tried and tested DVD menu system. By getting access to a simple menu interface to choose the audio and video tracks (theatrical or director's cut, for example), consumers were able to easily identify and adopt Blu-rays as the successor to DVDs for high definition content. Rarely used DVD features such as multiple viewing angles were rightly ignored by most of the initial Blu-rays.
The Blu-ray industry, in trying to make Blu-rays more attractive to the consumers, brought about BonusView (Picture-in-Picture) in a profile update in November 2007. With its usefulness as a medium for commentary tracks, it did solve an existing problem. However, subsequent profile updates haven't caught the imagination of the consumers. While the BD-Live (Profile 2.0) features are an inexcusable addition, Blu-ray 3D is at least acceptable because of the big push given by the studios for theatrical screenings in 3D.
As a tech journalist, I spend countless hours browsing public forums such as Doom9, AVSForum and VideoHelp to gauge public opinion about various topics in my area of coverage. I haven't seen a single post in praise of BD-Live. I have seen BD-Live in action on various discs, and they bring one or more of the following features to the consumers:
- Push the trailers of the studios' latest movies to the consumer: Why do studios think that a Blu-ray in the retail market is an advertising medium for future use? In addition, trailers are also forced before the main movie (and it is not clear if BD-Live can deliver new trailers for that segment, or whether BD-Live trailers have to be specifically requested by the users). As we mentioned earlier, consumers seem to prefer instant gratification and don't want to be forced to sit through multiple trailers in their home theater. In this situation, I find it hard to see consumers willfully going to the BD-Live section and requesting and waiting for a new trailer to download and play on their Blu-ray player.
- Downloadable games and activities realted to the movie: I have actually tried a few of these games, and my belief is that most Blu-ray remotes are ill-suited to these types of activities. With the rise of social networks with gaming apps, there are multiple available alternatives for casual games related to most popular movies, and nearly all of them are better than BD-Live offerings.
- Chat with other fans and other social activities: Blu-ray remotes are not comfortable enough for online chatting, and the big screen doesn't really seem to be the right place for social interaction.
- Avenue for firmware updates: With Profile 2.0 making it compulsory for players to have an Ethernet port connected to the Internet, it has become a convenient excuse for the Blu-ray industry to release discs which don't play on units with older firmwares. Requiring your player to get connected to the Internet and download a huge firmware update just to play back one's latest Blu-ray purchase is definitely one item encouraging people to 'pirate' movies.
Some of the Profile 5.0 Blu-rays (3D) often refuse to play in 2D on older profile players. This type of mess-up often leads to consumer frustration.
Despite the studios putting lots of money and effort into promoting 3D, it doesn't seem to have taken off as much as expected.
Blu-ray Rentals
Retail Blu-rays and rental Blu-rays (from services such as Netflix and RedBox) for a particular movie title are not the same. Last year, I had the opportunity to see the movie Rango in the theater. When the Blu-ray released, I found out that it contained two cuts (one theatrical, and the other, extended). I also found that my nearby RedBox kiosk had the Blu-ray version available for rental. Upon renting the movie (the RedBox movies come in a non-descript box), I found that the rental Blu-ray contained only the theatrical version. I am sure I am not alone in feeling frustrated by this type of treatment from the studios.
Providing separate versions of the masters for the rental and retail Blu-rays is okay as long as information is provided upfront. However, sweeping this under the carpet like what is being done now only increases the consumers' ill-feelings towards the Blu-ray industry.
UltraViolet : Blu-ray in the Cloud
The Blu-ray industry's move into online streaming with UltraViolet has also got off to a disastrous start, with Walmart now being roped in to help salvage the initiative. Vudu (owned by Walmart) is trying to help the UltraViolet consortium by becoming a player / source of UV copies in the cloud . However, it is not clear how and why studios expect consumers to pony up money again for content that they have already paid for. StreamingMedia's blog piece and CNET's op-ed both carry very convincing arguments about how the UV initiative is completely loaded against the consumers.
The aim of UltraViolet is to currently provide users with a copy of the movie in the cloud, though the initiative also provides for downloadable copies. As of today, it is easier for users to strip the DRM, rip and re-encode their purchased Blu-ray movies into any format they wish. Can the UV initiative provide something easier to use? While the Blu-ray industry tries to solve the problem, let us provide you with a few tips on getting the most out of the money spent on your Blu-ray collection.
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haukionkannel - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
Good point!I allso hate those extras and I have paid for that movie! And if pirate can get the movie without those "extra" features... I am really pissed off...
I allso byumy movies but every time I watch again those extra warning screens I wonder why... I want that movies studio gets my money, thats ok, but I don't want to give up my sanity, by watching all those extras
Swirlser - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
http://www.lauexplorer.com/2010/03/10/products/leg...Want me to cough-up for that TV series Im watching atm? Extremely simply answer! Match the convenience level of the above pic (link) coupled with a sane price tag.
No fancy tech or laws required.
This coming from a pretty straight laced fellow, who pays his taxes and bills and I think Ive 2 audio tracks out of many, many thousands that were pirated (before the preview extension I pirated to see if I liked, then actually bought it legitimately if I did, deleted if I didnt - the 2 which I didnt pay for are from a certain artist - initials JB >.< - who I couldnt live with myself if I gave him a cent, hes got a *stupid* amount of money already)
Aside from a certain percent of people who simply refuse to pay for anything they can possibly get for free, I think the vast majority of people would fall into line if you price it sensibly and make it as simple and convenient as possible. Music is there now, films arent far off (speaking more so of streaming, but even physical BDs are coming to a more reasonable price level.) My main beef is TV, the time gap between regions (US content specifically) to view my fav shows is immense and you just cant get up to the minute anything via paid for services (in Ireland), if you could, I'd be all over it.
jnmfox - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
LOL, great minds think alike!Swirlser - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
Lol! Yeah, thats exactly what I thought of when I read this article.Such a shame, the time and money wasted (in vain!) trying to get a small percent and ultimately punishing the legitimate customer is all thats going on here.
Instead, understand there is a percent (a greater percent I'd be willing to bet good money on) of people who don't enjoy getting shafted and paying crazy money for a film or watch things weeks (or more) after they have been aired else-where and then go about getting it by whatever means necessary, most know a friend or a friend-of-a-friend that has damn near everything and will stream it to you for nothing.
If Netflix (AFAIK in the US have a better selection - I'm hoping it advances here) or Lovefilm or whoever else runs services here actually had the content (rather than largely ancient stuff which accounts for the bulk on offer currently), I'd subscribe!
Sadly I know only too well that there are layers of BS at work preventing this to happen, rather than just a greedy A-hole. But the platform is there, the devices are there, the infrastructure is widely available (needs to be expanded further), but it can be done. The obstacles lie entirely with some snotty out of touch publishers and advertisers who seem hell bent on throwing good money after bad. They wont win!
ssj3gohan - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
I haven't viewed a single DRM-protected video in probably over 6 years (I became so incredibly annoyed with VHS/DVD and television advertising/unskippable content and all that) but since my last endeavor with that things have only seem to have gotten worse. I honestly didn't know that there were things like regional restrictions (what the hell?) and the necessity for approved screens (WHAT THE HELL?!?!) to view certain copyright. It just seems really, really out of this world. Cinavia really just seems to be a logical step on the way. I am already calling it: somewhere in a future BD specification they will require physical bd stores to knife any and every customer who buys protected content. The revision after that ensures that this indeed results in death. What the hell are those consumers thinking, buying our stuff? We don't want that, go away! RRRAAaaAAaarghhh!If I want to see something, I type it into youtube and I usually get a good idea of the content. I can skip advertising within a couple of seconds, get HD resolution and if I like it, I can subsequently download it legally or, if it's not available in my region for some arbitrary reason (this really seems to be much the norm these days) I can pirate it. That way I don't waste any time on frankly something I am not entertained by in the slightest, I have full control over my own purchases and my viewing behaviour. Just like I had with earlier VHS releases (which had maybe 2 minutes of pre-roll stuff) and subscription VOD services like a lot of starcraft (or in general: gaming-related) stuff.
Sanctusx2 - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
Matroskas, really? I don't understand why the article seems to imply this is the dominant format. MKV is mainly the format you only see with anime, where subtitles and multiple audio streams are much more relevant. The broader video scene has favored avi containers with h.264/xvid encoding for years for everything from cams to blu-ray rips.Everytime I read MKV in this article I had to cringe and question the credibility of the author.
Spivonious - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
Why would I sacrifice quality when ripping (which is what h.264/xvid is doing)?MKV is perfect if I want to grab just the movie and the main audio track from the disc. No quality loss, and smaller than if I did an ISO or folder structure rip.
DRM hurts nobody except legitimate consumers. As this article explains, any DRM the providers can come up with is cracked within two weeks.
The music industry is finally coming around to selling DRM-free tracks. Why can't the movie studios do the same?
ganeshts - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
High definition stuff in AVI? The only ones I have seen are the XViD encodes of Blu-rays and they are very rare compared to H.264 in MKVs.. I will leave it to the other readers to judge for themselves, but my research indicates that MKV is the most common container for high definition stuff and AVIs are suited for standard definition TV recordings and DVDRips / BDRips of 1 and 2CD sizes.iamezza - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
mkv is definitely the most dominant format for HD content.avi is the most dominant for SD content.
Iketh - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
MKV is the future... you sir, are outdated