DISQUS

mauritian blog · 2 years ago

You can have a look at the comparison table on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc under the section called Blu-ray Disc / HD DVD comparison

Saher · 2 years ago

blue ray is still not mainstream here in the UK

WarMMO · 2 years ago

I don't think neither one will reach mainstream soon or atleast defeat dvd.

Joseph Plazo · 2 years ago

I'm confident that DVD will remain the standard for the next 12 months because it will take at least a year to slash 30% to 50% off the prices of a fangled Blue Ray player.

An entry level Sony Blu Ray costs $1200! Thanks but no thanks.

Bush Mackel · 2 years ago

Very interesting post. I used to be pretty interested in the format war but as I still don't have an HDTV to call my own, there's just too much back in forth in all this. Personally, I'll probably by a PS3 by summer of next year (because I'm a huge gamer) and I'll probably then be married to Blu-Ray. (Until HD-DVD wins the war that is. (#);) )

Kline · 2 years ago

I think I missed part 2.

Did you cover how HD-DVDs do the update for the firmware? As you know, both the first and second versions of the HD DVD encryption key were broken very quickly, and somehow magically the player was supposed to update to the new keys to be able to play new releases.

Do you know if this updated key affects ability to play old hd-dvds, and or not being able to update also doing the same?

If your hardware always has to update to the latest encryption key, then you are in a constant state of 'omg wtf'

How do they handle this?

And as I said before.. sony has like a 0% success rate with their formats. from beta, to MD, to magicgate (sony memory stick), to ATRAC to pretty much everything theyve *ever* created as far as media formats. Also add in there their awful times with CD protection (i.e. rootkit installs and bad DRM on music cds), and you have just a BAD track record.

Which is why blu ray is doomed to fail.

Michael Lankton · 2 years ago

No actually I neglected to touch upon the internet connectivity that is mandatory in HD DVD players. Thanks for pointing that out and making me feel stupid :)

I did talk about how HD DVD encryption was cracked early on. HD DVD encryption is similar to DVD encryption, and correct me if I'm wrong, but decryption keys are specific to player. Keys can be revoked, but not universally across a title, just for a specific piece of hardware. That is why the person who cracked AACS wrote a software key generator, because every machine will require a different key. As far as I know, there is no change in how AACS is being implemented, and these changes are invisible to the end user.

Micah · 2 years ago

$1500 for a Blu-Ray DVD player...it reminds of when DVD players first came out. I didn't get one of those at first either (even though I had a feeling the DVD would replace VHS eventually). I think I'm going to be enjoying some delayed gratification on this one as well. Also, that way I'm going to make sure which one wins out.

Kline · 2 years ago

@mlankton

I'm not actually at all sure how the encryption scheme worked for hd dvd. I thought that the AACS generator no longer worked because they updated the encryption key (their private key used to generate users keys I guess), so that would mean the key to generate a hardware key had been updated... so wouldnt that mean media would have to change as well?

Ugh.. I should have probably read up on it more. I know that on digg,etc that they had pasted that *one* key that was the key to the bigger scheme, not just an individual user..

no idea...

Kline · 2 years ago

from the wikipedia
"Hackers also claim to have found Device Keys [17] (used to calculate the Processing Key) and a Host Private Key [18] (a key signed by the AACS LA used for hand-shaking between host and HD drive; required for reading the Volume ID)." so theres *3* keys.. one key to rule them all, one key to bi... er I mean

So the device key is specific to each drive
The processing key is what is able to decrypt the HDDVD and is the same universally
The Host Private key is required to read the volume ID.. and.. oh.. volume ID i guess that makes 4

And *heres* what I was talking about.. again from the wikia

"On April 16, 2007, the AACS consortium announced that it had expired certain encryption keys used by PC-based applications. Patches were available for WinDVD and PowerDVD which used new and uncompromised encryption keys.[24] [25] The old, compromised keys can still be used to decrypt old titles, but not newer releases as they will be encrypted with these new keys. Legitimate users of the affected players are forced to upgrade or replace their player software in order to view new titles."


So, it may only affect PCs, but they expired certain keys, and all new titles are encrypted with a new key that no longer is usable by first gen software.

It doesnt seem to affect hardware, but if someone manages to crack the hardware, they will do the same thing, rendering older hardware obsolete? Of course, who is gonig to bother cracking the hardware when there is perfectly good computer access to hack.. lol

Michael Lankton · 2 years ago

It doesn't much matter what they do with encryption, it will eventually get cracked. Right now some Blu Ray player owners are having a problem with Blu Ray's DRM scheme, BD+. At least that sort of headache will never be an issue with HD DVD.

Kline · 2 years ago

@mlankton
My issue is not with it being cracked, but its affect on me, the consumer. If someone cracks the computer player code and they retire keys all the time, and i am forced to pay for updates and or new versions of software, then I am going to get pretty freaking tired with HD-DVD. or if my hardware hddvd player needs constant internet access thats going to make me angry as well..

blu ray probably has similiar issues as you pointed out.. but.. its all just obnoixious.

Gary · 1 year ago

Thank goodness a single format has at last been decided upon....less confusion for consumers. Thanks for the great article!

Read Gary's latest blog post....Best Selling Animated Movies on BluRay>>>