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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bobbozzo - Friday, March 23, 2012 - link
on Page 4 the article says:assumptions...
3. People interested in backing up their purchased Blu-rays on hard drives do so in the ISO or folder backup format
but on page 6, it says:
MKV: This is undoubtedly the most popular format for storing HD movies. In this backup mode...
So first you imply that people using MKVs are pirates, and then you recommend it.
I've found that large DVD/BD collections are unmanageable in ISO format due to disk space.
One of my clients has a 12TB RAID5 (7 2TB drives) for his media, plus another RAID5 mirror, and is constantly plagued by failing drives, etc.
I recommended he switch to MKV and has cut his storage requirements by at least 50%.
Also, as you point out on page 6, the load times are ridiculous for BDs and ISOs.
Please fix your comment on page 4.
ganeshts - Friday, March 23, 2012 - link
Pirates use MKVs, but not all people who use MKVs are pirates :) I still recommend MKV like you do for large collections where hard drive space is an issue.The reason I talked about backups in ISO or folder format is because those are the types of backups which require a Blu-ray player with menu support (and which are more likely to have Cinavia and get affected).
Matt355 - Friday, March 23, 2012 - link
As someone who has been victimized by these jerks. I love your article and agree that BD Live its trash, I have never read the FBI Warnings, I change inputs on my TV till it's over since I can't fast forward it, I do the same with the trailers.But how about this.
I've payed extra to buy quite a few Blu-Rays that included digital copies. I downloaded them in iTunes only to discover that not only are they all SD copies. but that Apples cloud storage dose not store or stream to my Apple TV, iPhone, or iPad because they were not purchased directly through iTunes. But if i ripped the Blu Ray. I could stream or store the HD copies on any device I own. Apple or not. Witch means I payed extra for nothing.
MamiyaOtaru - Saturday, March 24, 2012 - link
I will never purchase a bluray. 3d movies are right out too.brucek2 - Saturday, March 24, 2012 - link
As was most recently shown with the iPod, and before that with the McDonalds and 7-11s of the world, convenience usually wins. Personal MP3 players often have sound quality well below what is available to consumers in home stereos they already owned, yet my experience is today the vast majority of music today is played back on this lower quality, more convenient format.The same thing is happening with Blu-Ray. Consumers with the right infrastructure will prefer more convenient approaches such as streaming or piracy. Consumers without may find themselves spending their recreational time doing something else entirely.
Not sure why the content owners are shooting themselves in the foot like this. Its especially puzzling since with Blu-Ray being the format that presumably brings the most dollars directly to the studio, you'd think they'd want to make that the best, most convenient experience possible. Instead, its probably the worst.
The Jedi - Saturday, March 24, 2012 - link
So Ganesh doesn't trust what he can't steal. If you can't steal a high def movie in Blu-Ray format off of a file sharing service, or you can't rent something and then copy it to keep a copy, you just shouldn't support Blu-Ray as a standard. Whine, whine whine.Students tend to have no money so they justify stealing music or software. Hopefully when they mature and become employed, their ethics will also mature and they will take pride in being "legit" and purchasing and owning things. Until then renting from RedBox and NetFlix is still cheap and legal.
Besides, it's too hard to pirate with ISP 3 strikes warnings and bandwidth caps. If you like streaming Netflix and don't like bandwidth caps, get service on a business account.
ganeshts - Sunday, March 25, 2012 - link
If you read the whole piece, I am actually trying to convey that unless Blu-rays give consumers a better experience than Netflix / Vudu streaming (which is basically instant watch as long as the bandwidth is there), Blu-rays will start to decline in popularity. I am not suggesting that one needs to copy it or get off a file sharing service for that. Why can't studios just give a MKV on a Blu-ray disc (with same DRMs) which enables a consumer to start watching the movie immediately without all the trailers / load screens / warnings etc.? These are the types of measures I would like to see the studious adopt.Netflix also has DRM obviously, but we are not complaining about it because it is transparent to the user and doesn't treat him like a criminal.
The 'whining' is about making sure studios see where they can improve the consumers' Blu-ray experience. It is obvious that DRM is not going to go away any time soon. However, when measures like Cinavia come about, they punish the legit consumer more than the actual pirates (and I have explained in detail why that is the case).
colonelciller - Wednesday, March 28, 2012 - link
kinda have to agree with you... used to have a big DVD collection until I realized that it really was just a collection. I used to buy movies out of habit and a desire to own it... I'd watch them once and file it away into the collection where it would sit for YEARS...in short, why buy when you'd have to rent it 5 times before you paid the price of buying it..?
insx - Wednesday, March 28, 2012 - link
I have a good laptop and a 3D projector at my disposal. I would love to buy a few 3D blu-rays and rent lots more. However, I can't legally watch them because the projector isn't HDMI 1.4 compliant (and there's some other technical stuff I don't understand) and licensing issues prevent anyone from releasing software that will let me play 3D blu-ray on my setup.I have 2 legal options:
1. Spend thousands more pounds on equipment that is approved (too expensive)
2. Go without (unsatisfactory)
I have 2 illegal options:
1. Buy/rent the 3D blu-ray and rip to MKV file. Watch and enjoy (time consuming/inconvenient)
2. Download from the web and don't pay anybody (time consuming, getting easier)
I really think that there should be a legal option that looks like this:
Rent/buy 3D blu-ray. Watch and enjoy (convenient, everybody happy).
As many people have said, they really have shot themselves in the foot.
rickcain2320 - Wednesday, March 28, 2012 - link
Its interesting to note that CD's have now been around for 30+ years and none of them have any DRM, yet the music industry still exists and continues to grow.I don't see any difference between the CD and the DVD in terms of distributing entertainment to the consumer, but they seem to believe there is one.