"Planet Earth" tops HD DVD and Blu ray sales

Too bad Sigourney Weaver's voicework was cut out entirely.

Do they have no other titles to talk about rather than this one. I am all for Climate Change but really can we mention any other titles :)

omg Blu-ray outselling HD-DVD by 4-1 *sarcastically states the sony spin and piffle*

really want this but its not available in the uk at the moment. Will it play on a PAL 360 hd drive addon?

Originally posted by muddan01:

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really want this but its not available in the uk at the moment.
Will it play on a PAL 360 hd drive addon?

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- Yes HD DVDs from anywhere will play on all the HD DVD players.

....if you're using the XBox 360 HD DVD add-on with a PC then the only 'limitations' relate to your PC, so 1080p will be the norm & the sound will be whatever your PC can do - and if you run one of the newer HDMI graphics cards then you can get HDMI 1.3 too. :P

Unlike BD (although in fairness it has not been implimented in full by all the BD studios yet) HD DVD is not region coded.

(the only region coding relates to playing SD DVD......and this is done in the XBox 360 'base unit' software.......the XBox 360 HD DVD add-on doesn't limit anything itself; being a 'software solution' it's all down to the system/software running it - which is not only very useful for future upgrading but makes it a brilliant little box of tricks to PC users)

As for HD DVD and it's lack of region coding it's a very handy state of affairs.
With the various agreements and contracts for publishing & distribution rights in the movie industry it's how come you'll find more than a few supposedly 'BD Exclusive' discs are available around the world on HD DVD.

Fill your boots. :D

Woo thats good news. thought that HD-DVD wasnt region coded but just thought i would check before spending £45 on this.
Nice bit of info on the BD 'exclusivity'.. will have to look into this further and see what titles i can find. Maybe actually use the addon now for something other than playing SD-dvds that skip in the 360 drive lol
cheers

Quote:

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I am all for Climate Change

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Don't you mean you are against it? ;)

Originally posted by windsong:

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Too bad Sigourney Weaver's voicework was cut out entirely.

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Actually, her voice-over replaced the orginal by Attenborough. I prefer the original.

What a great disc set this is. Good for kids too.

Quote:

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[quote]I am all for Climate Change

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Don't you mean you are against it? ;)[/quote]Nope I am for climate change really. It is a good thing to take care of our planet and environment. I just wonder how long till this bandwagon ends.

I like HD-DVD just cause sony have blu ray.

Originally posted by rihgt682:

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I like HD-DVD just cause sony have blu ray.

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that's how many ppl feel unfortunately because of the lies/spin & dirty underhand anti consumer tactics sony has dug a bit of a grave for itself of late.

for Blu-ray the only positive point is the storage capability and the rest is all bad.
with no dual layer burners and blank media being well over priced, and awful burning speeds, who is going to wait five or six hours to back up 1 film with 1 or 2x burn speed? Then they are still using dam mpeg 2 codecs, which is on mostly all the back catalogue and even still being used on new releases:

Originally posted by Blu-ray.com:

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Dreamgirls: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies.php?id=404

Paramount Pictures | 2006 | 130 mins | Rated PG-13 | May 01, 2007

Video
Video codec: MPEG-2
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Audio
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1

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blu-ray also includes region coding, unlike HD-DVD that is region free, and then you get to the added MPAA thumb screws of Blu-ray, which is SPDC (self protecting digital content) BD+, it is a new form of DRM that can enable film studios to remote disable your player permanently if is it is deemed bad (if you are using hacked firmware to disable aacs or region coding) or the security gets hacked. the phone home ability of Blu-ray informs the studios on what (usage) media is being played on your player and hardware configuration, your ip address and the serial number of the unit itself. if you choose not to hook you player up to the net you will be blocked from future media because you HAVE, to apply the regular security updates or you will have a very expensive book end indeed!

Originally posted by business week:

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STRANGLEHOLD ON CONTENT. Even more extreme is a scheme called BD+ that deals with the problem of what to do when someone cracks the encryption scheme. The players can automatically download new crypto if the old one is broken. But there's an ominous feature buried in this so-called protection mechanism: If a particular brand of player is cryptographically "compromised," the studio can remotely disable all of the affected players. In other words, if some hacker halfway across the globe cracks Sony's software, Sony can shut down my DVD player across the Net.

The Blu-ray's DRM scheme is simply anti-consumer. The standard reflects what the studios really want, which is no copying of their material at all, for any reason. They're clearly willing to take active and unpleasant measures to enforce this. Last year's Sony/BMG rootkit fiasco comes to mind (see BW Online, 11/29/05, "Sony BMG's Costly Silence"). The possibility that they would disable thousands of DVD players, not because they're hacked but just because they might be vulnerable, would have been unthinkable a few years ago; it's clearly an option today.

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link to above quote "The DVD War Against Consumers"

And then the studios are just too dam greedy especially the mpaa/riaa members which is all the backers of Blu-ray funnily enough. They are stuck in their Orwellian ways of total control which is why sales of on-line music is in the hands of Apple and not the *supposedly* hip and with it music industry! ask your self this "Why is a computer company running the world's most successful on-line MUSIC store?" and why are the media industry trying to price out and shutting down on-line radio such as http://www.pandora.com

stranglehold on content is the media companies way, crushing free access to media and real talent along the way.

RE: security and BD+ Newest AACS circumvented: The Matrix Trilogy set free when the encryption software is disabled even before the release of new media how long before BD+ is used to shut down effected players until a patch is released and who is going to pay for all the aacs and bd+ updates.?

Originally posted by engaget link above:

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Just in case you didn't already piece it together, many (if not all) of the new HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc titles set for release on May 22nd will feature the latest revisions to AACS. Right, the update hinted at by those forced user updates to the WinDVD and PowerDVD software. Yeah, well no worries... it's cracked. That's right, a week before the disks have even hit the shops, the kids over at Slysoft have already released AnyDVD HD 6.1.5.1 (beta) which kicks AACS MKB v3 swiftly to the curb. Thus you can continue to rip all your newly purchased HD DVD and BD flicks for playback any damn way you like. The update has already been demonstrated to work with an early-shipped release of The Matrix Trilogy on HD DVD and will likely work for Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest when it arrives on Blu-ray. Come on AACS LA, you're gonna have to at least try. Better yet, why not just give up this silly charade.

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WHO is going to pay for the Blu-ray aacs updates, YOU are that's who Plextor have already announced that they will pay for the first 18 months then you are then required to purchase the rest yourself and what company in their right mind is going to endless pay for updates that are chargeable to them, for something that they didn't develope once the warranty has expired: http://www.plextor.be/press/datasheets/Plextor_AACS.pdf

Originally posted by above link to pdf of plextor press release:

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Conclusion:
With the Plextor PX-B900A/T3KB the customer can playback BD movies produced until April 2009.
To play back movies produced after April 2009, the customer has to purchase a renewal of the key.

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very good post. didnt have time to read it through thoroughly but very informative.

i still think even if you have to renew a key, there will be an easy way to get around it.

for ppl that know about Slysoft AnyDVD HD™ http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html yes i totally agree but not everyone knows that security can be bypassed so you can use the media fairly.

how long before slysoft, dvd region+css free and DVD Decrypter, ect becomes a criminal offence to have on your pc because of the new American laws that say even thinking about piracy, is a crime, and with the Americans now extraditing foreign nationals (see below link) for copywrite infringement and our countries will not stand up for our rights because of wto threats and trade embargoes, sanctions, ect from the US what power do ppl really have to use these apps as American law becomes global? welcome to the new world order!

The case of Hew Griffiths and the reach of US jurisdiction

What are the final sales numbers? 95/100 really doesn't say much if it was only a few thousand sold.

Originally posted by Unfocused:

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What are the final sales numbers? 95/100 really doesn't say much if it was only a few thousand sold.

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exactly, thats the point, they are selling almost the same amounts, but the sony spin on things puts blu-rays 4-1 ahead in sales, because of the media spin that followed the redemption vouchers handed out with Blu-ray players and ps3's for low cost blu-rays but when titles are released at the same price with no sony spin they are very evenly matched.