Studios continue to harass paying customers with DRM that locks Blu-ray players
Avatar was last weekend’s most popular DVD. The disk has become a nightmare for some buyers. The Blu-Ray disks won’t play because Fox Studios has put a new DRM scheme on the disks.
When you pop the disk in the player it warns you of disk compatibilities. Users are advised to check with their manufacturer for assistance with a firmware upgrade.
One owner of an expensive Denon Blu-Ray player found out the hard way that firmware upgrades are not automatic.
“How about not playing on a 4500 buck Denon which when the company was contacted said “we’ll make a note of it” I guess it’ll play on a PS3 but everything else will be a crap shoot. Owners of older machines that are no longer getting firmware support will be SOL.” Amazon.com
The disk is either supposed to work or fail at the start. My copy worked in a Samsung BDP3600. People on Amazon commented that some Samsung players do not play the disk. Other said Panasonic and Denon players wouldn’t play it. There were more than 100 comments on Amazon.com.
“Amazon customers are complaining that Fox has gummed up the Avatar DVDs with DRM, rendering them unplayable on many Blu-ray players in an effort to prevent piracy. That is, if you consider making a copy of a DVD you own as piracy.” The Consumerist
“While some users are able to fix the problem if they can manage to download new firmware that plays nice with the new Avatar DRM, new firmware for players like the Samsung BD-UP5000 doesn’t (and may not ever) exist,” said TechDirt. “It’s almost as if the studios are trying to perfect the art of annoyance when it comes to Blu-Ray — something that has helped contribute to the platform’s less-than-anticipated adoption rates. Somehow the studios continue to believe that layers of seemingly-endless annoyances (DRM, delaying new releases, unskippable “features” — none of which pirates experience) are actually going to help keep piracy at bay and physical media relevant forever.” TechDirt
DRM watermarks have been used before to stop copying. Annoying paying customers seems to be a pattern with studios and record labels. One scheme in 2005 from Sony installed a rootkit backdoor on their paying customers computers. Rootkits are viruses or Trojans that operate below the operating system. They are very hard to detect and remove. They can control your computer and provide access to hackers and Internet criminals.
“In 2005, Sony BMG caused a scandal by including a rootkit program – created by First 4 Internet – on many of its music CDs that, in an attempt to enforce DRM,[2] installed software on any Microsoft Windows computer which played any new (at the time) Sony CD. Effectively, the rootkit opened a backdoor, thus allowing root access to anyone who either: (1) had foreknowledge of or, (2) was simply aware of the rootkit’s installation and presence.[3] The scandal raised the public’s awareness of rootkits, while the public relations fallout for Sony was compared by one analyst to the Tylenol Scare.[4] In light of adverse publicity, Sony BMG recanted and released patches to repair the breaches, but initial attempts to do so failed to remove the rootkit’s backdoor. Subsequently, Sony BMG lost a class-action lawsuit brought about due to their aforementioned infractions.” Wikipedia
Where to buy USA
Travis
I own a Pioneer bdp-120 bluray player which i haven’t had any issues with playing any blurays other than haveing to do a firmware update from time to time, that is untill Avatar released on bluray in which an annoying scene selection time and picture keeps poping up in the middle of the screen every 8 to 10 seconds and stays there for 3 to 4 seconds each time this is due to the new DRM protection they used on this disc. So i jumped on the pioneer site and downloaded the newly released firmware update BP9200401 aka the Avatar update, and vola it stopped working all togeather. When are they ever going to learn that they cant prevent ppl who want to bootleg media from doing so? while ppl who bought the legal bluray are setting at home downloading firmware updates to which some or most want even work or who’s players mfg’s no longer release updates for there older players just to be able to have a chance to watch this film, the bootlegers are setting at home watching there DRM free copy of the movie with no problems at all. If they keep this crap up bluray will never get off the ground. I think they screwed the pooch when they picked bluray over HD because HD was a hell of a lot less problamatic and look just as good.
scott
I also had the bdp-120 from pioneer and saw the scene selection pop up every 20 seconds. I updated the latest firmware from pioneer’s website and the movie worked…..for about an hour. Then the picture started to pixelate. This is my second attempt at watching this beautiful movie on blu ray. I finally popped in the DVD version of the movie (I bought the combo pack that came with 2 discs….one blu ray and one DVD) just so I could see the end of the movie. WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT!!!! Blu Ray is supposed to be the best format out there, but there are way too many bugs!
Stephen Pate
Mine makes weird crunching noises and takes 3 to 5 minutes to load the movie. You can’t touch the remote other than pause or it freaks out and starts all over. Blu ray is dead in the water if they make the viewing experience a pain.
jamie
i have the samsung bluray player (bdp1600) and it wont play the avatar disc at all!!! i downloaded the latest firmware and it didnt do anything. my player is brand new, and i am seriously regretting buying a bluray player, DVD never had these problems, neither did HD!
Karen Crayk
I just watched Avatar and to my dismay I had to watch it on my PS3. My other blu-ray players cannot connect to the internet at least not to my knowledge. So I want my money back either on the blu ray players or give me a blu ray of this movie that I CAN watch. It is a good thing that I have a PS3! I am pissed.
The Dude
FOX has produced a product (Avatar DVDs and Blu Ray discs) that many of its customers cannot use. This represents gross managerial negligence regarding their customer relations and it will no doubt affect their bottom line. Hopefully they and other corporations will discontinue their abuse of loyal customers and prioritize their needs over the vague and unquantifiable consequences of “piracy”. All we want to do is pay for a solid product. FOX: you have failed to deliver.
Stacy
How about being able to play it at a computer… did anybody figure that out? I have some old bluray software but it’s not working… I have downloaded many trials of new softwares, but none of them will play my Avatar disk.
Eddie
I been attempting to play the Avatar Blu-Ray version on my Sony BDP-S300 Blu-Ray for weeks with no success, I downloaded and successfully installed the latest Sony firmware but still unable to play the Blu-Ray version of Avatar. The DVD version plays well, but it sucks that I was not able to take advantage of the Blu-Ray format since this movie has amazing special affects. Worse part is that no one at Sony is unable to help as I have spent hours on their tech support web-site trying to find a fix. I hate that I spent the extra cash for the Blu-Ray version and i’m unable to get what I paid for.
Shame on FOX for failing to deliver to their consumers…Who at FOX came up with the idea to use DRM’s at the cost of honest and paying customers. This is highway robbery…….!
Tim
Can you say “CLASS ACTION SUIT”? How many of you feel that you wasted your money buying a FOX Blu-Ray product that will not play correctly?
Tim
I purchased Avatar 2-Disk Set and it will not play in my Sharp Blu-Ray player. I consider Fox to be the the entity responsible for wasting my money. Therefore, until Fox supplies Sharp with what they need to create a firmware upgrade get your Blu-Ray Movies to play, they have LOST A CUSTOMER. It is my contention that FOX has acted in bad faith by defrauding me and many others out of their money by knowingly selling a Blu-Ray product that will not play in a standard Blu-Ray player. I cannot return the product to the seller because it is opened, which is HOW I found out that it did not work. Therefore I request that FOX reimburse me the cost of this video.
Stephen Pate
Can’t you return it to the store, the blu ray dvd?
Eddie
Sony has finally released a new firmware that addresses the issues around being able to play the Blu-Ray version of Avatar. Just last night I downloaded firmware 5.40 for my BDP-S300 from Sony.com which was released June 23rd and 45 minutes later I was watching Avatar in Blu-Ray. I was able to enjoy the Blu-Ray version much more than the DVD format.
oxfortblue
I have just fallen into the same scam as the rest of you guys. Having legally bought and paid for my extended bluray edition from Amazon I was sitting comfortably at my new Asus with bluray player/writer and inserted disc 1 to enjoy my movie when AHHHHHHH!!!!!! it won’t play. Done all the many sites to see if it was missing a driver, software etc VLC won’t play it WINMEDIA wont play it. ASUS hasn’t given me a any software to play BD movies guess they knew something I didn’t when I spent over $2K for the computer. Downloaded trial version of cyberlink Cinema but this will not play it either, this folks is totally unacceptable and let’s face it has to be illegal since a movie is purchase to view and should play on a player/equipment this obviously isn’t for alot of people I say ‘CLASS ACTION SUITE’ IS DEFINATELY NEEDED even just to get back my purchase money. If I had known I couldn’t play my movie I would NEVER have purchased it in the first place. Fox you suck big time and so do all the places where they are selling these videos that don’t play. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves for this stunt.
Laurence
Avata would not play in my Sony S570 but while reading on the internet I came across something that said to put a USB memory chip in my Bluray player. Maybe to give it more memory to run the extra that Avatar needs. I used an 8Gig chip and tried it and it worked. To confirm I shut down took out the chip and it wouldn`t play so I put back in and movie played fine. I think the PS3 has a hard drive which would give it some memory so it can play.