Page 1 of Blu-Ray Discs Getting Region Locks Via Updates!

Just read this over at Movietyme :(

Quote:
"Hi, I recently purchased `My Bloody Valentine` from you on Blu-Ray.
The disc comes region free as advertised but becomes region encoded
after a recommended update is downloaded. This makes the disc
unplayable for subsequent viewings on non-Region A machines. The
update also appears to do little else than region lock the disc. To
play the disc again I needed to to go into my BD data directory and
delete the update."

Will this happen on say the PS3 or just on PC drives?


:(

Need to know the context of that post really. What were they using to play the title? Standalone player, BD-Rom drive with software player? They can`t physically alter the region code of a disc after it`s been released, but they can mess around with the players to prevent certain titles from working (and worse). However, I`d be surprised if this ever really catches on given that so many titles are region free. I`m not sure the format will ever have a high enough adoption rate for them to bother.

Didn`t seem to be a problem in this instance though as they just deleted the update data.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 26th May 2009, 13:09

Going at what the poster said it was on his PC. However if this was on a PS3 I don`t think you can delete an update once done

Depends on the update. If this is just a disc update that is stored like any other, you can go in and delete them (same as BD-Live content). However, if it`s a full software update you are correct. That`s why we really need more info about what he updated. If it was a software player it could just be an issue with that disc/software combo, but if not it is slightly more worrying. If it was a PC, I reckon he was using PowerDVD as that`s the only software I know of that tells you to update. It does so because it`s frequently out of date and the new builds have the different keys needed every time they change them (or such is my understanding). PDVD is flaky at the best of times, but it will be interesting to see if anyone else reports this.

Just as well I have a region free player then! :D

To be honest, this was always on the cards anyway. That`s why I went region free.


My DVD collection

I still won`t believe it until I see it. I can understand companies region locking certain new titles for a period of time, but there`s absolutely no (business) sense in locking catalogue titles. Even Fox seems to have come to that realisation recently.

Quote:
Just as well I have a region free player then!

I thought that was the whole idea behind the region locked discs, so the discs would be able to tell if the player is region A or region B, and if they wasn`t either they would refuse play.

That`s one of the main reasons I refused to buy one.

floyd