posted 10-15-2000 11:17 PM               

With this technology Warner will “enhance the capabilities of the regional code specification for DVD," according to the document. “This program is a response to the unauthorized practice of altering DVD video hardware players so that they bypass the region code requirements for DVD. This is happening on a more frequent basis in many territories, and retailers are openly marketing these non-complying players with names such as region free and multi zone,” it goes on to say.

The technology itself is embedded code within the bitstream of the DVD that detects whether or not the player has been altered. If the player has been modified, as all region-free players are, the disc will refuse to play. The program will "instead display a message on the television advising the consumer that the machine is not authorized to play this disc.” Throughout the playing of disc, region-free players will display the following message: “THIS DVD PLAYER MAY HAVE BEEN ALTERED AND IS UNABLE TO PLAY THIS DISC. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS DISC. DVD PLAYERS AND DISCS ARE DESIGNED TO WORK IN CERTAIN REGIONS; THIS DISC IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THIS PLAYER. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL RETAILER OR PLAYER MANUFACTURER FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE.”

Those of you who have purchased region free players will have something to worry about in the future. The majority of region-free owners are those outside of the US importing Region 1 discs because studios tend to take their time in releasing titles to areas outside of the United States.

A large portion of us who use standard unmodified players can disregard this, however keeping this in mind should one be leaning in the direction of purchasing a region free DVD player.

Should this move prove worthwhile, we should expect to see Warner running in the front of a long line of studios adopting their own form of a similar technology. Of course, being "worthwhile" may take longer than one may think.

It is really only a matter of time until a new set of players are released to bypass this technology (which is still in its testing phase, according to Warner). Similar "black boxes" have been developed to bypass macrovision which is also delivered in the same manner as embedded code in the bitstream. Is it this liklihood that will determine whether following suit will be worthwhile to other studios.

Of course, most of all, this manuever by Warner can be seen as a stumbling block that will, if anything, force region-free users to spend more money (for new hardware) in order to continue purchasing more DVDs out of their own region. Of course, many people will not be willing to buy another region-free player just for Warner Bros. titles, but there will certainly be those who would rather throw down the dollars rather than wait for the title to be released in their own region. If even more studios follow, the chances for people purchasing new region-free player to combat this move will likely increase.

posted 10-20-2000 02:19 PM               

But at the SAME time: more power to `em. The studios have a legitimate reason for regional encoding - to reduce (originally to eliminate, but THAT fell through) the flow of localized distribution to zones where they did not wish pre-mature release in international marketing coordination efforts. Quite simply - they don't want American Beauty DVD available in England when the movie hasn't even been released there yet - the DVD could destroy their England box-office sales, still a primary source of income for the studios.

So what's the solution? My suggestion: more timely film distribution to international markets - if Warner could coordinate international release dates for films in theaters, then they could at the same time coordinate world-wide DVD releases on a subsequent date without any concern with what countries have the film in theaters, etc.

posted 10-20-2000 03:02 PM               

The following screen shot was forwarded to me indicating that it occurred when Columbia / TriStar's 'Patriot (Special Edition) was used in a modified player.

Not only is it now through testing phases and arriving on shelves - we have seen that studios other than Warner will be implementing this into their releases.

One thing I will definitely be doing this weekend is taking our copy of 'Patriot' and loading it into my Sony 7000 player ... one of the few that arrived from the manufacturer with switches enabling it to play DVDs from any region. I'm curious to see the reaction with this combination.

- mf

posted 10-20-2000 03:18 PM               

Being on the disc, it sounds like (yes, purely speculation) the solution they've come up with is a sort of authoring/scripting solution, and a fundamental aspect of this idea working is: DVD players have to accurately perform the operations their script requests it to do - remember the S7000 couldn't even accurately Follow The White Rabbit on the Matrix (a WB title, if you recall) - what makes them think their protection script will run properly on that or any of the other numberous models which had problems implementing that portion of their code?

posted 11-26-2000 07:11 PM               

Not only were many multi-region players affected (consider yourselves lucky if you had no probs), some Region 1 players had problems. I don't have specifics on which players at this time...