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NeoTheOne
10-03-2005, 09:41 PM
Microsoft invents a ‘one-play only’ DVD to combat Hollywood piracy
By : Tony Glover Technology Editor October 02, 2005

COMPUTER software giant Microsoft has developed a cheap, disposable pre-recorded DVD disc that consumers can play only once. The discs would give Hollywood increased control over the release of new films and allow consumers the chance to watch a film at the fraction of the price of an ordinary pre-recorded DVD. More important, the discs would prevent copying and digital piracy, which is costing the film and music industry billions in lost revenues.

The revolutionary product could be on the market as early as next year, with the new DVD players needed to view them. Microsoft hopes it will help the company dominate home entertainment as it dominates the desktop computer market.

The film industry has been growing increasingly alarmed at the prospect of film fans using the internet to download pirated films, just as music fans download copyrighted songs on their personal computers. Researchers at Microsoft believe they have a simple solution to the challenge of piracy. Hollywood’s movie moguls are said to be excited at the prospect of having a piracy-proof means of distribution.

Buying an ordinary DVD of a new film costs between £15 (E22, $26.40) and £20. Microsoft’s new disc will enable the studios to release a “play-once, then throw away” copy for as little as £3, much the same as renting a video or DVD. But unlike a rented DVD, the new disc allows consumers to decide when they watch films and there is no need to return it.

The new generation of DVD disc will spearhead a fresh assault by Microsoft on the home-entertainment market. A big chunk of its $7bn research budget is spent on digital rights management (DRM). A senior source in the company says Microsoft is in talks with the main electronics manufacturers about developing DVD players to play the new discs. And when the movie industry does find the courage to move to a fully internet-based distribution model, Microsoft wants its DRM software to be the industry standard, giving it dominance of the server market, and the telecoms and cable companies that need to store and manage their video-on-demand services.

Chairman Bill Gates has been working on a solution to the film industry’s piracy problem since making a now legendary pitch to the industry in September 2002. Showing a video of himself dressed in a sailor suit pretending to audition for the blockbuster Titanic, Gates pitched Hollywood with the proposition that only Microsoft could solve its piracy problem by making its DRM software a standard across every home entertainment playback and recording device. By installing its DRM software in every device used to play or store movies, Microsoft plans to dominate the home entertainment industry in the same way it does the desktop computer software market.

This will mean convincing competitors such as Sony – whose Playstation rivals Gates’s XBox – that allowing Microsoft dominance of the home entertainment software market is a price worth paying to establish a single global DRM standard. But despite the telecoms and cable companies’ plans to offer video-on-demand through the internet, the most popular internet-based movie service in the US is still a company called Netflix, which posts DVDs to users’ homes. The customers only use the internet to make a selection from Netflix’s store of 42m DVD discs and place an order online.

Netflix has more than 4m subscribers, but its founder and head, Reed Hastings, last week told Newsweek it will have more than 20m subscribers by 2010 and that DVD discs will not be entirely replaced by newer digital technologies for at least another 20 years.

:source: Source: http://www.thebusinessonline.com/Stories.aspx?Microsoft%20invents%20a%20%E2%80%98one-play%20only%E2%80%99%20DVD%20to%20combat%20Hollywood%20piracy&StoryID=B7480068-F1F6-4C7B-A7A5-EEFCED0320CB&SectionID=F3B76EF0-7991-4389-B72E-D07EB5AA1CEE

tesco
10-03-2005, 09:46 PM
The revolutionary product could be on the market as early as next year, with the new DVD players needed to view them.
Uhh, they expect people to buy that? :blink:

Samurai
10-03-2005, 09:47 PM
This is (hopefully) never going to take off. This would, in effect, mean no more purchasing of DVD's. This is getting ridiculous.

twisterX
10-03-2005, 10:11 PM
Yea sure im gonna buy a dvd player when i already have a better one to watch this shit. HEHEH They must be very smart at this.

Someone is gonna find a way to copy it and use it many times so good thing.

DVD prices have dropped 75%. LOL

4play
10-03-2005, 10:21 PM
not a bad idea for video rental since you dont have to return them. but buying a new dvd player just to play them is likely to kill the idea stone dead. maybe in 10 years.

Xilo
10-03-2005, 10:26 PM
Walt Disney did a similar stunt before. They made disposable DVDs to rent. You rent it, play once, and after awhile they become unplayable. Let's just say they never really took off.

GepperRankins
10-03-2005, 11:09 PM
this is impossible :ermm:


a £15 PC tv card makes it possible to record anything you can input to a TV

tesco
10-03-2005, 11:16 PM
this is impossible :ermm:


a £15 PC tv card makes it possible to record anything you can input to a TVOld VCRs do the same thing (to atleast make a copy of it u could watch over and over).

What stops a person just ripping the movie to their computer as the first play?:unsure:

Peerzy
10-03-2005, 11:24 PM
this is impossible :ermm:


a £15 PC tv card makes it possible to record anything you can input to a TVOld VCRs do the same thing (to atleast make a copy of it u could watch over and over).

What stops a person just ripping the movie to their computer as the first play?:unsure:

Most programs use more than 1 pass, after the DVD Reader has reached the end of the DVD i suspect something is trigger to void the dvd right then so as the program goes onto its 2nd, 3rd and 4th pass on the encoding it wouldn't be able to read it.

tesco
10-03-2005, 11:35 PM
Old VCRs do the same thing (to atleast make a copy of it u could watch over and over).

What stops a person just ripping the movie to their computer as the first play?:unsure:

Most programs use more than 1 pass, after the DVD Reader has reached the end of the DVD i suspect something is trigger to void the dvd right then so as the program goes onto its 2nd, 3rd and 4th pass on the encoding it wouldn't be able to read it.Ah, makes sense. I didn't know it did more than one pass.
Altho if that's the case, that means u cant 'rewind' a movie?
Also, im sure if it's on the ocmputer the software can be modded to not trigger that it's been played.:P

GepperRankins
10-03-2005, 11:36 PM
Old VCRs do the same thing (to atleast make a copy of it u could watch over and over).

What stops a person just ripping the movie to their computer as the first play?:unsure:

Most programs use more than 1 pass, after the DVD Reader has reached the end of the DVD i suspect something is trigger to void the dvd right then so as the program goes onto its 2nd, 3rd and 4th pass on the encoding it wouldn't be able to read it.
how would this corrupt a stream to file?

gsky
10-04-2005, 12:16 AM
Most programs use more than 1 pass, after the DVD Reader has reached the end of the DVD i suspect something is trigger to void the dvd right then so as the program goes onto its 2nd, 3rd and 4th pass on the encoding it wouldn't be able to read it.

um, that's not right, you are right that they make multiple passes over the video, but once it is ripped to the hard drive you no longer use the disk, i don't know any encoding software the does the passes off of the dvd, that's just insane...

NeoTheOne
10-04-2005, 01:13 AM
pretty sure it will be cracked so not to worry, if it does get craked we can buy new orignal 3$ dvd's :) lol

twisterX
10-04-2005, 01:46 AM
pretty sure it will be cracked so not to worry, if it does get craked we can buy new orignal 3$ dvd's :) lol

hell yea dude. Fuck hollywood :P

ahctlucabbuS
10-04-2005, 01:56 AM
This is wasted money on Microsoft's part. As mentioned Disney tried something similar before, which didn't take off: Cheap, disposable DVD's with a 24 hour life span... And that was without the need to buy new electronics. :dry:

true_neo
10-04-2005, 08:55 AM
I give DVD Jon 4 days and 2 hours after its release before he has cracked this :P

GepperRankins
10-04-2005, 02:03 PM
it'll probably be possible to use a resistor to stop the laser damaging the disc

Gripper
10-04-2005, 05:30 PM
Don't think the ecologists are gonna be happy with this unless its biodegradable

GepperRankins
10-04-2005, 06:20 PM
they might just be rewritables :w00t:

Barbarossa
10-05-2005, 10:46 AM
Don't think the ecologists are gonna be happy with this unless its biodegradable

I don't think ecologists are ever happy... :cry:



This whole idea really is a non-starter.