Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Bob Stuart Slams HD-DVD & Bluray

Just to pick you up on this… They're not unrippable. This is actually going to be a big part of the new formats eventually. They wish to legitimise this process and encourage it. Both formats adopt Mandatory Managed Copy (MMC) allowing for the user to rip and store the disc content on their own home computer and media server. Implementation of MMC as I understand it is embraced that little bit more for HD DVD, but it is also present on Bluray as well where it was a rather late addition to the spec. Users certainly won't be without the option to store the content on a hard disc.

Whether consumers may or may not be charged for the privilege remains to be seen however. I remember seeing a video of the HD DVD of Bourne Supremacy from CES and the menu showed it to be free to rip the film to a PC, but there was a small charge to rip the entire disc content (film + extras…etc) and a further charge to store it on more than one device. This could have been created for demo purposes so there's nothing to say studios would not have re-evaluated charging for certain MMC options. We'll have to wait and see.

I think at CES Microsoft did have the Toshiba HD DVD player hooked up to the PC via ethernet and began a live transfer of Bourne Supremacy to the HDD of a PC on the stage. It's an interesting idea. There's been discussion of implementing the managed copy system into standard DVD players in the future as well.

I tried to get a player yesterday and they were all sold out. They only had three from the start and two were on display. So no review from me.

I must say that it did look pretty good on a 42 inch Westinghouse monitor. There was a Mitsubishi display at over 60 inches that I had seen last week that looked like crap again. I couldn't tell the difference between HD and SD on the Mits. There are a lot of HD displys out there that suck.

Some of the Samsung offerings are awesome. I saw a 1080p DLP 61 inch model that blew me away.

Still I wasn't surprised I was the only one looking at the HD DVD player. There was a Samsung 60 inch plasma playing Kong on DVD that looked better than the HD DVD on the Mits right around the corner. I told the guy it sucked. Take it off this display your hurting sales of HD DVD with it on that display. So sad!

Ron

Got me there, Daniel. I didn�t know about MMC. Which format is it going to be ripped to? Proprietary, I suppose? Certainly not a format anybody actually use???

Well it's inherently bound to the AACS copy protection system. Since HD DVD and Bluray are launching with an interim agreement as far as AACS is concerned (i.e launching without the final spec of AACS) some things - like precisely how it is stored on a computer or portable device - have yet to really be made clear and obviously, no first generation players for either format boast the ability to make copies. Whether they'll be able to do so in future thanks to firmware updates I don't know.

I love my Toshiba HD-XA1 player and have it hooked to the analogue MC input and component input on my 861. DD+ sounds better than DD or DTS thru SPDIF. Now I am just waiting on the HDMI input upgrade from M and a player that has MC DD TrueHD.

Rafael