[mythtv-users] State of blu-ray support?

Simon Hobson linux at thehobsons.co.uk
Sun Nov 17 12:12:01 UTC 2013


Stuart Morgan wrote:
>On Saturday 16 Nov 2013 15:42:37 Simon Waldman wrote:
>> On 15 November 2013 18:43, HP-mini <blm-ubunet at slingshot.co.nz> wrote:
>> > - all BD players will get their device keys revoked periodically..
>> > So when revoked you need to upgrade to the latest genuine f/w.
>> > When genuine f/w updates stop, you junk the drive or..
>> 
>> *boggle*
>> Is this just something that affects use on linux (how?)?
>> Or... do consumer drives get deliberately bricked on a regular basis?!
>
>No Device keys don't get revoked often at all, it's only ever done when a 
>particular piece of hardware/firmware is found to be insecure allowing keys to 
>be leaked. Some people will have experienced it more than others because they 
>deliberately bought some of the early drives which had hackable firmware. I've 
>never experienced it with my drive in the years I've owned it.
>
>What does get revoked regularly, at least for us Linux users, are the leaked 
>Host keys. 

IMO, and speaking from a UK law perspective, we should (and must if we are to fulfil our civic duty) make it as painful and expensive as possible for anyone making such problems. That means, IMO, that if anyone in the UK finds that their player* no longer plays new titles then they much a) tak the dic back as faulty and thus cause all the costs back up the supply chain as the disk has been opened and so can't be put back on the shelf, and b) go back to the supplier of the drive and demand it be repaired**. Under UK law, all goods must be "fit for the purpose for which they were sold" and "reasonably durable".

If a drive no longer plays new titles because of a built in "feature" then from our perspective it is not fit for the purpose of playing disks. If a disk sold as a "Blue ray" disk doesn't play in a Blue Ray player then it's not fit for purpose. The law doesn;t define what is a reasonable life, but for a "quality" brand, I'd say "a good few years". The *ONLY* limit in UK law is 6 years as that's the limitation on bringing a civil action.

* Whether that's a stand alone player, or some combination of stuff.
** Repair *may* just be a matter of a firmware update, but how many (eg) Tesco or ASDA (for our US cousins, think Walmart) stores will have that facility - thus they'll need to send it back to somewhere.


The **ONLY** way we'll get to rein back such shenanigans is to make it too expensive for the large retailers. If the likes of Walmart turn round to a disk vendor and say seomthing like "stop your sh*t or we'll stop selling your disks" then notice will be taken. Otherwise it's a zero cost game for the vendors and we all pay.

Trouble is, the 99.something % of the population who will just shell out for a new player every time they're told the old one is "broken" :(


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