dasher232
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- Joined: Feb 08, 2006
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RE: Direct blue-ray VS HD DVD comparison (a must-read)
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Aug 13, 2006 01:42
http://www.cnet.com.au/desktops/dvdburners/0,39029405,40091720,00.htm The first Blu-ray (BD) disc drive for desktop PCs is here, but be warned -- it won' t play commercial BD movies. Sony officially announced its BWU-100A product at its " Experience More 2006" event in Sydney yesterday, all the while acknowledging that there' s significant room for improvement before the product is viable for integration into media centre PCs. Vincent Bautista, Sony' s product manager for data storage, told CNET.com.au that due to copy protection issues and lagging software development, the drive will only play user-recorded high-definition content from a digital camcorder, and not commercial movies released under the BD format. Bautista says that one of two reasons for this is the fact that commercial content is encrypted with High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), which can only be decrypted using a HDCP-compliant graphics card that offers DVI or HDMI connections. Since there are currently no PCs for sale offering graphics chips that support HDCP, this isn' t yet possible. The second reason, according to Bautista, is that BD playback software that can decrypt HDCP isn' t " released as a saleable item yet" . Today, the only HDCP-supporting BD playback application is the OEM version of Intervideo WinDVD BD that' s bundled with Sony' s VAIO VGN-AR18GP notebook. The AR18GP also offers an HDCP-compliant HDMI connector, which makes it capable of playing commercial movies without issue. Bautista is optimistic that both issues will be resolved " soon" , and says that despite not being able to play commercial content, the drive is still useful as a " storage device" , particularly for those looking to create and distribute their own high-definition home movies on BD-R and BD-RE discs. The Sony BWU100A has a write speed of 2x and will be available this month for AU$1399. Didn' t someone say that the japanese are really strict with ' ' quality control' ' and only let a product to the public domain until it' s ready?.....
< Message edited by dasher232 -- 12 Aug 06 17:57:57 >
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