HomeWeekly News Roundup (15 June 2008)
June 15th sounds like it should be exactly the middle of the year, but it’s not due to February being an idiot and not having enough days, and July and August conspiring together to win the “two consecutive months of the year with the most number of days” award. The news is a bit thin this week, so please bear or bare with me depending on your mood.
In copyright news, the MPAA recently said they plan to release on HD movies for public/paid broadcast before they are available to purchase on discs, but as part of this arrangement, they also want the ability to prevent recordings of these types of content. One senses that releasing movies early is almost just an excuse for the MPAA to ensure they can get this type of copy control rammed past the FCC regulators, who currently prohibits the use of such technology. 
Of course, even with the most sophisticated copy protection technology, as long as one can physically view the content, one will find a way to record it, even if through “lowly” analogue means. The FCC, like most people, are a bit wary of the MPAA’s intentions and have opened the petition to the public for comments. I suggest that if you have a couple of minutes to spare, you read the MPAA proposal and then complete the form to add your comments here. We must send a message to the MPAA that we can no longer tolerate their attack on our personal freedoms. The line must be drawn here! This far and no farther!
The Canadians are fighting a fight of their own as well, as new proposed copyright legislations, dubbed the “Northern DMCA”, will ensure police powers to fine copyright offenders. Of course, the police are not that happy, as they would prefer to be out there catching real criminals, not so called copyright abusers which even the likes of the MPAA and RIAA would have difficulty proving guilty/innocent in court (find out how the RIAA catches copyright offenders). As expected, the protest online is getting louder and louder, so hopefully the Canadian government will take their lips off the copyright lobby’s ass for a second and listen to the people who elected them to power.
And as if things can’t get any worse. Well, they can. New proposals doing the rounds and written up by the United States proposes draconian measures to stop digital copyright theft, including on the spot searches, seizures and destruction of digital devices suspected of carrying pirated content all without the right to ask for a lawyer or the right of appeal. It looks like the US has been talking to North Korean about more than just nuclear arms, they are getting a few pointers too on how on policing “inappropriate” content.
Onto HD news now, another week, another rumour of an Xbox 360 Blu-ray drive, and yet another rumour being shot down. Read what I posted in the link to see who I think is making up and spreading these rumours, and why. Meanwhile, the previous HD DVD studios move to Blu-ray is gaining momentum, as Paramount launches a Blu-ray support site. Despite what you’ve read in the news, Blu-ray sales are still pretty sluggish, even compared to the quickly declining DVD sales. With a possible US recession coming, the studios are extremely worried about what the future may bring and they are desperate for Blu-ray to succeed (and by success, I mean increase profits). But who knows, perhaps desperation is exactly what the format needs, as this could mean more movies released for less money per movie, with a slight premium over DVDs but nothing that would turn people off.
The other approach is to make the discs more feature packed. Something that Toshiba tried to do from day one with HD DVD, with very limited success. Disney wants to add a chat feature to its Blu-ray releases, made possible by Profile 2.0 hardware (more reasons to get one or wait to get one, as opposed to buying 1.1 players). HD DVDs have had this and similar features for ages, and it didn’t seem to help much, so I don’t know if this is the way to go. But expect more and more “Web 2.0” type features to be added to Blu-ray discs.
Porn, the great teat from which the DVD format has sucked from to gain strength, is another potential saviour of Blu-ray. But do people really want to see *that* and *those* in high def glory? And does it add, or detract from the experience? Or perhaps people won’t be able to tell much difference at all? With a limited production budget, porn films probably don’t benefit much from the increased resolution as say your typical Michael Bay effort, even if the former usually has a better script.
And finally in gaming, there’s not much going except for the NPD figures released, which I have already blogged on yesterday. The porn article link above says Blu-ray hardware sales are plummeting, which might explains the spate of Blu-ray sales that are going on at the moment. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but certainly, the PS3 hasn’t been selling in the numbers the “best Blu-ray player on the market” and the “most technically sophisticated game console” should expect. Even compared to the dodgy, somewhat ugly and noisy beast that is the Xbox 360, or the Gamecube with a new controller that is the Wii, it isn’t doing too well, not for a console that has never beaten both of its competitors since launch, and has only beaten the half-broken 360 twice or thrice monthly in a year and a half worth of results. But then again, it’s still quite expensive, so a price drop will do wonders for it. 
Although be on the look out for more and more stories regarding a potential design fault with the PS3 in relation to the Blu-ray drive, which has been known to crap out after about a year’s use. This one could rival the 360 RRoD as a source of headache for gamers and Blu-ray owners alike, with upwards of 10% to 15% of PS3s being affected. This number is a conservative estimate based on forum posts, first hand accounts of retailers and online poll results.
That’s the news for this week. More next week as usual. Hasta la vista.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Just great, 500 bucks for ps3 and it has a 1 year life span, glad I got a extended warranty.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Just to note that while I provided a screenshot for 80010514 error code problem, the actual drive problem may or may not give you this code. The “Disk Read Error” problem is almost certainly a hardware issue, not a software one, as Sony tech support will require you to send back the console with a 20 days/1 month turnaround estimate.
There is another problem, again probably more common with the older models, is the noisy fan problems. Some people don’t even know they have the problem because the Xbox 360 is just as noisy, but the PS3 should be virtually silent when idle. If it isn’t, then see if there is something blocking the air vent at the back of the console – if it’s in open space and still making loud fan noises when idle, then you will have to get it fixed by Sony.
I’m seriously considering selling my current PS3 and getting a new one when the warranty expires. This way, I get a new model (if one exists at that time) and a new warranty, probably with something extra thrown in as well. I’m going to do this with my 360 as well. It will probably cost me less than the cost of out of warranty repairs. Wouldn’t it be nice if these companies could actually make something that doesn’t break all the time?