Set-top boxes may put a lid on rewritable DVDs

The EE times has a great article up on how new PVRs that have DVD writers on them might be crippled by Hollywood.

It really astounds me that Hollywood copyright maximalists never learn from their own mistakes. They railed hard against the VCR, saying it would kill the movie business, and yet today DVD and VHS sales account for a huge chunk of their profit. Now people want to record movies and shows from their TV onto recordable DVD for playback later, and the studios are saying the same thing -- that people shouldn't be allowed to freely record shows. This time they want the playback to be limited to just that DVD drive that recorded it. So if your set-top box dies and you get a new one, or if you move, or change providers, those shows you recorded will be useless.

So we have customers that like TV and want to pay for digital cable. They would also like to "tape" things to DVD to save and share with family and friends. The cable companies are listening to their customers and want to provide exactly that. But Hollywood is getting in the way of what people want, seeing customers as criminals, and wanting to exert control of their content even in customer's homes.

Comments

[Aaron Gustafson]

As some of us with DVD recorders know, certain shows and movies already contain a signal which does not allow recording more than one time. I noticed this when trying to offload some unwatched movies from my DirecTiVo before a vacation. When I went to burn Moulin Rouge (recorded from HBO), it would not record anything. My DVD recorder (a Sony capable of recording any format) was set to record in VR mode (which is only usable on DVD+RW discs and allows for A-B editing). I believe VR mode is the only one which looks for this signal, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, the long and short of my comment is that some technology like this is already out there.

Also, on a somewhat unrelated note, I was watching something recorded by TiVo (I believe from a network TV broadcast) and was fast forwarding through the ads (as usual) when my FF-ing stopped and would not start up again until the ad that was on finished. I do not remember the channel, time, show or ad that I experienced this with, but I found it very odd and wanted to see if anyone else had experienced it. Could this be a new way for advertisers to force us to watch their ads?

[weiss]

is there any free software out there to allow u to burn hbo shows or movies onto a DVD

[spudmurphy80]

It's a cat and mouse game. Ever since I was a little boy, when somebody has said..."O' you are not able to do that!", eventually I've solved the problem-after all, we are homo sapiens, sapiens!
No matter what they do, people like me find a technical way of solving problems- in this case software problems. Now, because of this little,little,little (challange) problem, I and my team will easily find a solution to this little.....problem!!! and make it available free on the net. If somebody says. " O' you can't do that, watch this space as they say...the rest will be history.
download free and enjoy....!!!!

[Gary]

the fact remains that Hollywood is going to kill their own industry with this type control over what is recorded. They have already made their money more than once from a movie via rentals and theatre, but by controling how many times you can record a show or where it can be played makes recording a pointless operation. The real threat to the industry is the copying of DVD movies and distribution on the internet. That is what the industry should be concentrating on. They are just going to piss people off with this type of thing. thing is people will always find a work around for it.