Blu-ray region encoding causing lost exclusives?
- Posted September 13th, 2007 at 04:04 EDT by
- 5,023 views
- 12 Comments
With the next-gen video format war being based almost completely on exclusive titles, neither side can afford to lose them. However, Blu-ray's vigilant region encoding may potentially put the high definition medium at a disadvantage to Toshiba’s competing HD-DVD format.
HD-DVD discs and players are region free, meaning that any disc will work on any player, regardless of where the disc was made. One of Blu-ray's security features (one that most studios prefer) is that is region encodes its discs. While making it's content more secure, this could turn out to be a snag to overcome.
Right now, many major movie studios maintain exclusivity with one format. For example, Disney Pictures, Buena Vista, and Sony Home Entertainment release all of their high definition movies on Blu-ray discs only. Similarly, Paramount, DreamWorks, and Universal only support HD-DVD.
Now we enter the grey area, however. The format that the movie will release on will depend on who owns the distribution rights to that movie in the country that it will be released in. Sometimes, several companies all own the rights; each in it's respective country. When this happens, occasionally a loophole will open up and a Blu-ray exclusive movie in the US will be release on HD-DVD in a different country.
One example of this is The Prestige. Buena Vista holds distribution rights for this title in the states, and is currently a Blu-ray exclusive company. However, Warner Bros. holds rights to this movie in several countries overseas, including Germany, France, and the UK. To make matters worse for Blu-ray, Warner Bros. has released this movie abroad on HD-DVD before it release on Sony’s format. This means that an HD-DVD owner could enjoy a Blu-ray exclusive title months before it released!
This kind of thing happens rarely, but usually with bigger titles. Other titles like this include the Saw trilogy, available from Germany, and Silent Hill.
Imported movies aren't necessarily as good for HD-DVD owners here in the states as it sounds. Many of these titles have soundtrack issues, or subtitles that cannot be turned off while viewing the movie in English. Also, the menus can be much harder to navigate in a different language.
Could this leak of Blu-ray exclusives cause a slight hindrance in sales? Probably not too much, as many HD-DVD owners do not know where to order imports or care to spend the extra money to have them shipped overseas. This is, however, one smaller setback to the BDA's campaign for high def. dominance.
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Stef Nighthawk
- 7:54am BST - September 13th, 2007
- 3
Importing from the EU to the US : LOL.
Where's the price advantage in that? -
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Black Ice Joe |
BlackIceJoe- 9:07am BST - September 13th, 2007
- 5
Muzikguy4 BR games are region-free but not BR movies. I for one hope soon BR movies will be region-free. That is one big thing that is on HD DVD that I really wish was on BR. I am going to go out of the country next year and I might see a movie I want but seeing a movies over there are region-locked I can not play them on my BR player but if they were region-free I could pick it up and bring it home with me.
So I for one hope Sony will allow region-free movies to come out soon.
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Supra2JZGTE
- 11:30am BST - September 13th, 2007
- 9
Region coding sucks. It only benefits studios so they can time there world wide releases properly. Im not sure how HD-DVD got away with no region coding but Im loving it. IE, Im traveling in region B but im from region A, in the DVD days, I couldnt get a movie from that region without having a region free player. Now, with HD-DVD, I can get HD content from other countries, this is good for me as I love films from different cultures. Now someone said that they hope BD goes region free one day. Sorry but I dont see that happening, ever! lol
BD is DRM heavy.
-Region Locked
-AACS
-BD+
-BD Mark
HD-DVD has one form of security:
AACS
-dad
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VEXXD |
VEXXD- 2:35pm BST - September 13th, 2007
- 10
Blu-ray region encoding causing lost exclusives? No...the lack of region coding on HD-DVD is what's causing it. Region codes are the exact reason why studios (read: New Line) are releasing on Blu-ray FIRST.
Blu-ray could be region free and that still wouldn't stop HD-DVD owners from importing Blu-ray exclusives.
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swedishfriend
- 4:15am BST - September 14th, 2007
- 11
I have yet to find a blu-ray movie that is region encoded (maybe that is just the movies I have been interested in so far). In my experience they are "all region" discs.
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The Cleaner
- 5:43am BST - September 14th, 2007
- 12
Id like to be done with region coding. I had to get my PSX modded and then my PS2 modded and Im sick of having to do it. Region coding does not stop piracy - in fact it encourages it.
I chipped my PS2 so I could play games not released in the PAL regions - like: Suikoden series, Odin Sphere, Persona 3, Valkyrie Profile, Xenosaga 1 & 3, Monster Rancher series, Magic Mengel etc.... none have been released in Australia. After spending all that money and hassle getting the mod done just to get around Sony's stupid region coding hurdles I was tempted not to import but just burn the game. The only reason I didnt is that I like to get the originals and enjoy the printed game art in the manuals etc... But some others will just think - what the heck, Sony hasnt made my life easy why should I make theirs???
The world market is now a single market - Ebay, Amazon, Playasia etc... makes it easy to import games. I'll buy the best games at the lowest price - no matter which country it comes from. As for movies - no way will I standardise on a format that is region locked, heavily DRM'ed, thats propriatary and limited. I'll go with the format that offers the most freedom, the one thats more open standards the one that has the best future. That's just common sense.
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