last thoughts on getting recalcitrant BDs to play...

[William Sommerwerck]

Thanks to another poster's suggestion, I Googled "Starship Troopers" +
"won't play" and found the solution.

It seems that this disk requires proof of citizenship -- I mean a memory
card -- to run! I retrieved the little card supplied by Sony, plugged it in,
and -- et tu, Viola! -- it plays.

Who'da thunk it...

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:04:10 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
<grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote:

Thanks to another poster's suggestion, I Googled "Starship Troopers" +
"won't play" and found the solution.

It seems that this disk requires proof of citizenship -- I mean a memory
card -- to run! I retrieved the little card supplied by Sony, plugged it in,
and -- et tu, Viola! -- it plays.

Plug it into where? Is there a smart card slot? A green card slot?
This reeks of yet another Sony copy protection scheme.

Who'da thunk it...

Reality sometimes follows fiction:
"U.S. Military Will Offer Path to Citizenship"
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/us/15immig.html>


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[William Sommerwerck]

"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote in message
news:9l2nu41lrb1e7cchbrbg9813fkuvosm796@4ax.com...

On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:04:10 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote:

Thanks to another poster's suggestion, I Googled "Starship Troopers" +
"won't play" and found the solution.

It seems that this disk requires proof of citizenship -- I mean a memory
card -- to run! I retrieved the little card supplied by Sony, plugged it
in,
and -- et tu, Viola! -- it plays.

Plug it into where? Is there a smart card slot? A green card slot?
This reeks of yet another Sony copy protection scheme.

There's a memory card slot on the back. It's required for Web access or
something. It has no software on it; it's just for storing files. Many BD
players have them.

It couldn't be used for copy protection because, at the moment, there's no
way to copy BD movies.

Who'da thunk it...

Reality sometimes follows fiction:
"U.S. Military Will Offer Path to Citizenship"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/us/15immig.html

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:15:44 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
<grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote:

"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote in message
news:9l2nu41lrb1e7cchbrbg9813fkuvosm796@4ax.com...
On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:04:10 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote:

Thanks to another poster's suggestion, I Googled "Starship Troopers" +
"won't play" and found the solution.

It seems that this disk requires proof of citizenship -- I mean a memory
card -- to run! I retrieved the little card supplied by Sony, plugged it
in,
and -- et tu, Viola! -- it plays.

Plug it into where? Is there a smart card slot? A green card slot?
This reeks of yet another Sony copy protection scheme.

There's a memory card slot on the back. It's required for Web access or
something. It has no software on it; it's just for storing files. Many BD
players have them.

On the back? That's rather inconvenient if you have the unit
installed in a cabinet or under a pile of similar equipment. I guess
you're suppose to leave the card in there.

It couldn't be used for copy protection because, at the moment, there's no
way to copy BD movies.

I hate to tell you this, but a quick Google search for "copy Blue-Ray
movies" yielded quite a bit on cracking the encryption and duplicating
the content. I don't know anything about it so I have no idea if the
various programs actually work. For example:
<http://www.dvd-cloner.com>
<http://www.opencloner.com/blu-ray_to_dvd.html>

Copying is apparently sufficiently important to Sony that they devised
the memory card slot (dongle) copy protection scheme to reinforce the
MMC protected content.

Who'da thunk it...

Reality sometimes follows fiction:
"U.S. Military Will Offer Path to Citizenship"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/us/15immig.html

I sorta recall that the ancient Romans had a rather serious problem
when most of their legions were foreign nationals. Whatever works,
but I guess we don't learn much from history. I saw the original
Starship Troopers when it first came out. It was ok for the violence,
but I don't think I would pay to watch it again. I read the Heinlein
story in the 1960's but don't recall anything remarkable about it.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers>




--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[William Sommerwerck]

Copying is apparently sufficiently important to Sony that they devised
the memory card slot (dongle) copy protection scheme to reinforce the
MMC protected content.

Well, that's not what it's currently used for. And this particular film
seems to be one of a very few with this quirk. I have other Columbia films
that don't require it.

I sorta recall that the ancient Romans had a rather serious problem
when most of their legions were foreign nationals. Whatever works,
but I guess we don't learn much from history. I saw the original
Starship Troopers when it first came out. It was ok for the violence,
but I don't think I would pay to watch it again. I read the Heinlein
story in the 1960's but don't recall anything remarkable about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers

It's a nasty little piece of anti-Fascist satire, which appears to invert
Heinlein's intentions.