Blue Ray Content Management & Digital Rights Management

Blue Ray

Blue Ray is the latest disc movie technology that promises a great improvement in picture, and sound quality. Blank Blue Ray disc are available at present for data storage that can store 25 GB per single layered, and 50 GB per dual layered. This format is open-ended, with a possible storage limit of 200 GB. So it could become the next high volume storage media replacing DVD discs.

It main purpose at present is to act as a medium to distribute the latest high definition moves, (High-definition video is 1920×1080 pixel resolution / 60 frames per second / 24 frames per second). If you buy a dedicated stand alone Blue Ray player you just put the disk in and play it. Getting Blue Ray to work on an computer can be whole lot more involved.

It is to do with the fact that you need a fairly fast computer, and have a Blue Ray player installed plus several layers of Content Management & Digital Rights Management (DRM). The computer Blue Ray player looks just like a DVD player, some are multi players that can read older technologies like CD /DVD discs. Some more expensive players can read and burn Blue Ray data storage disks as well as play Blue Ray Movies. Price ranges for Blue Ray Players are $200 to over $500 depending on what the player can do.

If you are looking at getting Blue Ray movies playing on an older computer, most of you should just forget the idea. Because of several layers of Content Management & Digital Rights Management (DRM), getting all the hardware parts to work together can be a nightmare. See all the hardware has to be certified to be Content and DRM certified and even then it may not work together. You also need Content and DRM certified software to play Blue Ray discs.

Blue Ray video movies have encryption to prevent copying and the Content and DRM looks to see if the hardware or movie disc has been tampered with. In other words to see if the Blue Ray content is being pirated.

It can,

1. See if a player’s keys have been changed.

2. Patch an insecure Content and DRM certified system.

3. Stop the viewing of Blue Ray content if any of the hardware, or software is not compliant.

Even if the hardware and software you are using is all legal, and you have installed Content and DRM compliant Blue Ray software, disc player, video card, and Blue Ray compliant monitor it may not work. All the bits may not talk to each other for some strange technical reason! So after many hours of technical support and research you may be faced with more expense, and have no choice but to purchase and try another compliant video card, different software, or monitor to get it all working happily together.

Alternatively you could purchase a computer that is already set up with everything, content and DRM compliant, and ready to play Blue Ray movies out of the box.

In reviews of Bue Ray movies reviewers have been complaining that the sound and video quality has not been up to the Blue Ray standard on lots of movies. This is because some content creators are capitalizing on the Blue Ray hype, and supplying movies with second rate video and sound quality. They then get top dollar for second rate material.

There are some very well made Blue Ray movies. I suggest reading reviews before purchasing any movie. There are no where near the number of movies available in Blue Ray format compared to DVD, which most people are happy with. Now the industry is pushing 3D as the next big thing! It is all about getting you to spend money on new technologies.

© Peter Daley 2010