HiFi Writer Blog

Let’s dig a little deeper into this whole ‘Digital Copy’ (DC) thing, discussed in the previous post.

My brother, presently holidaying in Austria, has written to me suggesting that I ‘should install a Firefox or Maxthon browser and set up a proxy server to access the DC movies.’ I’m prepared to go to reasonable lengths to find out the information that I need, or to explore the intricacies of some interesting piece of technology. But when it comes to using consumer orientated hardware and software, I play dumb. I try to follow the instructions as best I can. What more can you reasonably ask of the consumer? So I persevere with Internet Explorer. I don’t use proxy servers.

Anyway, I’ve already seen this wonderful movie … twice! On Blu-ray. I highly recommend the movie to readers. But I have no desire to see it on a portable device. I just want to find out if a consumer can if he or she wishes to.

Now, what is this ‘Digital Copy’? The disc it is on is not a DVD-Video, but a DVD ROM. That is, all it contains is a set of computer files and folders. The disc is single layer and carries 2.71GB of data. In its root directory is an ‘Autorun.inf’ file which Windows automatically runs on inserting the disc. This in turn invokes a program called ‘Menu.exe’, a 3MB program which brings the menu up on your screen and manages the installation process.

The actual video data resides in the DVDROM/Media folder. There appear to be three copies there:

Juno_PC_NTSC.wmv

1.09GB — this appears to be the Windows Media format version intended for PC viewing.

Juno_PORT_NTSC.wmv

0.498GB — this appears to be the Windows Media format version intended for portable device viewing.

FeatureMovie

1.11GB — this file has no extension, but it’s so big it is also likely to be a video file, presumably in some format compatible with iTunes and the iPod. iTunes doesn’t pay too much attention to file names in general, so it isn’t surprising that this file doesn’t have a recognisable media extension on it.

Since I was digging around in the contents of the disc anyway, I decided to double click on the first of these. Windows Media Player came up and sought my permission to download some necessary extensions to play the file. I granted permission. Downloads and installations occurred, and then:

I have altered that screen shot only to white out the serial number. Presumably this means that you’re only allowed to get permission to use the material on a given serial number a certain number of times, and somehow in my playing around I’ve exceeded that. But I did try to play the thing in an unconventional way, so let me restart:

• I Autoplay the DVD ROM to bring up the menu, then click on ‘Transfer Digital Copy’:
  
• In the box that pops up I click ‘TRANSFER TO WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER’:
  
• In the next box that pops up:
  
• I enter the serial number and tick the licence agreement box, then click ‘NEXT’:
  
• Okay, see the added line of text (once again, I’ve blanked out the serial number, not that it appears to be of much use to anyone)? It says: ‘This asset has already been licensed.’ Which I presume means, like the other one, that I’ve used up the total number of licensings allowed.

So how many licenses are allowed? If only one, then I suppose my first attempt, which led to the apparent wrong-country-denial, counted as an access. What if you want to load it onto both your computer and your iPod? I shall have to ask.

This continues my long tradition of coming unstuck on digital rights management.

Of course, discs sold in Australia should never come a-cropper with the wrong country thing in the first place.

Well, here I am live-blogging at the Republican National Convention where … okay, hang on, I’m not doing that at all. Instead I’m semi-live-blogging as I attempt to grapple for the first time with a ‘Digital Copy’. In my title my reference to a dumb name is a reference to ‘Digital Copy’.

But it is a brilliant idea. Here’s the thing: you buy a movie on a DVD or Blu-ray. You can watch it on your home theatre system, or on your portable DVD player, or on your notebook computer. But you can’t watch it on your video iPod or other portable video device. Well, actually you can but only by using various naughty tools to rip the movie from the disc and transform it to a suitable format. ‘Digital Copy’ eliminates this need. You get an extra copy of the movie in a format suitable for running on your portable video device.

It’s brilliant for several reasons. First, if widely adopted by the industry it will cut the ground from underneath developers of the aforementioned naughty tools. Second, it’s a useful extra for those who want to be able to view their movies portably. Third, it fits in with the popular sense that once you’ve purchased a DVD, you should be able to enjoy the movie in any format that suits you, the purchaser. Finally, digital rights management is included in this copy, so it’s easier to control than proliferating ripped copies.

But the name is stunningly dumb. ‘Digital Copy’? That’s what the DVD is! How about ‘Movie to Go’ or some such that actually differentiates this feature from a normal DVD.

Anyway, this feature has been available in the US for a while, and will be appearing on some Twentieth Century Fox titles in Australia in the near future: specifically in What Happens In Vegas (22 October 2008) and Shine a Light (5 November). However, as an advance preview of how it works, I (and I assume various Australian journalists) received a copy of the Juno DVD in the mail today. But not the Australian one; the US one. This has a second disc which contains the ‘Digital Copy’. So what I am about to do is semi-live-blog (this won’t be uploaded until I’ve finished, or my mission fails) of loading the ‘Digital Copy’ (hereinafter referred to as DC). So here goes.

• I open the box. It has one of those stickers across the top that are always on US DVDs, but never on Australian ones. I take Disc One and put it in my computer’s (Windows XP SP2) DVD-ROM drive. It whirs and asks me whether I want to run CyberLink PowerDVD. While it was whirring, I glanced at the box and discovered that the DC was on Disc 2.
• I load Disc 2 and pretty rapidly a panel appears asking me whether I want to load the DC, quit or get help. Choosing the latter brings up a web page with some instructions. I choose ‘Transfer Digital Copy’. A new panel pops up and asks if I want the iTunes or the Windows Media versions. Since I have an iPod, I choose the former.
• Then I wait. iTunes has always been horribly slow to load on my computers. Apple ought to get its act together on that. Finally it does, though, and Juno appears as a device.
• I click on that and the right hand pane of iTunes shows a nice Juno graphic at the top, and underneath tells me to type into the box the code on the ‘Juno DVD insert’.
  
• Juno DVD insert? Oh, there it is: a slip hidden underneath another, larger, slip advertising a different movie. On the back is a 16 digit, three hyphen code number along with some instructions. I type that it and click on ‘Redeem’.
• Up pops a box which says: ‘Sign in to redeem your code.’ It asks for my Apple ID and password. Do I even have an Apple ID? Did I get one when I installed iTunes? Should I click on Create Account, or Forgot Password? I try the latter, just in case.
• Hey, I do have an account! I answer the security questions, correctly, and change my password. Then I return to iTunes, but now it tells me I’ve timed out. Probably not a good idea to live blog and screw things up all at the same time. So I go back and click again on ‘Transfer Digital Copy’.
• That didn’t do anything, so I eject the disc and really go back to the beginning.
• I click the appropriate selections as previously outlined. I type in that damned 16 digit code again. This is complicated (as it was the first time, but I forgot to mention it) by the fact that each character I type causes the previous one to become indecipherable. So I have to type very carefully. This is what it looks like:
  
• I click the ‘Redeem’ button and the iTunes website is opened up where I am asked to confirm my information (apparently I’ve never done this before) and accept their terms and conditions. I insouciantly do same, as usual not reading them. Does anyone ever actually do that?
• iTunes tells me it’s communicating with something, and then the following appears:
  
• I take this to mean that the devious thing has worked out that I’m in Australia, so I’m screwed.

Well, I may try the Windows Media version later, but for the time being testing out ‘Disc Copy’ is going to have to wait.

Yesterday Warner Bros sent me the three Dirty Harry sequels on Blu-ray, along with the ‘Limited Edition Giftset’ Blu-ray for Batman Begins. I watched the latter last night and it was glorious. Great movie to begin with, and superb picture quality on the disc. I shall do a proper review for publication in due course. But one thing I ought to mention is that it will not shelve well with your other Blu-ray discs.

The reason for this is that two of the extras are booklets with comic book and script elements. Pretty decent productions in their own rights, they are clearly sized for packaging with a DVD. So the stylish Blu-ray cardboad outer box is also sized for the DVD. Since Blu-ray disc boxes are shorter than those for DVDs and cardboard spacer sits underneath the plastic disc box.

This kind of thing will change once Blu-ray gains a sufficiently large market, I suppose.

I’ve added six comparison shots to my review of Independence Day. Here’s the first one:

I’ve now done comparison shots between the Australian DVDs and Blu-rays of The Fifth Element and Full Metal Jacket. By coincidence, these are somewhat related. The first Blu-ray release of each of these in the United States was heavily criticised. Both have since been remastered and released. In Australia, we only ever had the re-released version of TFE, and the original, low quality, version of FMJ.