Today, the BBC is reporting that Bigchoice, err.. Blockbuster Video has lined up on the Blu-Ray side of the HD video disc war. It seems that BD titles were rented quite a bit more than HD-DVD titles at the 250 Blockbuster test locations.

In general, I don’t particular care one way or another who wins the format war, but I’ll say that HD-DVD does have some things in their favor, even if they’re the 2007 equivalent of VHS to BD’s Beta. For instance, HD-DVD’s don’t seem to be suffering from the disc rot problems currently being reported over on the AVS Forums. Further, HD-DVD lacks the extra layer of DRM, BD+ that is available on the BD side of the house.  In my book, the less DRM, the better, preferably, none.

Why no DRM?  It has nothing to do with piracy.  Pirates already have proven themselves wildly successful at circumventing copy controls on all sorts of media (VHS, CD-ROM, DVD, various digital music formats even).  DRM has to do with you & me, the consumers.  The ones that pay for their content.  You see, according to the RIAA or MPAA, if we want to shift our media to a different format, preserving our investment, we should have to re-purchase the media.  Don’t even get me started on the commercials urging you to “own it on DVD today!“  You know what you own?  A disc and the box it came in.  What you don’t own is the content that you were led to buy.

In a perfect world, what would I choose?  Blu-Ray’s technical superiority, no DRM, and the dual-format publication system that lots of HD-DVDs are using now (standard def DVD on one side, HD-DVD on the other).  Why?  I’ve seriously pondered buying those, and I don’t even own an HDTV, let alone hi-def player of any format.  But I will.  Why re-purchase the movie?  So, I pay a bit more up front, but (hopefully) save on the back end, and have the ability to play the movies I’ve already got in 1080p, rather than just 480p.

This one goes out to Phil, who wanted to read this here.

Yes, I know, it’s a bunch of commercials for pants. It’s true.

Get over to YouTube and watch the videos from Haggarfilms. You’ll laugh yourself silly.

Forbes is running a story about a couple of companies that I’ve never heard of, Media Rights Technology and BlueBeat.com.  Seems the kids at MRT and BlueBeat think they’ve got a DRM solution that would keep people from copying digital media.  Ok, so it’s just another DRM solution, right?

Apparently not.  The brain trusts at MRT and BlueBeat believe that Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, Real and others need their products so much that they’re suing.  They’ve send cease & desists to Adobe and Real for “actively avoiding their X1 SeCure Recording Control.”

Ok, so under the DMCA, you can send a C&D for circumventing a security mechanism, but this is a whole new level.  Now threatening lawsuits because I didn’t buy and use your product?  That’s just stupid.

Hey guys, maybe they just don’t want your product.

Wil Wheaton, yes, that Wil Wheaton, posted a great piece about his recent experience camping.

Long story short? Wil takes family camping. Discovers that the campground has Wifi. Watches kid glued to a PS2, rather than playing with the gaggle of other kids all around him. Laments. Wonders. Writes.

One thing he mentioned that strikes a chord with me – parents that have the DVD player going in the car for taking junior to the mall, the supermarket, church, or whatever. Can’t your kid spend 10 minutes apart from animated fantasyland? Mine can. Heck, our minivan has a DVD player in it. We’ve never turned it on in front of the kids. In fact, I’ve only ever turned it on once to test it. Why get it? The van already had it installed.

It gets worse. A couple of months back, Heather went to Target, with Alex in tow. She encountered this lady pushing her 2-ish year old kid around in the cart, complete with an elaborate rig of entertainment. The child safely seated in the cart, strapped into the shopping cart seat liner to keep the germs away (come on, what mom doesn’t have a stack of wipes the size of your head stashed away?) along with a carefully attached portable DVD player playing the Backyardigans for the kid.

Come on people, don’t you think junior can stand to spend an hour away from Pablo and Tyrone? Think back to when you were a kid, back in the days before the DVD. What did you do to occupy the time at the store? Played with a small toy? Read a book? Used your imagination? Amazing how we didn’t need portable DVD players plastered on our shopping carts.

Nice job Wil.

Holy crap. I feel like Rod Serling’s going to come walking out from around the next corner lamenting about a world where all web portals look exactly the same.

Go take a look at Yahoo. Ok, done? Now go to the new AOL 3.0 beta site. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but come on kids, can’t you think of something new to do?

This is the new international symbol for radiation danger. It is the result of collaboration between the UN, ISO and IAEA.

Ok, hands up, who likes this symbol? Best translation I’ve heard thus far?

When the crap hits the fan, run away from big skulls.

What was wrong with the old symbol anyhow?

He was saying “Yeti yeti yeti!” when I took this picture.

The RIAA is at it again.

They’ve officially reached a new low. I expect infomercials soon.

So, they provide a model letter to ISPs, and then decide to tell the ISP they’re going to sue the person at some IP address. They inform the ISP their intent to subpoena your identity information, and your ISP notifies you of this. If you act now, you can save $1000 on your settlement with the RIAA!

Nevermind that precedent has been set on more than one occasion, showing that the RIAA sued the wrong person…

I swear, these guys must be the biggest dopes walking.

Hollywood told us that the days of piracy are over. HD-DVD and BluRay would usher in a new era of piracy control, bringing along with it unbreakable DRM that would “help keep honest people honest,” as if suddenly, if DRM vanished, we’d all turn into a bunch of pirates who never paid for anything again. Avast, me hearties! Indeed.

Fast forward to February 11, when some guys on the doom9 forums came upon a solution. A user that goes by the handle “arnezami” thought he had found the processing key, a value used by all (as far as anyone can tell) HD-DVD discs out there (and possibly some BluRay Discs as well). What does the key allow you to do? Decrypt the content on the disc. So? Now you can enjoy your HD content as you choose, not as the publisher chooses for you. You want to show it on your Mac? Go for it. Transcode for your iPod? Have fun. Play your content back on a non-HDMI HDTV? Great.

Nice job guys. It’s about time Hollywood was sent a message about fair use. Recognize that I’m not advocating piracy in any way here.

Currently playing in iTunes: Young Americans by David Bowie

Dave Ralph is hungry.

Please, help Dave eat, quite possibly for the rest of his life.

Head over to this site, register and vote for Dave’s video. If he wins, he gets free burritos for life. It remains to be seen if Beano and Charmin... will follow suit and help the winner out… Hmm.. But I digress.

But hey, Dave’s a good guy, and he needs to eat too, so let’s all pitch in to help feed him. Go Digg this as well