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Digital Home: Efforts to prevent hackers from copying Blu-ray discs have left owners of the LG BH100 and Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-ray players unable to play back the latest Blu-ray discs from 20th Century Fox.

The source of the problem has not been disclosed, however, many technology websites are claiming that the source of the problem is a new layer of copy protection that has been added to discs released by Fox on October 2nd and October 9th.

In the Wall Street Journal, Steve Feldstein, a spokesman for Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, denied that the new digital rights management feature called BD+, was the cause of the problem and would not confirm that BD+ was on the new discs.

The discs causing difficulties with LG and Samsung owners are Fox’s “The Day after Tomorrow”, “Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer” which were released on October 2nd. No word yet on whether this weeks releases from Fox “28 Weeks Later” and “28 Days Later” are causing the same problems.

Spokespersons from Samsung and LG told the Journal yesterday they are working on the issue and should have firmware fixes available to customers very soon.

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EngadgetHD: Just in case a dedicated tracking site wasn’t proactive enough for you, Sony has just unleashed its own Blu-ray disc releases iCalendar, which as you may expect, automatically updates your calendar of choice with the most recent details regarding future BD release dates.

The free application incorporates data from Buena Vista, Disney, EIV, Entertainment UK, and Fox, and will be supported by iCal, Google Calendar, Windows Calendar, Outlook 2007, Lotus Notes 6+, Mozilla Sunbird & Lighting, and Entourage.

So if you’re interested in cramming one more reminder in that overloaded planner of yours, get it here.

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Afterdawn.com: Verbatim has announced that they will be offering mini Blu-ray recordable media.

The specs offered by Verbatim say the discs, with 7.5GB capacity, can provide almost one hour of continuous video when HD (1920×1080i) is used and almost 2 hours when recorded at 1440×1080i.

The mini Blu-ray discs will be available later this month in Japan and the company will begin shipping the discs elsewhere as BD-compatible camcorders become more readily available.

According to DailyTech, the new discs will “share similar performance characteristics of its standard (12 cm) BD media, including technologies developed by MKM to guard against deterioration.

The proprietary hard-coat finish on Verbatim BD media features anti-static and anti-scratch properties for added protection against scratches, fingerprints and dust particles that can occur during normal camcorder and home use.”

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PCWorld: In Japan, Sony is now allowing pornography on Blu-ray, and they’ve confirmed that they’re even providing technical support to adult filmmakers.

Will this shift in policy also be reflected elsewhere?

It’s hard to say; Japan’s relationship to pornography, socially and legislatively, is different from other regions.

But it certainly might shake up a few arguments.

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Electronista: Hitachi is preparing what should be the world’s first camcorder to record directly to Blu-Ray.

Currently without a codename, it will record to three-inch BD-R/RE discs, each capable of storing 7GB; substantially less than the 25 to 50GB of full-size Blu-Ray, but still more than comparably-sized DVD media.

DVD discs inserted into the camera will only allow playback.

Critically, the device should actually be able to take advantage of Blu-Ray, due to a 5.3-megapixel CMOS sensor that captures images in 1080p.

The camera is further equipped with AVC/H.264 MPEG-4 encoding for better HD compression, and MPEG-2 serves as an SD fallback.

Hitachi is unsure of the exact release date for the camcorder, but it should be out in Japan between fall and the end of the year.

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Bit-tech.net: During a briefing with UK press in London yesterday, Ken Graffeo, executive vice president of High Definition Strategic Marketing for Universal Studios and co-president of the HD DVD Promotional Group, shrugged off Blockbuster’s move to expand Blu-ray to 1450 new stores in America.

Graffeo pointed out that rental counted for less than one percent of its revenue and brushed it off as an insignificant event in the format war.

Ken cited the fact that HD DVD is still being offered in the original 250 stores and through Blockbuster’s online rental service. He claims that those 250 stores are stores where there are large numbers of early adopters and the latter, he believes, is Blockbuster’s major growth market.

Thus, he is not fazed by Blockbuster’s decision. In fact, we’d go so far as to say that this is potentially a bigger win for Blu-ray than it is a loss for HD DVD, based on the figures he’s given to us.

He remained adamant that HD DVD was on top at the moment and claimed that dedicated HD DVD set top boxes are outselling Blu-ray set top boxes at a rate of three to one in the US. In the last six weeks, the Promotional Group has sold over 50,000 HD DVD set top boxes on promotion in the US, proving that once the price is right, consumers will buy into the technology.

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AkihabaraNews:

Sony has decided to drop the price of it’s newest Blu-ray player, the BDP-300, to $499.99 (around €370).

The BDP-300 will offer the same great functionality of other Blu-ray players and will actually be one of the cheapest ways to get Blu-ray movies onto your HDTV.

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Akhibara News: LG has recently announced a combo Blu-ray, HD DVD drive.  The GW-H10NI offers read and write capability for Blu-ray, and reads your HD-DVDs too.

The player connects to your computer with an included SATA cable, and even boasts support for DVD+-R dual layer discs.

So far, there is no word on pricing or availability.

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EarthTimes: Sony is yet again facing a patent lawsuit; this time a Californian company is suing the electronics giant for alleged patent infringement in the development of its Blu-Ray technology, which is used in the company’s PlayStation 3 video game console.

Target Technology has accused Sony of “wilfully and deliberately” making use of their own technology even though it was patented by Target. Target founder Han Nee revealed that his company had filed for the patent in April 2004 and it was granted in March 2006.

The technology is widely used in most of the DVDs out in the market and is very useful in drastically reducing the production costs of the DVDs. Target is pushing for a jury trial to decide the lawsuit and in the meantime wants the court to order a “permanent injunction preventing Sony from violating its patent rights in the future, as well as damages with interest”.

Meanwhile Sony has declined to comment on the lawsuit.

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Engadget: Hitachi has announced plans to offer an 8-layer Blu-ray disc capable of storing 200GB of data.

The HD movie format war aside, there will almost certainly always be a need for a disc medium to backup our computer files with, and Blu-ray has been trying to fill that need since its release.

Unlike the other format, Blu-ray burners hit the market before the movie players did, and gave computer users the ability to backup more data than ever before on a 80mm disc.

Even if both formats are replaced by downloadable content, there will still be a need for big optical discs to store those movies. While 200GB this seems like a lot today, by the time it hits the market in 2009 it might not seem like much at the rate hard discs capacity is increasing.

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Macsimum News:  TDK says it’s achieved a capacity of 200GB that will double the capacity of their current 100GB Blu-ray prototype. One 200GB disc could store approximately 18 hours of high definition video.

The initial Blu-ray Disc standard allows for 25GB single layer Blu-ray Discs and 50GB dual layer Blu-ray Discs. However, a recent signal processing innovation stretches the physical limits of optical media, realizing 33.3GB capacity for each of the disc’s six layers. As with the 100GB disc, and other Blu-ray Disc media, TDK’s 200GB blue laser disc is single-sided.

The company’s 100GB prototype disc uses four 25GB layers to reach 100GB capacity. For the 200GB technology development, TDK has stretched the physical margins of the Blu-ray Disc format, enabling a disc to store up to 33.3GB per layer while staying within the tolerances of the BD playback specifications, according to Bruce Youmans, vice president of product research & development.

A single-layer Blu-ray Disc can hold 25GB, which can be used to record over two hours of HDTV or more than 13 hours of standard-definition TV. There are also dual-layer versions of the discs that can hold 50GB.

TDK has already begun shipment of its single-layer 25GB recordable and rewritable media in the first quarter of 2006.  50GB discs, which are dual layer, have now just begun shipping, retaililng at €35 for a write-once, and €45 for a re-writeable disc.

More at CD Freaks.com

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