I want to complain about AnyDVD's release notes

[DonCarlos]

James I think you are totally right with the statement that HDDVD is better than Blu ray. In my view you explained very good why not to support Blu ray all the others who want region coding and this stuff should get it and buy Blu ray it is their own mistake.
But for me there is another aspect that you should get BD+ cracked soon. I think all the big Hollywood studios use at least AACS on HDDVD. This shows that they don't really like to give their costumers the fair use rights they would deserve. I too know not every studio thinks the same way Fox thinks but if the next wave of BD+ titels comes they will fix this implementation bug. And then we can not copy these titles. The other studios may think hey our titles can be copied and the Fox ones are save. They could get on the idea why don't we use Blu ray... This would be terrible. The solution which you found with the not that good support for Blu ray and the fantastic support for HDDVD is great but please get BD+ out of the world. Is there a new version planned with BD+ support in the next weeks?(I read something about 6 weeks that was 8 weeks ago...)
If I am mistaken then explain me why this could not happen.....
Talking

 

[iansilv]

I have been saying this for a while- an uncrackable format will be irresistible to studios.

Uncrackable encryption will allow bluray to live on and eventually win.

I don't think it will be uncrackable though

 

[Stormlord]

James,

Yes, what I meant is that you have to prove yourselves continuously (to your customers) to come up with new schemes to work around for the new protection mechanisms they put in place. In fact: you should consider it a personal challenge to best any new protection schemes. I did NOT say you didn't prove yourselves in the past. However, saying you have nothing to prove anymore because you have proven yourself in the past is a very bold - but not a wise statement... I disagree, if you feel the need: you could start by making a player that can bests powerdvd and windvd and make us all happy

If the HD DVD preference is based on the fact that Blu Ray requires more work and makes it a lower priority for you, it's a poor excuse to make for a company that makes a living out of breaking or circumventing protections.
Having a personal (political) preference is one matter, claiming to support both formats and offering one of them priority over the other as a company selling a product is another.

Do not forget that many buyers of your software also bought it because they have a blu ray drive and blu ray media. I have a few HD DVD discs and an Xbox drive connected to play them too, but availability of interesting titles is much poorer compared to what blu ray has to offer IMHO.

Remember also that because now you are in a fairly unique position of having this working tool, it doesn't mean there won't be other people creating similar tools in the future and become your competitor. You would be wise to not scare away your Blu Ray customers if that happens by making such statements in your changelogs ...

If the HD DVD discs are the better option I can buy & use those, but they are often NOT... Read the customer reviews, more often then not - if a movie exists in blu ray and HD DVD, people judge the blu ray version to be better. Now, if that's the truth or not - I can't say without having compared both in all instances - but there's a clear trend in the buyer ratings - or atleast there was a few months ago. Either, some are rated the same - or blu ray usually gets better ratings than the HD DVD. Hardly ever the opposite. Ofcourse, there are badly mastered discs on both formats aswell.

My point is Blu Ray seems to be winning, atleast for now. It has better marketing, and it smells very similar to the DVD-R vs. DVD+R situation in the past...

Ofcourse HD DVD lacks BD-J, BD+ and region coding. That's all good & positive for me aswell, but it's no the only thing making it a successful product... If AnyDVD HD would only support HD DVD, I would not have bought it uptil now - simply because there are too few titles out there that are worth it to me.. HD DVD writers and media do not really seem to be taking of at the moment, so for me buying the blu ray to make my backups (mostly on 50GB media) and play movies was a no brainer. So ok: HD DVD will have 51GB capacity too, question is: when are we effectively going to be able to buy that? And what will the Blu Ray camp have by then? When I bought my drive you didn't have the combo HD DVD blu ray readers yet and there were NO HD DVD writers on the market (neither were PC readers), so I bought the X-BOX360 HD DVD reader a bit later instead.
..

Should HD DVD take off anyway, I'll still have both formats and I'll likely buy a HD DVD writer too (or maybe a combo writer if it exists by then) - but as long as the HD DVD marketing remains so poor (atleast here it is, it may be different in other parts of the world)... I think that 'll be unlikely to happen...

PS.: now, if there would be a third format coming out with all the titles I wanted, no encryption - no HDCP - no region coding - no other protection bullshit and it would be readily available - I would probably buy it if it were just as good quality wise. But: what would then be the use in buying AnyDVD HD?

 

[SamuriHL]

What do you people not get about all this? Slysoft has said they're going to fully crack BD+, so, why all the whining about what they say in their release notes? I just don't get it. So they say HD DVD is better and that you should forget about BD. Does that mean you're now forced to only buy HD DVD just because they said that? If you don't agree, fine, don't agree. It's not like they said "you know what, screw BD+. We're just not going to support it." NO. They said they're going to. So...again, what's the problem?

 

[Webslinger]

What do you people not get about all this? Slysoft has said they're going to fully crack BD+, so, why all the whining about what they say in their release notes?

Blu-ray fans are lucky James doesn't have full control over Slysoft development decisions. Blu-ray would have never been supported by Anydvd at all.

And then you would be whining to James every day.

 

[SamuriHL]

Blu-ray fans are lucky James doesn't have full control over Slysoft development decisions. Blu-ray would have never been supported by Anydvd at all.

And then you would be whining to James every day.

No, I'd just go purchase the competing product to AnyDVD HD...oh, um, frack! Nevermind.

Seriously, though, I don't know why people get all worked up when an employee of a company, or the company itself, has an opinion. I could understand if James got his way and they never uttered the words "Blu-ray" in the office ever again. But, the company is simply saying "Hey, we feel HD DVD is more consumer friendly than BD and you should vote with your dollars." It's NOT saying "Hey, you morons bought Blu-ray and we don't like it so we refuse to support it." But the posts in this thread seem to not be able to distinguish between the two very separate concepts. And to that I simply say "get over it."

 

[Webslinger]

Seriously, though, I don't know why people get all worked up when an employee of a company, or the company itself, has an opinion. .

Yeah, James also hates Vista, I think, but Slysoft still supports Vista.

(By the way, I want a Game Jackal Vista 64 bit edition so I don't have to keep my Directx 10 PC game dvds stacked up near my girlfriend's . . . err I mean my Directx 10 gaming computer ). I could use another program, but I really don't want to. I prefer Game Jackal's smaller profiles. I seriously have Game Jackal 64 bit edition on my Christmas wish list.

 

[SamuriHL]

Yeah, James also hates Vista, I think, but Slysoft still supports Vista.

(By the way, I want a Game Jackal Vista 64 bit edition so I don't have to keep my Directx 10 PC game dvds stacked up near my girlfriend's . . . err I mean my Directx 10 gaming computer ). I could use another program, but I really don't want to. I prefer Game Jackal's smaller profiles. I seriously have Game Jackal 64 bit edition on my Christmas wish list.

You're seriously cruel to your girlfriend. I should pick up game jackal now that I have a machine capable of playing games again. My wife would probably enjoy it for Sims 2, as well. Bah, eventually. As for Vista, I'm at that point with my laptop where if one more thing goes wrong with it, I'm wiping it and putting XP back on it. I'll keep Vista on my HTPC for now, but, I'm seriously close to dumping it on my machine. That's a *VERY* bad sign for MS...

 

[Webslinger]

You're seriously cruel to your girlfriend.

Dude, I built it. She paid for it. Seems fair to me. Of course, she needed an 8800 Ultra (I was having too many issues with a 2900 1 gig card). I grudgingly told her she didn't need to go SLI due to all the driver issues.

At least, I let her dual boot XP pro.

I'll keep Vista on my HTPC for now, but, I'm seriously close to dumping it on my machine. That's a *VERY* bad sign for MS...

For the record, I hate Vista. Were it not for Directx 10 gaming . . .

 

[SamuriHL]

Dude, I built it. She paid for it. Seems fair to me. Of course, she needed an 8800 Ultra. I grudgingly told her she didn't need to go SLI due to all the driver issues.

At least, I let her dual boot XP pro.

ROFLMAO! Lucky her!!

For the record, I hate Vista. Were it not for Directx 10 gaming . . .

I'm actually getting to that point myself. There are things I LOVE about Vista, but, the performance is not one of them. And they STILL have driver issues a year later. NOT impressed. If I remove Vista, I won't be going back to it. I'll wait for the next version of Windows.

 

[Webslinger]

.
. If I remove Vista, I won't be going back to it. I'll wait for the next version of Windows.

Yeah, seriously . . . 3DMark06 scores are so much better under XP.

Let's see, "We'll offer Directx 10 on a slower, resource hungry platform. That will impress gamers!"

(plus the added DRM nonsense)

Not to mention fixing "Display Driver Stopped Responding and Has Recovered - nvlddmkm.dll" (or whatever) took me (literally) 15 hours to solve over two days (finally discovered I had to disable Hpet support and the memory virus bit protection in the motherboard's bios--in addition to disabling CPU voltage reducing features in bios). And you have to reinstall the forceware drivers each time you get that error message (most people don't realize that). There are (no joke) hundreds of people still having that problem, even after Vista patches and hotfixes. I use to get that error message constantly (then I found disabling Aero helped). Finally, I figured out bios settings were affecting that error message. Now I have Aero enabled (my girlfriend likes it) without problems.

Err, did the moderator go off-topic again? Bad moderator. Bad.

 

[SamuriHL]

TEHEHEHE. And yes, I know all the problems with Vista. And the latest reports "suggest" SP1 doesn't fix performance. In that case for me, Vista is useless. I may seriously consider going back to XP this weekend. I'm considering it.

 

[Clams]

My personal view on this is that yes, the release notes may be accurate, but they dont portray a very professional image about the company.

I understand James's views about blu-ray (not that I agree with them all) but I do understand them. I also read with some amusement about his conversation with his boss about supporting blu-ray.

I dont have a format axe to grind, I'm lucky enough to have both, but I do think that James comments have a more valid place on the forum where he clearly states in his posts that his views are his and not slysofts, as opposed to the release notes.

Just my view for what it's worth.

Very professional IMHO. Slysoft itself lives in diametric opposition to Sony nonsense. They are free to use thier release notes as they see fit. James's opinion is just a amped up version of the overall Slysoft opinion. Remember it's thier release note not yours. Those of you financially supporing Blu-Ray are part of the problem - not part of the solution.

-W

 

[Clams]

I was also highly annoyed by the latest update notification email. Please keep your personal feelings and opinions to yourself. Could someone please explain what the following statement has to do with updated/added features or bug fixes, because apparently I missed it.

"- Note to people considering to invest in HD media: Please buy HD DVD
instead of Blu-ray. HD DVD is much more consumer friendly (e.g., no region
coding, AACS not mandatory, no BD+). Don't give your money to people,
who throw your fair-use rights out of the window."

Oh Waaaaaa!!!!!

It's thier release note and thier opinion. Who are you to tell them what they can and can not express??

Just goes to prove the old adage... "You could get them all laid, and they'd still bitch."

-W

 

[Clams]

Personally, I don't have a player to take care of HDDVD or Bluray so I'm a complete neutral.

However, I do think that it's not right that Slysoft decided to integrate this "friendly advice" into their release notes. Release notes are an official company document and should represent a neutral point of view, unless, of course, AnyDVD HD only supported one HD format. But it doesn't. It does both so let's keep the politics of the format war out of release notes.

I remember when it was added that thanks to AnyDVD people could actually play their DVDs because of awkward protection that prevented it otherwise. That's fine but now that AnyDVD HD can "do" both formats there is no need for opinions to leak into release notes. Posting opinions on the forum is fine but not in release notes, no way :disagree:

Anyone with any memory of all the crap Sony has pulled in the past would not be neutral.

James and crew can put whatever they wish into thier release notes, and not expect to be subject your review. It's good that they remind the fickle (and short term memory challenged) public, about who Sony is and what it stands for.

It's not about what format is "better" it's about Sony..... and why they should never be in charge of our DRM.

-W

 

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

I'd intentionally not posted in this thread due to the very nature of this being more of a format war than normal discussion.

The statements in the release notes mirrored James' opinion of BD since the the beginning. Personally, I found humour in it. I never found it offensive. I really am unsure how anyone could take offense.

Simply put HD is more consumer friendly due to its less heavy-handed mechanism for reducing Fair Use. That simply cannot be argued or debated. It's a fact. Don't even waste your breath trying to convince me otherwise. This has essentially been what James was saying in the release notes.

Supporting a format that takes away more Fair Use rights seems counter-productive to me but people are entitled to do as they wish. However, if Slysoft decided to not support BD that would also be their right as a company releasing software.

Finally, James himself already has stated "point taken" although I really doubt that James' boss had problems with his sentiments being in the release notes otherwise we wouldn't have seen it in the releases notes over numerous releases. What is left? Is the format war debate necessary in this thread? Haven't we seen it rehashed a few billion times as it is? Are people trying to squeeze blood from a stone?

I'm amazed this thread keeps on going.

 

[Clams]

The statements in the release notes mirrored James' opinion of BD since the the beginning. Personally, I found humour in it. I never found it offensive. I really am unsure how anyone could take offense.

It's easy.... there's a small group of people who "want" to be offended in order to be able to complain. These are often the same types who think they can tell people what they can or cannot say.


This isn't about the format war at all to me. It's about the thought police and the free expression police. We all know the type.

-W

 

[Stormlord]

Question:
if HD DVD is such a perfect media format, then why aren't they trouncing blu ray sales everywhere?

Fact is: neither is perfect, and the "evil sony consortium" is just one of the companies amongst them trying to make money. Let's not blame everything on the one. It's not like Warner, Universal etc.. are in the bizz to lose money either.

All I am saying is that it would be wise for Slysoft to have their "enemies" (sony, toshiba, fox, disney, universal, warner, ... what not) fight that silly formatwar amongst themselves, not get involved and stay neutral. Afteral, both HD DVD and Blu ray users buy their product.

In my case: I buy both - but at the moment, with a slight preference for Blu Ray because of general availability of titles and quality - thought that can change any day. As I said: if their would be a third format without all the DRM crap, I'd gladly go for it if it were readily available, had a very broad range of titles and offered the same or higher quality than Blu Ray or HD DVD...

 

[James]

Supporting a format that takes away more Fair Use rights seems counter-productive to me but people are entitled to do as they wish. However, if Slysoft decided to not support BD that would also be their right as a company releasing software.

Not only that - AnyDVD HD can and will support HD DVD better, because the iHD navigation can easily edited (and, btw, is documented).
Everybody can remaster any commercial HD DVD *without copying it* using AnyDVD HD. This isn't and won't be possible with Blu-ray.

For me AnyDVD's strongest feature is and always has been the real time remastering (skipping over studio logos, removing UOPs, subtitle transparency .... adjusting subtitle size & position would be a nice feature, too ) because I want to *watch* the disc the way *I* want. YOU CANNOT DO THIS WITH BLU-RAY. I only think it is fair to inform AnyDVD customers who are thinking about which HD format they should buy into.
If they still want to buy Blu-ray, they can do, but they have been warned.
From a political point of view, I believe it is very dangerous to have state & church combined. (Sony is major content provider, major CE manufacturer, major IP provider, major copy protection provider, major duplicator, ... there is actually no step where they aren't heavily involved).

I feel sorry for anybody who doesn't understand how dangerous this is (well, dangerous for other studios and CE manufacturers, duplicators ... as well).

After I said that, buy as many Blu-ray titles as you want. But don't tell me later, you haven't been warned.

 

[James]

Anyone with any memory of all the crap Sony has pulled in the past would not be neutral.

Once a thief always a thief?
I actually don't care what Sony / BMG have done in the past or not.

But knowing that one single company is content provider (Sony Pictures, Sony Music), IP provider, technology provider, hardware manufacturer, replicator, copy protection provider and what not else at the same time is very, very scary.

There is a good reason church and state are separated. Let's keep it this way.