Disney to begin renting "self-destructing" DVDs

theciscokid

Disney home video unit Buena Vista Home Entertainment will launch a pilot movie "rental" program in August that uses the self-destruction technology, the company said on Friday.

The discs stop working after a change in color renders them unreadable. They start off red, but when they are taken out of the package, exposure to oxygen turns the coating black and makes it impenetrable by a DVD laser.

more here

http://money.excite.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?section=news&cat=INDUSTRY&feed=reu&news_id=reu-n16331352-u1&date=20030516

seamus

The technology cannot be hacked by programmers who would want to view the disc longer because the mechanism which closes the viewing window is chemical and has nothing to do with computer technology.

However, the disc can be copied within 48 hours, since it works like any other DVD during that window.

*cough*

Can someone tell me what I'm missing here?

People (let's not term all computer criminals as 'hackers') who want to view the disc longer can do so by copying it.........Am I missing something here?

This is a good idea in terms of the movie rental business, but has nothing really exceptional in terms of security. Are Disney pushing this as a new form of security, or a new form of movie rental?

(not asking you btw ciscokid, just commenting on the tone of the article )

sceptre

Ah so we're back to the reason Disney originally backed Circuit City's DIVX format. And wanted a self-locking mechanism in videotapes so they couldn't be rewound by a renter and watched again.

I guess it'd be too much trouble to encase your DVD player in some kind of casing with the air sucked out?:D

irishgeo

I am sure they have the tree huggers on thier back saying what about all the wastage. I mean what can you really do with a DVD/CD thats no good.

Is there anything pratical you can use them for.

demanufactured

coasters , frisbes , rubish

Snowball

the tech is not new anyways I have to agree with seamus, ppl who want to copy the disk they will. There is nothing out there to date that is 100% (or even close to 100%) anti-pirate.

Where there is a will, there is a way

Snowball

soz about the extra post but cant seem to be able to edit my post.

with the thing about the tech being new I ment to elaborate a bit.

About 3 or 4 yrs ago I got a disc of a m8 (DVD), it was from the states. He said that it only played once so we watched it and it did ****up. The disk was a coster after the one veiw. Its good for rentals but was never implimented up untill now because of the cost of DVD disks.
Now that they are dirt cheap, well.... it is good for renting. but the problem is still the same when it comes to the small time pirate (as in the average joe soap that can copy DVD'd or knows how to divx or supports a person that does divx) that they can still copy it if they are determaned enough.
The big problem (something that will not be easily sorted) is with the pro's that get all theor stuff from pre-viewing copies given to censors, critics and to execs within the industry. Thats where the main problem is.


Anyways to get back to disney, it sounds like a cool thing, but will it be finalcialy viable or will they just pump up the price of rental o cover the cost????

Capt'n Midnight

oxidation / reduction

OK it is not as simple as using nitrogen in your DVD

When the chemistry is known it might be possible to use some blocking compound to react before the oxygen - maybe even silver compounds used in photography..

unfortunately many coloured compounds contain double bonds and both oxidation and reduction cause bleaching...

- if they use something that can't be played in a DVD then no one will use it - if it can be played in a DVD then it will get DIVX'd rapidly,,

Sourfoot

Hmm i dont personally see much of a security there, if you open the DVD in a vacuum then can you can copy it ????? if so then its still not very secure. Second if it takes two day to be unreadable what is the actuial window available to actually read it and copy it? Or am i missing something here, or can it be copied to Harddrive ???

zz03

Originally posted by Sourfoot
Hmm i dont personally see much of a security there, if you open the DVD in a vacuum then can you can copy it ????? if so then its still not very secure. Second if it takes two day to be unreadable what is the actuial window available to actually read it and copy it? Or am i missing something here, or can it be copied to Harddrive ???

Let's get practical.

How many movies have you seen that you want to watch again? A small percentage perhaps.

The Oxygen blackout stops people passing the DVD around from friend to friend.

Copying isn’t really the issue here. You can copy a regular DVD too. How much is a blank DVD? About € 8. It takes the best part of an hour to copy the 4GB odd of data on a DVD video to another DVD.

You’d make more per hour with a McDonalds beverage cup sitting on the pavement on O’Connell Street, with a much smaller capital investment.

zz..

Sourfoot

Let's get practical How many movies have you seen that you want to watch again? A small percentage perhaps.

The Oxygen blackout stops people passing the DVD around from friend to friend.

Copying isn’t really the issue here. You can copy a regular DVD too. How much is a blank DVD? About € 8. It takes the best part of an hour to copy the 4GB odd of data on a DVD video to another DVD.

You’d make more per hour with a McDonalds beverage cup sitting on the pavement on O’Connell Street, with a much smaller capital investment.
.

Yeah i take your point but thats not really what i was pointing out, you are right its costly to do this copyng and really the oxygen black out is just a deterrrent mechanism.
Im just point out thats its not very full proof at all.. even if you consider it from an elementary point of view.