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> No matter if a movie leaves a streaming service or if the digital rights change in the future, a physical disk makes the content permanently available. Well,

> No matter if a movie leaves a streaming service or if the digital rights change in the future, a physical disk makes the content permanently available. Well, isn't that ironic. Sure, the content is "permanently available" in a technical sense, but it'll hinge on the permanent availability of playback devices deemed suitable by the DRM.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago
It's permanently available if you're willing to fly the black flag. I know a few people who hoard huge amounts of BD-rip movies on their multi-TB NAS at home. That way it's permanently available. DRM is a scam on the law abiding consumer and the "Blu-ray Disc Association" is a cartel. Honest question: do people still use PCs to watch BD movies? Have they ever? AFAIK the rare few people who still have a BD movie collections, use dedicated players or their consoles for that. Using a PC for that always seemed like masochism from a UX perspective so it was never popular. To play the devil's advocate, I think it was too expensive for Intel to invest in patching the SGX IP block vulnerabilities, porting it to smaller nodes, and wasting valuable silicone die, just so the last 5 remaining people on the planet who still use a PC to watch BD movies can now do it from a brand new PC instead of using their existing ones. So, ultimately this problem backtracks to the use of DRM and why that's bad, not on Intel who can't financially justify supporting such old & niche DRM IP moving forward.
- vimy 4y ago
  I still watch Blu-ray’s on my computer. I’m most likely an exception.
  - epakai 4y ago
    What do you use for playback? Most of the free/trial stuff I used had subpar menu support (some would only even play the longest playlist). The other issue was my intent was to rip so it was useful to reference playlist numbering, and not all players made it accessible. Sometimes I just resort to using a physical player.
    - goosedragons 4y ago
      I've used both WinDVD and CyberLink PowerDVD. They are AFAIK the only "official" ways to play Blu-rays on Windows. PowerDVD is IMO better. Most Blu-rays don't support using the mouse for menus because they are BD-Js. It's not a great experience and a decent player like a PS3 is a better option.
    - vimy 4y ago
      PowerDVD 12. It came with the Blu-ray drive. It's crappy software but it doesn't really matter once the movie starts playing. The latest PowerDVD is better but I don't feel like paying when I already have something that works. It's possible to use VLC. You just have to download two files to decrypt the Blu-rays. -> https://vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name https://vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name
- tenebrisalietum 4y ago
  There was that time around 2002-2007 or so where the "HTPC" was a thing. You had HTPC PC cases that looked like something that would go beneath a TV, various forums talking about TV tuners like Hauppage, etc., CableCARDs, things like Windows XP Media Center Edition/MythTV, etc. But who watches TV or cable anymore? Not the young people. BluRay had the dumb luck to be introduced right as the iPhone came out and redefined the consumer electronics landscape. PCs haven't been the forefront of how people entertain themselves since 2014ish unless you're a gamer with a gamer PC. Me personally I'd rather just buy a $50 Bluray player from Walmart and be done with it.
  - hakfoo 4y ago
    It always felt like a missed opportunity. The US transition to digital TV was almost perfectly aligned to slot into the HTPC trend. You'd be able to make perfect-quality recordings from broadcast (remember when timeshifting was valuable?) and the built-in EPG data would reduce the need for some clumsy external data source. But it felt like we never transitioned smoothly. I can recall the Media Centre stuff for Windows Vista being pretty clunky. I suspect part of it was that people were under-appreciating the synergy. I liked TV cards for "I can watch in a 20cm window while doing other stuff" but all the momentum was going into terrible 10-foot interfaces that worked best with a remote control.
    - rsync 4y ago
      There was a golden moment - perhaps 2003 through mid 2004 - when xbmc running on the original Xbox could do everything… But then HD content arrived with bitrates too high for that hardware and everything splintered and got confusing and which Mac mini was beefy enough to play 1080p @ 30fps and which downloads were “HD” but not so hd that you couldn’t play them … It never got back to the elegance of a modded Xbox and sd content …
- tomatotomato37 4y ago
  PCs don't even have space for insertable drives anymore, let alone blueray players! It's weird to now be in an age where the idea of encoding data on spinning plastic is archaic, but when you can cram literally hundreds of gigabytes in the head of a USB Type-A port it's kinda hard to justify anything else
  - JodieBenitez 4y ago
    > PCs don't even have space for insertable drives anymore And unfortunately external optical drives are usually of terrible quality :-/
- HeadsUpHigh 4y ago
  >I know a few people who hoard huge amounts of BD-rip movies on their multi-TB NAS at home. That way it's permanently available. The old school file sharing internet is alive and well if you know where to look for it

ChuckNorris89 4y ago

It's permanently available if you're willing to fly the black flag. I know a few people who hoard huge amounts of BD-rip movies on their multi-TB NAS at home. That way it's permanently available. DRM is a scam on the law abiding consumer and the "Blu-ray Disc Association" is a cartel. Honest question: do people still use PCs to watch BD movies? Have they ever? AFAIK the rare few people who still have a BD movie collections, use dedicated players or their consoles for that. Using a PC for that always seemed like masochism from a UX perspective so it was never popular. To play the devil's advocate, I think it was too expensive for Intel to invest in patching the SGX IP block vulnerabilities, porting it to smaller nodes, and wasting valuable silicone die, just so the last 5 remaining people on the planet who still use a PC to watch BD movies can now do it from a brand new PC instead of using their existing ones. So, ultimately this problem backtracks to the use of DRM and why that's bad, not on Intel who can't financially justify supporting such old & niche DRM IP moving forward.

vimy 4y ago
I still watch Blu-ray’s on my computer. I’m most likely an exception.
- epakai 4y ago
  What do you use for playback? Most of the free/trial stuff I used had subpar menu support (some would only even play the longest playlist). The other issue was my intent was to rip so it was useful to reference playlist numbering, and not all players made it accessible. Sometimes I just resort to using a physical player.
  - goosedragons 4y ago
    I've used both WinDVD and CyberLink PowerDVD. They are AFAIK the only "official" ways to play Blu-rays on Windows. PowerDVD is IMO better. Most Blu-rays don't support using the mouse for menus because they are BD-Js. It's not a great experience and a decent player like a PS3 is a better option.
  - vimy 4y ago
    PowerDVD 12. It came with the Blu-ray drive. It's crappy software but it doesn't really matter once the movie starts playing. The latest PowerDVD is better but I don't feel like paying when I already have something that works. It's possible to use VLC. You just have to download two files to decrypt the Blu-rays. -> https://vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name https://vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name
tenebrisalietum 4y ago
There was that time around 2002-2007 or so where the "HTPC" was a thing. You had HTPC PC cases that looked like something that would go beneath a TV, various forums talking about TV tuners like Hauppage, etc., CableCARDs, things like Windows XP Media Center Edition/MythTV, etc. But who watches TV or cable anymore? Not the young people. BluRay had the dumb luck to be introduced right as the iPhone came out and redefined the consumer electronics landscape. PCs haven't been the forefront of how people entertain themselves since 2014ish unless you're a gamer with a gamer PC. Me personally I'd rather just buy a $50 Bluray player from Walmart and be done with it.
- hakfoo 4y ago
  It always felt like a missed opportunity. The US transition to digital TV was almost perfectly aligned to slot into the HTPC trend. You'd be able to make perfect-quality recordings from broadcast (remember when timeshifting was valuable?) and the built-in EPG data would reduce the need for some clumsy external data source. But it felt like we never transitioned smoothly. I can recall the Media Centre stuff for Windows Vista being pretty clunky. I suspect part of it was that people were under-appreciating the synergy. I liked TV cards for "I can watch in a 20cm window while doing other stuff" but all the momentum was going into terrible 10-foot interfaces that worked best with a remote control.
  - rsync 4y ago
    There was a golden moment - perhaps 2003 through mid 2004 - when xbmc running on the original Xbox could do everything… But then HD content arrived with bitrates too high for that hardware and everything splintered and got confusing and which Mac mini was beefy enough to play 1080p @ 30fps and which downloads were “HD” but not so hd that you couldn’t play them … It never got back to the elegance of a modded Xbox and sd content …
tomatotomato37 4y ago
PCs don't even have space for insertable drives anymore, let alone blueray players! It's weird to now be in an age where the idea of encoding data on spinning plastic is archaic, but when you can cram literally hundreds of gigabytes in the head of a USB Type-A port it's kinda hard to justify anything else
- JodieBenitez 4y ago
  > PCs don't even have space for insertable drives anymore And unfortunately external optical drives are usually of terrible quality :-/
HeadsUpHigh 4y ago
>I know a few people who hoard huge amounts of BD-rip movies on their multi-TB NAS at home. That way it's permanently available. The old school file sharing internet is alive and well if you know where to look for it