iPod Video Content on Blu-Ray Discs?

Something no one's mentioned yet:

Copy protection...

Blu-Ray and HD-DVD include a new level of copy protection (AACS) that is potentially harder to crack than CSS was for DVD.

With DVD it is extremely easy to rip a movie into iPod format. (Handbrake is probably the best tool on the Mac for this.)

But unless someone like Jon Lech Johansen aka 'DVD Jon' is polishing up the next release of DeCSS, it will be much harder to rip HD-DVD/Blu-Ray content into another format.

It's possible Apple knows that this copy protection will make it harder to source video for the iPod, and is trying to provide an alternate means.


(By the way, DVD Jon seems to have been very quiet since his employment by Michael Robertson for MP3Tunes and Oboe. I hope he hasn't gone "respectable!" JHymn - which is based on his cracks - desperately needs an update to bypass iTunes 6 store written DRM.)

This site is gone slower than slow recently!! Sooo slooooww. It takes a week to post a bloomin' comment!

The Blue Ray thing is really cool though.

#13; I'd almost go for paying a fee to this site if I never had to read the words SHE MARRIED HIM?!?! AND THEY'VE GOT 7 KIDS!?!?!?! again.

Has anyone else noticed how the TD Banknorth banner ad is seriously slowing down TUAW page loads?

SlammaJamma,

Good point. Perhaps an insert could be included with each disc that has a license code written on it that you would enter into your iTunes account, which would store all your licenses. This would work because rental stores like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video only include the dvd cover, not the inserts.

The studios can limit how many iTunes accounts you can tie each code to. This would all require some cooperation among Apple and the content studios, but isn't that what the BDA is all about? ;)

This would be _fantastic_. The days of using semi-legal apps just to watch the content I legally own may soon be over.

I've been undecided on the whole Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD issue, but if Apple can pull this off, the next gen optical disc wars are over in my mind. Similar to the concept of packing DVDs with UMDs, I'd gladly pay a premium to own an HD and a mobile copy of the movies I own.

This would also most likely establish the iPod's codecs and bitrates as industry standards for portable video. Every portable media player uses access to content as a selling point and they'd be silly not to conform with a pre-packaged standard.

THis is absolutely the neatest thing I think i've heard in a while. I am all for this... THE ONLY thing i could see as a downfall to this is that if places like Blockbuster etc. carry Blu-Ray then people could just rent the BD movie and have it on their iPod forever... and i KNOW the studios dont want that. THey would have to come up with a way to only allow it for people who have purchased the movie. maybe a code in the Bluray box that lets them get it from the studio website... or perhaps a second disc in the box that has the iPod format movie on it. But i dont think theyre gonna let it be rentable, and then transferrable....


Good thinking though

BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Sod you apple

This is a great idea.
This will definitely encourage people to purchase new video-enabled ipods.

Jon H is right. This does need to be included with all DVDs that are produced and not just Blue-ray discs.

*jon h* *i reckon* you may have *just* hit the *nail on the head* with that *fine* bit of supposition