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Plus ca change. . . - April 4, 2007

Fox keeps bobbing and weaving on the official reasons for the continued shuffling its Blu-ray release schedule. But a pretty good idea of what's really going on can be found here.

The information in the post was teased out of the members-only area of the Blu-ray Disc Association's web site by a Jedi Master on the AVS Forum and subsequently confirmed to me by BDA spokesman and Pioneer Electronics senior VP Andy Parsons.

According to the presentation Parson gave to the BDA meeting in Fukuoka, Japan last week, the Content Participant Agreement for BD+ is not yet complete.

In non-lawyer terms that means there is no license agreement yet that would allow a studio, legally, to use BD+ technology, which was developed by Cryptography Research Inc. and must be licensed separately from the rest of Blu-ray technology. 

That explains why no Fox Blu-ray releases to date have included BD+, the supplemental security system the studio insisted on as the price of embracing the Blu-ray format.

And despite the studio's official hemming and hawing, let's just say it's a very good bet that the current unavailability of BD+ is what has caused the studio to postpone the release of several titles.

Don't be fooled by the fact that some titles are coming out anyway, including the major box-office hit A Night at the Museum. Some trains are hard to stop once they get rolling.

Fox has been in full I-told-you-so mode since the first hack of AACS came to light. Since then, work has accelerated on BD+, but there are still a number of questions concerning its implementation in BD players to be worked out.

Ironically, the AACS hack has also delayed releases by studios that don't plan to use BD+. Last month, Studio Canal in France announced that it's second wave of HD DVD titles would be pushed back to late-May to allow time for AACS to be patched.

The patch is due sometime this month.

Fox is also likely watching to see how effective the AACS patch is before deciding which titles need the BD+ treatment, and which can be released without it.

Another interesting question will be whether continued work on the two copy-protection systems might cause some manufacturers to delay shipping players.

According to AACS-LA spokesman Michael Ayers (Toshiba) the final AACS license will require the implementation of enhanced bus encryption. That will make it harder for would-be hackers to grab data as it passes between a PC's optical disc drive and the software player on the hard drive, but will require some reengineering of software players.

Current target date for the final license is around the end of June, although it's hard to put much stock in AACS Licesning Agent target dates given the many delays the group has encountered in the past.

Of course, a cynic might argue that the pending new obligations are a reason to get your player out now, while you're still operating under the interim license.

UPDATE: Corel Corp., the distributor of the InterVideo WinDVD software player used to hack AACS issued its "security update" on April 6. According to a statement issued in conjunction with the update, "WinDVD customers who are currently using either HD DVD or BD playback will need to download the free security update from your PC or Drive manufacturer's websites. . .Please be aware that failure to apply the update will result in AACS-protected HD DVD and BD playback being disabled [sic]."

Full statement is here.

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