So DRM sticks the consumer in the ass yet again ! Follywood just give up on DRM as it's just NOT GOING TO WORK dummies, you no longer control the medium. Now all aboard the good ship Pirate Nopay departing for media heaven.

DRM - Don't record Me

Another legitimate user scuppered by DRM.

It's refreshing to see an employee who actually seems to give a damn about the products his company produces and wants to see them working as well as they possibly can. A depressingly rare thing.

He has shown concern for the customers, and published accurate statements about failings in the products his company makes. He'll be rewarded by being fired for cause pretty soon if he doesn't stop.

The good point here is that an Intel employee is very open about these issues, and that is something that more tech companies should do. This quite improved my opinion of Intel.

Now for the actual Blu-ray playback, I have pretty much given up on the format: all the trouble with DRM, expensive equipment and lack of flexibility (try to play it on a Linux Netbook or transfer it to an ipod) killed all the hype for me. The increase in image quality is just not worth the trouble.

"lack of flexibility (try to play it on a Linux Netbook or transfer it to an ipod) killed all the hype for me. "

Those are very niche activities. I don't think I even know anyone with a notebook with a BluRay drive, let alone one running Linux. And who in their right minds actually watches the sort of media which comes on DVD/BluRay on an iPod? iPods are just about capable of rendering phone camera video, but nothing better.

I think BluRay has a chance of becoming a standard, unless something better comes along soon, before it has got a toe-hold. Putting BluRay in the PS3 was a damn shrewd move of the BluRay lobby. It may not be the greatest player around, but it does give you the option of building up a library of your favourites so that when you do finally stump up from a decent player, you're not reduced to watching the free SpiderMan 3 disc or whatever Blockbuster have in - "High School Musical 8 - For God's sake, we're all 25 working at WalMart now!" anyone?

Playing Blu-Ray is easier than you think. The Menu and such is the hard trick.

Just have your AnyDVD in corner of screen. Enter BDMV/STREAM/ folder on your Blu-Ray disc and play biggest file there with VLC (Free software). Movie for you :)