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The default state of technology is broken.

Score one for DRM making me a pirate.

I had bought a blu-ray player for my new computer so I could watch hi-def movies on my entertainment-center projector.

Apparently, despite paying extra for the hardware, I needed software to play the blurays.

OK, fine, I said, and the person who helped me build the machine downloaded some software that would play the blurays.

Then, tonight, I went to watch my copy of Inception, and it played for 4 minutes, at which point the software stopped working and insisted that the bluray disc wasn't valid, unless I ponied up $60 (59.95, 25% off for the new year!) to "upgrade" to the latest, licensed version of the software.

So, not only did I have to pay extra for the hardware, and extra for the media, I now have to pay extra for the software.

Pardon my language, but FUCK THAT SHIT.

So, now I'm working on finding a less-expensive way to watch the movie (well, actually, the extra content) that I ALREADY BOUGHT.

I've also uninstalled the software, badmouthed the company in every fora I can think of, and sent a less-than-complementary email to the company (not that I expect it'll change anything).

I never, ever should have given into the impulse to move to blu-ray. My mistake for thinking that I wouldn't get entirely screwed...

Comments

  1. AthelstanJanuary 3, 2011 at 3:26 PM

    Unfortunately there is nothing free with watching blu-rays on PC's at this time. Just like how Windows XP could not play DVD's back in the day. Part of the software cost or hardware cost on a console is paying for a "magic key" to decrypt things. As far as I know you just need to buy something. Not that something like handbreak and other tools would be a good work around.

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