Previous
Windows 7 media center review
Logitech Harmony Adapter for Playstation 3 review
HD 101: What is ATSC, PSIP, QAM, and 8-VSB?
How to install a CableCARD tuner in your DIY Media Center
DISH Network launches remote DVR control
Engadget HD Podcast 157 - 09.29.2009
Paradigm SUB 25 subwoofer review
Engadget goes behind the Dolby logo
Breaking news Feed
- Best Buy partnering with CinemaNow to stream first-run DVDs to 'all web-connected devices sold'
- Netflix coming next month to PlayStation 3
- Toshiba details CELL REGZA LCD TV, coming December to Japan (update: video!)
- Intel announces Atom CE4100 for insanely powerful cable boxes and Blu-ray players
- Media Center CableCARDs freed from OEM requirement
- Samsung's LED TV Couple packs a 7-inch tablet remote for streaming TV and so much more
- Toshiba BDX2000 Blu-ray player coming November for $250, gives HD-DVD the final cold shoulder
- PS3 Slim bitstreams Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA audio, at last
- Xbox 360 officially the only console to stream Netflix -- sorry, PS3 and Wii
- Toshiba applies for BDA admission, Blu-ray players and laptops coming soon
Featured stories Feed
- Spears & Munsil High Definition Benchmark Blu-ray mini-review
- Ask Engadget HD: Is it (still) a good time to buy a TiVo?
- Pace and Rovi work together to make a standard set-top a true multi-room DVR
- Ready or not, the latest 3D technology is coming home
- How to automatically skip commercials in Windows 7 Media Center
- Ask Engadget HD: How do you evaluate HDTVs in-store?
- Sharp AQUOS LC-52LE700UN impressions
- Ask Engadget HD: Best home theater setup for gaming?
- TDK's heavily stacked 320GB disc shows its nearly-clear face at CEATEC
- Panasonic's 1080p twin-lens P2 camcorder seen behind three-dee glass at CEATEC
- Palm's Pixi TV spot heads in a new direction, bids adieu to creepy redhead
- Exspect launches racing wheel for Wii Motion Plus controllers in the UK
- Apple lets devs bite their nails in real time as iPhone apps navigate approval process
- Switched On: Next steps toward the IP tuner
- Leaked PS3 XMB images hint at Facebook integration, new image layout
Resources
Sections
- Announcements
- Ask Engadget HD
- DIY
- Features
- Industry
- Misc
- Podcasts
- Polls
- Regulatory
- Reviews
- Blu-ray
- Cables
- Camcorders
- Displays
- DVRs
- HD DVD
- Media PCs
- Media streamers
- Other formats
- Other hardware
- Players
- Ports
- Receivers
- Recorders
- Remotes
- Set-top boxes
- Speakers
- Switches
- Tuners
Hardware
Manufacturers
WIN Network
- Autos
- Technology
- Lifestyle
- Gaming
- Finance
- Entertainment on AOL
- Lifestyle on AOL
- Sports on AOL
- Travel on AOL
- Also on AOL
Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in:
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mike @ Dec 31st 2007 9:14AM
How is region coding a good thing? If anything, thats blu-rays only flaw. Lets just hope this year brings the end of this retarded war.
JimC @ Dec 31st 2007 9:50AM
Region coding is a tool for a studio to control releases to home markets while the movie is still in theaters, Newline has so far been very concerned with this and for a valid reason, so that imports don't compete with theater ticket sales. Only people I see having a major problem with this are those that buy an import and/or HDDVD owners who have to wait until a later release date from Newline....
Andrew @ Dec 31st 2007 12:27PM
If they are a Time Warner company, why can't Warner help them out with their supposed "region coding" problem?
h0mi @ Dec 31st 2007 1:02PM
Region coding isnt a good thing. It's simply an excuse, something that easily be bypassed with appropriate hardware (ie multiple players or players lacking region coding).
DrXym @ Dec 31st 2007 1:39PM
It's a good thing if you want to watch a movie that hasn't been released elsewhere. For example, Ratatouille appeared on Blu Ray virtually the same time as it was being showing in the cinema in Europe. Region codes are arguably evil but they do allow studios to release content earlier in one region than in others.
stephenbratz2 @ Dec 31st 2007 3:11PM
@JimC
"Region coding is a tool" - what a load of crap. Over the last few days I have been trying to go back and collect some of the movies that I watched back in college, one of which was the move "Johnny Got His Gun". So I do a search for this movie, and apparently it is out of print in the US, but I can buy the region 2 and region 4 versions, which means that I need to buy an imported DVD player, or I can just not watch the movie. This is a 37 year old movie that was once available in the US, the argument about keeping the rest of the world from just does not hold. You write like this is a good thing, and the Blu fans support it by marking you up.
Blu-Ray is about controlling the movie experience, region encoding, more DRM, and keeping the price artifically high to limit it to those with a higher income.
And for those asking why DRM is bad, all I need to say is - WOW! How many articles have been written on the non-HD version of this site about DRM-free MP3 files on iTunes? How many complaints about the false, but widely circulated DRM restrictions built into Vista? It seems like the same people that complain about DRM in their music and in an OS that they do not use, and have no intention to use (unless they pirate it), are the ones saying that DRM is OK on their Blu-Ray disk. I have a couple hundred movies ripped onto an external 750GB hard drives so that I can easily watch my movies and protect them from scratches. Without the cracked DRM on DVDs, and because the additional DRM on Blu disks, I would not be able to do this. My BDP-S301 is downstairs, so I am limited to watching my Blu disks there, and do not have the networked convienence like I do with my standard DVDs.
I cannot believe how people are so in love with the BDA, that they would take any talking point they are fed and spin it into a great thing. I have both, and preferr HD DVD, but if the same restrictions were on HD DVD, I would think of it as the "necessary" (necessary for a movie/HD lover) evil as I do my Blu-ray player.
JimC @ Dec 31st 2007 6:25PM
@stephenbratz2
Region coding is also away for a studio to control release rights and enforce certain local regulations and such. Region coding may make it harder for some consumers but for the vast majority, they know nothing about it....but for studios plopping millions of dollars into big movies, they want control over its release, booohoo for you, that you can't get your way....sometimes, you just don't get what you want...the movie studios and distributors have rights to control how their movies are bought and sold in different countries, so those companies who want to exercise that right have only two choices, DVD or blu-ray.
stephenbratz2 @ Dec 31st 2007 6:50PM
@JimC
When Paramount/Dreamworks when HD exclusive, they had the right to distribute the movies how they wanted, which meant only on HD. But when that happened, the BD fans biched, wined, compained, made threats, made up numbers that have never been proven true ($150 million), complaining that they ruined High-Def movies, and were just pathetic children. But it was OK because it was an offense against the BD group. There was a movie that I would have liked to watch that I had not seen in a while. I am not upset about not being able to get the movie, I would like to see it again but will not act like the children over the Para/Dreamworks switch.
EJNelly @ Dec 31st 2007 11:24PM
Here's the thing about region coding. If someone's going to pay more to import a film in order to get it sooner, what are the chances they didn't see it in the theatre already?
What if they just simply don't go to theatre's?
Are they going to pirate it instead?
Region coding has always been silly, if anything it protects local distributors. Given the high cost of importing it doesn't seem all that necessary. I live just a few miles from an area that's heavily populated by Eastern European immigrants, lack of region coding would make their day. Of course, then we might not sell as many Divx supporting DVD players.