Peter Cochrane's Hard Drive 2000
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DVD controls are not the best answer
Governments and the media still attempt to control the distribution of data bits. Peter Cochrane wants to know why

ON a recent trip to the United States I did something out of character and purchased a number of films in the standard DVD format.

It was not my intention to do a comprehensive content and price comparison, but I was taken aback by the additional content compared with the European equivalent products. Not only was this the usual £ for $ price plus VAT rip-off, but the content far exceeded my expectation. On one DVD there was the film as advertised, plus a full-length feature on the making of the film, interviews with the key actors, writers, producer, with music scores and much more.

In bleak contrast, the European version just has the film and nothing else. Once again the United States customer is getting more for far less as well as better quality than their European counterparts.

Unfortunately this is not all. In a perverted effort to control cost, content and market, the United States DVD standard has been bent to make sure it will not play on a European DVD player. On a PC you are generally allowed a very limited number of country or zone selections when you first open up the DVD application.

In my case, my software informed me that I am allowed no more than four zone changes before my player freezes into the zone of last choice. I cannot imagine why anyone would be so stupid as to contrive to try to impose such market constraints. It all beggars belief.

It seems that the media industry (and perhaps governments) never learn from past experience and continue under the misguided notion that they can control data bits - content and distribution. You would think that analogue audio music tapes, VHS and, more recently, MP3 would have seen them acting responsibly and trying to adapt to and facilitate new technologies for customer advantage but, oh no, they continue with their control freak mentality.

As I recall, the last time they acted in a similar manner they managed to kill Digital-Audio-Tapes before they got off the launch pad.

It is not surprising then to discover that there is a growing black market and mini-industry for hardware and software hacks to bend the standard United States and European DVD players to accommodate material produced from any country. Back-street shops will change a few wires and chips to create a universal player from the standard off-the-shelf product. In some cases it requires no more than the entering of a short code on the hand-held controller to flip zones, and in the most severe cases the hardware modifications are simple.

For those with a PC-based DVD player, there are also a number of delightfully simple software fixes. Downloadable hacks are available on the web if you search long enough to find them, but another alternative is to install multiple copies of the DVD player under different names. Each one can then be programmed for a different region. I would not suggest that anyone without some software experience tries to do any of this. It is best to get some help, but it is a very simple solution.

All of this nicely thwarts those possessed by the demons of media control, who labour under the misconception that the past will migrate into the future. They really need to start addressing the issue of freedom of information and the resulting markets, rather than control and constraint.

Bandwidth is coming and MP3 will soon look like a teddy bears' picnic. Now is the time to migrate products, people and markets to new models applicable to a networked future.

27 January 2000: Format battle holds up DVD recorders

Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is:
http://cochrane.org.uk