More Flexible Region Coding Hinted in Blu-ray Patent
Nothing concrete has emerged about the use of regional coding for the Blu-ray or HD DVD next-gen disc formats. But a search by Consumer Electronics Daily reveals a Blu-ray patent application that suggests any imposition of region codes could be more flexible and considerate of customers’ desires than today’s DVD is.
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The patent application (U.S. 20050198115) recently released to the public record describes a system whereby an online control center could authorize a disc obtained in one region to be played on hardware in another. The application specifies “BD-ROM” discs but ownership isn’t assigned to a particular company by inventors Masayuki Kozuka, Yusuke Shimizu and Noriko Sugimoto. “Masayuki Kozuka” is the name of a veteran Panasonic engineer who’s now gen. mgr. of Panasonic AVC Networks’ Storage Device Business & Alliance Development Office and a longtime liaison between the CE giant and Hollywood’s studios. Whether he’s one of the listed inventors couldn’t be determined Fri., as relevant spokesman were attending the CEATEC show in Japan.
CE makers on both sides of the format divide say they want no part of regional coding for the new blue-laser formats but must yield to Hollywood’s wishes in the matter. The system largely has failed for DVD, where multiregion players are widely available in every market outside the U.S. -- but obtainable in the States, too. Discussion of regional coding was planned for last week’s Tokyo meeting of the DVD Forum, whose studio members, Disney and Warner, have said they don’t want it applied to HD DVD. And, during the recent Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) fair in Berlin, 20th Century Fox Pres.-Engineering Andy Setos came within a hair’s breadth of saying he’s also against regional coding for Blu-ray: “It’s an important topic and it has to be done right,” Setos told us. “It has to be consumer friendly. We need flexible use. Today, when you go on a trip you have to choose what DVDs to watch.”
Users have to be concerned about DVDs they acquire outside their home markets. That’s a key point of the ‘115 patent, whose authors lament the plight of Japanese businessmen who work in the U.S., build a treasured collection of Region-1 movie discs then return to Japan where they find regional coding prevents playback on Region-2 Japanese players. “This gives a bad impression” of the DVD system, they say, while also pointing out the marketing and cultural reasons for regional coding. On the marketing side, it’s to protect the studios’ release windows for movies worldwide. Also there are different movie ratings systems internationally, so a movie cleared for general audiences in one nation might be off-limits to preteens elsewhere. Another consideration is performance rights clearance for soundtracks and even for specific translations of words in subtitles.
The patent says BD-ROMs and players will be regionally coded the same way DVD is now. When a disc is loaded, the player checks the codes and only if they match will the disc play.
But under the application’s provision for future BD- ROM discs users would be offered the opportunity to connect the player to a phone line and access an online control center. The control checks the disc title and date of release against a database for the country where the owner is trying to play the disc. If the database shows the movie has been released in the new country, it downloads clearance codes to the player in an SD memory card. Thereafter, the disc can be played on players from that region.
The downloaded codes also can alter the way some sequences of the disc are played, for instance, to skip scenes that have been banned by the local censor. Subtitles can be changed to the local language, too. Although not mentioned in the patent, there has been discussion of letting next-gen discs “handshake” with particular types of drives to permit “region-free, or “Region-0, playback. That most likely would be in laptop PCs and portable disc players. The inability of laptops and portables to play discs acquired in other markets has long been a gripe among frequent travelers.
Although the patent’s system probably is workable, it’s complicated. One obvious difficulty is that it relies on online access, and some people might be reluctant or unable to connect a home player to a phone line - or might not be able to connect a portable player while traveling. As a work-around, the patent suggests the option of supplying precoded SD memory cards with the discs as they're released in various markets.