Author: Digital Digest | Latest News

A slew of 4K releases on the usual piracy sites suggests that pirates have found a loophole in the copy protection schemes that have so far managed to safely protect 4K content on streaming services such as Amazon and Netflix.

4K rips of Netflix series 'Jessica Jones' and Amazon's 'The Man in the High Castle', among others, have started appearing on popular piracy sites.

A breakthrough in 4K ripping was thought to have first surfaced in August, when a Netflix 4K copy of 'Breaking Bad' was uploaded online, but the 4K ripping scene had remained quiet until last week.

Sources close to TorrentFreak told the torrent news website that there indeed has been a new breakthrough in defeating the copy protection on these streams.

It is thought that the HDCP 2.2 content protection scheme that comes with HDMI 2.0 connections has not yet been cracked, but the availability of 4K content on older devices such as the Amazon Fire TV, which features an older version of HDCP (1.4b), has allowed pirates to find a loophole.

The release of a new 4K compatible Roku player in early November may also have led to the ripping breakthrough.

But with relatively few 4K screens in people's homes, and with 4K downloads coming in more than 10 GB per hour of content, 4K pirated downloads currently remains a niche choice for most.

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has launched a new promotional website extolling the benefits of the new Ultra HD (UHD) Blu-ray disc format over existing Blu-ray and SD movies.

Ultra HD Blu-ray movies will start appearing on store shelves in early 2016, and apart from having four times as many pixels as standard Blu-ray movies, the BDA was also keen to point out the other improvements over HD and SD.

For example, UHD Blu-ray movies are capable of storing and displaying more than twice as many colors compared to Blu-ray, up to 76% of the colors the human eye can see.

The website also features interactive comparisons showing off UHD Blu-ray's High Dynamic Range support and support for 60 fps content.

A spokesperson for the BDA told website TWICE that the group is committed to educating consumers about the key benefits of UHD Blu-ray.

"The BDA is working on both retail and consumer education programs that will speak to not only Ultra HD Blu-ray but more generally to some of the more critical aspects of UHD such as HDR and wide color gamut, among others," the spokesperson said.

The results and analysis for Blu-ray (and DVD) sales for the week ending 14th November 2015 are in. Terminator: Genisys was the week's best seller on Blu-ray.

You can read the rest of the stats and analysis here

From the old results of a new study to the new format's old movies, read this and other news stories for the week ending 22 November 2015

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A new report (link) from The Internet Foundation In Sweden has found that pirates are more likely to pay for content than non-filesharers. The report also finds that legal streaming services are successfully converting pirates to paying customers.

The report, titled "Swedes and the Internet", found that only 18 percent of respondents now admit they engage in illegal file sharing, a figure that has been falling since 2011 and at its lowest in a decade.

That is not to say Swedes don't enjoy viewing content online. 70% of Internet users in the country say they watch video content online, up from 52% only a year ago. 40% of these same users also say they pay for content, incredibly up from only 14% only a year ago.

The dramatic increase can very likely be attributed to the increasing popularity of Netflix, which is now used by 28% of the Swedish population.

A similar trend can be observed in regards to music, with 77% using the Internet to enjoy music, and 54% of these users paying to do so. As a comparison, only 15% of Internet music listeners paid for music in 2011. And just like with online videos, one major player, in this case Spotify, was largely responsible for this shift in user behavior.

And most interestingly, the data from The Internet Foundation once again confirms that pirates are generally more active music/movie/TV fans, and therefore more likely to pay for content. 46% of video filesharers (58% for music) pay for content, compared to only 24% of non-filesharers (39% for music).

The results and analysis for Blu-ray (and DVD) sales for the week ending 7th November 2015 are in. Inside Out and Vacation were this week's big new releases, and the only new releases in the top 10.

You can read the rest of the stats and analysis here

Sony has released the names of the first set of Ultra HD Blu-ray titles to be released early next year.

'The Amazing Spiderman 2', 'Chappie', 'Hancock', 'Pineapple Express', 
'Salt' and 'The Smurfs 2' have been chosen to be the first titles to received the Ultra HD Blu-ray treatment, with additional support for an open, non-proprietary HDR that's compatible with 4K TVs with HDR.

Some 4K TV owners have already expressed disappointment at the line-up, but Sony has promised that a steady stream of Ultra HD Blu-ray titles, including 'Fury', 'Captain Phillips', 'Lawrence Of Arabia' and 'The Fifth Element', will be forthcoming.

Rival studio 20th Fox previously announced that most new release titles will be simultaneously available on Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray, and it is expected Sony will follow suit. The first batch of UHD Blu-ray titles from Fox includes 'Gods and Kings', 'Fantastic Four', 'Kingsman: The Secret Service', 'Life of Pi', and 'X-Men: Days of Future Past'.

The process of releasing titles, particularly catalog titles, on Ultra HD Blu-ray is by no means a straight forward. Many titles will need to be carefully restored to 4K resolution, and some early digital titles, while shot in 4K, were archived in lower 2K resolution, making restoration more difficult.

From the MPAA's new hate to gamer's new love, read this and other news stories for the week ending 15 November 2015. Plus NPD stats for October

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The release of a new Halo game (and exclusive) for the Xbox One helped Microsoft's console beat the PS4 to become the October's best selling console for the U.S. market.

'Halo 5: Guardians' was the month's best selling game, despite being an Xbox One exclusive, and this helped push the Xbox One to the top spot for the first time this year, the NPD group reports. While no specific hardware numbers were given by NPD or by the game console companies themselves, Microsoft was quick to point out they're just had a rare victory against the PS4, thanks largely to what the company calls their best gaming line-up ever.

"The strength of the greatest games lineup in Xbox history drove record Xbox Live usage for October and made Xbox One the best-selling console in the U.S. with 81 percent growth compared to October 2014," said Xbox marketing boss Mike Nichols in a statement. "We saw amazing fan excitement, commercial success, and critical acclaim in October for Halo 5: Guardians, which was the best-selling game in the U.S., and other Xbox One titles launching earlier this fall, including Forza Motorsport 6, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Harmonix’s Rock Band 4, and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate."

Despite the Xbox One's victory in October, the full list of top 10 game sales reveal just how much work Microsoft still must do in order to catch up to Sony's wildly successful console. 6 of the 7 multi-platform games in the top 10 saw sales of the game on the PS4 lead sales of the same games on the Xbox One.

Overall console sales were down from $271.1 million last October to $270.3 million, largely due to falling sales of portable game consoles (home based console sales rose by 3 percent). Game sales were down by 3 percent for the same comparison period.