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All you Netflix subscribers out there should know that Blockbuster is currently running a promotion that allows you to trade in Netflix envelope tear-offs for a free instore rental

at local Blockbuster stores. This “envelope tear-off” is the part that you normally throw away after opening your Netflix mailing. The promotion runs 02/15 - 02/21 and could be particularly useful on President’s day when the post office is shut down. The move is an obvious attempt by Blockbuster to introduce Netflix subscribers to the in store “benefits” of the Total Access program. An instore Blockbuster account is required in order to redeem the free rentals. (Thanks Steve)

Blockbuster press release via HackingNetflix

Blockbuster Total Access details changed!
Back on January 18th, I posted about some problems that I was experiencing with the Blockbuster Total Access program. At that time I was seeing some heavy delays on movies being shipping out when a previous movie was exchanged in store at a local Blockbuster. I received a lot of comments on my post and many people agreed that Blockbuster was not shipping out movies “right away” as they had promised. Let’s take a look at their old Total Access program details and then look at the newly updated verbiage.

UPDATE: You can now discuss Blockbuster Total Access problems at DVDRentalForum.com. Take a quick moment to register and start discussing Blockbuster Total Access with other members today!

Previous Blockbuster Total Access Details
“When you exchange online DVDs at your local BLOCKBUSTER store your next movie is shipped right away, but it may take 1-2 days for the title returned to the store to clear from your queue.”

New Blockbuster Total Access Details
“When you exchange online DVDs at your local BLOCKBUSTER store your next movie is shipped within one business day right away, but it may take 2-3 days for the title returned to the store to clear from your Shipped Movies list queue.”

Notice that they have added “one business day” to their “right away” statement and that the 1-2 days timeframe has been changed to “2-3 days” for the title to clear from the queue. Good thing they notified all their customers of this change! Oh wait, they didn’t inform anyone (I got no email). So if you are a Blockbuster Total Access customer that signed up in January, you are probably not receiving the level of service that was initially promised to you.

In my experience, Blockbuster is still taking longer than “one business day right away” to ship out movies after you return in store, but your results may vary. I plan on doing a comprehensive article that compares Blockbuster Total Access and Netflix in the near future, but until then, we can keep waiting on those Blockbuster movies to ship out…

HD DVD lovers, speak your mind!
On this Valentines’ Day, I decided to ask my readers and the internet community why they love the HD DVD format. There are a lot of reasons that people might choose HD DVD over Blu-ray, some of these reasons might include an interest in Universal Studios films, owning an XBox 360 HD DVD drive or the lower cost of HD DVD standalone players. Whether you are an avid HD DVD supporter, a fanatic, an early adopter or you just simply like HD DVD better, I want to know why!

Post in the comments section of this article to let me know why you opt for HD DVD instead of Blu-ray. If you love Blu-ray instead of HD DVD, please post in this article.

Blu-ray lovers, speak your mind!
On this Valentines’ Day, I decided to ask my readers and the internet community why they love the Blu-ray Disc format. There are a lot of reasons that people might choose Blu-ray over HD DVD, some of these reasons might include a wider selection of titles available on Blu-ray, owning a PS3 or the availability of Blu-ray burners. Whether you are an avid Blu-ray supporter, a fanatic, an early adopter or you just simply like Blu-ray better, I want to know why!

Post in the comments section of this article to let me know why you opt for Blu-ray instead of HD DVD. If you love HD DVD instead of Blu-ray, please post in this article.

AnyDVD HD download beta at SlySoft.com!
The folks over at SlySoft are currently beta-testing AnyDVD HD. You can download the AnyDVD HD demo from the Slysoft website. If you do not have a valid beta-tester key, you can still use the free demo in order to test the HD DVD functionality. In order to receive a full AnyDVD HD key, you can apply for beta tester status by sending a private message (PM) to the “admin” at the SlySoft forums.

AnyDVD HD UPDATE: The Beta applications and testing process is now closed, but you can still download a free demo of AnyDVD HD, which is now out of beta status and officially released to the public.

AnyDVD HD info from Slysoft:
6.1.2.0 2007 02 12
- New: Added support for new versions of the SONY Arccos protection
to the option to remove “Protection based on unreadable Sectors”
- New: Added HD DVD and AACS support.
(Registered users need an upgrade key, currently only available to
registered beta testers)
- Fix: Problem with multi-angle titles and Sony Arccos protection
- Some minor fixes and improvements

If you want to test HD DVD decryption but you have bought AnyDVD (not running in demo mode) you have to remove your AnyDVD license key (easiest way to do so is to rename the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\SlysSoft\AnyDVD\Key to something else using regedit).



If you would like to buy a license for AnyDVD, please click on the banner above to go to SlySofts’ purchasing website.

BackupHDDVD & new decryption methods

Doom9 forum members continue to chip away at HD DVD and Blu-ray encrypted discs by discussing various encryption key discovery methods and the functions of AACS. BackupHDDVD has been around for over a month now, but a major limitation of the utility is that it requires the end-user to enter a Volume Unique Key in order to backup and decrypt an HD DVD.

Lists of HD DVD Volume Unique Keys are being cataloged all over the net now, but anyone who has a newer HD DVD movie or one that has not had its’ Volume Unique Key published online might run into difficulty trying to back up their HD DVD. The initial process used to find a Volume Unique Key is still a complicated endeavor. The currently known method is to play an HD DVD movie using a computer software player such as PowerDVD or WinDVD. While the HD DVD movie is playing, a memory dump is performed, capturing all of the software players’ memory data into a file. Once the file is captured, it can be analyzed by using a Hex editor such as WinHex in order to try and pinpoint the Volume Unique Key. As you can see from the explanation, extracting a new HD DVD Volume Unique Key is not exactly a simple and straight-forward process. This might limit the amount of HD DVD backup activity that occurs for now.

What about the processing key?

Recent discussions, tests and user reports over on Doom9 indicate that the HD DVD processing key has been discovered. So why is this significant? This is interesting because now it should be possible to decrypt virtually ALL HD DVD discs (and maybe Blu-ray discs too!) by using this processing key + the volume ID of each HD DVD disc. According to the discussions, the volume ID should be easily found or possibly even “guessed”. Could this be how the new AnyDVD HD application works? Only Slysoft knows the answer to that. At any rate, I expect to see a newer BackupHDDVD type utility released in the near future that does not require a Volume Unique Key database file or the manual input of an HD DVD Volume Unique Key. The next generation DRM wars continue…

Capacity per disc layer
Looking at the next generation optical disc formats, one thing is for sure, the Blu-ray format has a capacity per layer advantage. Blu-ray Discs hold approximately 25GB of data per layer, while HD DVD’s hold approximately 15GB per layer. And while this information is nothing new to report on, it is an interesting factor to consider when we are looking at Blu-ray vs HD DVD manufacturing costs. The simple truth is, the more layers you add to a disc, the more expensive it is to manufacture.


Setup costs are charged per layer
As I previously reported, only smaller batches of media require a setup fee or mastering fee at the optical disc replication plant that I spoke with. This initial setup cost is charged on a per layer basis. With this in mind, we can look at the Blu-ray vs HD DVD replication costs again in regards to multi-layered, high capacity discs. Triple layer HD DVD media is on the way, with a total capacity of 45GB (or possibly 51GB if the currently under development 17GB per layer HD DVD media is launched). Dual layer Blu-ray discs are already in use, with a total capacity of 50GB. These two formats (tri-layer HD DVD and dual layer Blu-ray) are the closest in capacity than any other HD DVD / Blu-ray pressed media types. With this in mind, what media type will be the most expensive to replicate on?

Dual layer Blu-ray vs Triple layer HD DVD
At this point we have absolutely no idea what the pricing on triple layer HD DVD will be, but if we look at the current per layer setup fees that were provided by the replication plant that I spoke with, we can see that triple layer HD DVD setup fees would cost very close to dual layer Blu-ray media setup fees. Currently they charge $1,500 per HD DVD layer and $2,500 per Blu-ray layer as a setup cost, so theoretically a triple layer HD DVD would carry a setup fee of $4,500 compared to a dual-layer Blu-ray setup fee of $5,000. In this case, the setup fee for a “high capacity” 45GB HD DVD disc replication job would be less than the setup fee for a dual layer Blu-ray replication job. But let’s not forget that adding an additional layer also adds more to the cost per disc charge. So will triple layer HD DVD’s cost more or less to replicate than dual-layer Blu-ray discs? No one knows for sure at this point, but I predict that the tri-layer HD DVD cost will be very close to or slightly higher than the cost of dual layer Blu-ray replication. It will be interesting to find out once triple layer HD DVD media is finally released and available for content providers to utilize. For now we can only theorize by considering the current pricing, but I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the release of triple layer HD DVD and its’ associated costs.