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Major issues with Blockbuster Total Access
This past week, a few of the previous articles that I published about Blockbuster Total Access Problems and Blockbuster Total Access delayed timeframes have been getting some major exposure and traffic.

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!

Visitors from all over the country are reading these articles and reporting on numerous issues with the Blockbuster Total Access shipping system. Many of the commenters have stated that they have not had any movies shipped for over a week or more, even though they have plenty of available titles listed in their movie selection queues. Complaints to customer service have resulted in some “ecoupons” being given out, but many customers are still very upset and unsatisified with the Total Access service. Some people have been unable to reach Blockbuster Total Access customer service over the phone at all, presumably because they have been swamped with calls. According to others, Blockbuster has claimed that they have a “glitch” in their system, which has prevented movies from being shipped out to Total Access members. If you would like to read about these first-hand reports yourself, head on over to the comments sections here and here.

Tell us about your Total Access Problems
If you are also experiencing major problems with Blockbuster Total Access, we would like to hear about it. Let us know in the comments section of these articles.

Blockbuster Total Access discussion forum?
With all of these issues going on, I’m wondering if I should setup a Blockbuster Total Access discussion forum for members to talk about the problems and details of the service. If you would like a forum setup for this sort of thing, let me know your interest by replying in the comments below. If enough people show an interest, I will set up a forum where issues can be tracked and discussed in a central location. Thanks!

I just received the following press release from Slysoft. Blu-ray support is now official and included as part of AnyDVD HD!

AnyDVD HD now with Blu-Ray support

Not even four weeks have gone by since the release of AnyDVD HD, a software for circumventing the copy protection provision of the new DVD format “HD-DVD”. Now SlySoft announces a new version of AnyDVD HD which now also supports the authoritative, SONY-developed Blu-Ray(BD) format. And, by the way, the Blu-Ray related regional codes also get removed.

AnyDVD HD costs 79 USD. An upgrade from AnyDVD to AnyDVD HD is available for 30 USD.

Since the Blu-Ray functions were integrated into AnyDVD HD there will be no separate “BD” version of the software.

Giancarlo Bettini, CEO at SlySoft: “Since it was our firm conviction that the first copyable format would prevail in the end, our original intention was actually to support only HD-DVD. However, since the introduction of AnyDVD HD we have received so many customer inquiries about Blu-Ray that we simply couldn’t close our eyes to this wish.”

James Wong, an AnyDVD developer:”SONY will see this with a mixed bag of sentiments. On the one hand, Blu-Ray is now equally copyable and on the other hand the market share deck of cards gets reshuffled”.

Download a FREE demo of AnyDVD HD today!

SourceForge.net issued DMCA takedown for BackupHDDVD
According to a discussion over at Doom9, SourceForge.net has been issued and complied with a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notice to remove the program BackupHDDVD. The utility was previously hosted on SourceForge as an Open Source, community project, granting anyone and everyone access to download the sourcecode for use or modification.

Where did it go?
Visiting the SourceForge project page now brings up an “Error Invalid Project” display.



BackupHDDVD still easily found online
Fortunately for users who wish to continue to use BackupHDDVD, it can still be found on a variety of locations online such as the sendspace, Torrent tracking websites and more. A google search should find it for ya, or you might want to try looking for links over on the Doom9 forums. This news found via CDFreaks.

AnyDVD HD Blu-ray
SlySoft softare has done it again! This time, they have added Blu-ray support to AnyDVD HD, their latest software designed to decrypt, playback and rip high definition movie titles. This is great news for Blu-ray drive owners who wish to EASILY back up their movies to their hard drive or a recordable Blu-ray disc (BD-R/BD-RE). The Blu-ray capability is currently in beta status and can be directly downloaded via the Slysoft website. If you’ve got a Blu-ray PC drive, this is the perfect software for you to check out!

AnyDVD HD is the ONLY commercial software available that can be used to backup, playback and decrypt HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. A trial period is offered by Slysoft, and a license fee will need to be purchased after the demo period has expired. The current cost for AnyDVD HD runs around $79, with upgrade discounts available for existing AnyDVD license holders. SlySoft also routinely runs coupon codes for additional discounts, so it shouldn’t be hard to get a great deal on some excellent software that can be used to protect your HD DVD or Blu-ray movie investments by providing backup capabilities. If you have used AnyDVD HD, let us know what you think of it by replying in the comments section! Found via CDRLabs.



Additional names and aliases for AnyDVD HD: AnyDVDHD, AnyDVD HDDVD, AnyDVD HD DVD, AnyDVDBluray, AnyDVDBlu-ray, AnyDVD Bluray, AnyDVD Blu-ray

UPDATE: The Full official version of AnyDVD HD has been released with Blu-ray support! Download a FREE demo of AnyDVD HD today!

51GB HD DVD-ROM triple layer approved… just kidding!

Well there has certainly been some interesting news circulating around the web while I’ve been down and out. It seems that multiple websites were reporting that the 51 GB HD DVD specification had been submitted to the DVD Forum for approval. Well, apparently that is not the case! No one knows how this rumor started exactly, but PCWorld got to the bottom of the issue by contacting a Toshiba representative.

“We’re puzzled ourself by where these reports came from,” said Junko Furuta, a spokeswoman for the company in Tokyo. She said Toshiba hasn’t made any further announcements about the disc since CES, and it wasn’t submitted to any steering committees during this week’s DVD Forum meetings in Tokyo.

51 Gigs in fantasy land
So at this point, the triple layer, 51GB HD DVD is still just a proof of concept. Until this format is submitted and approved by the DVD Forum, there is really no further point in making a fuss about the theoretical disc. We have also seen TDK demo engineering sample quad layer Blu-ray discs with a capacity of 100GB, but that does not mean such a disc will ever be affordable or useful to consumers. The reality is, a 17GB per layer HD DVD disc has the possibility of never making it to the market… Only time will tell if it actually survives.