Price discussion on AnyDVD - moved from Decrypting

[wildchild77]

Personally I feel SlySoft is becoming just as Greedy as our friends at Sony with there price increase and all of a sudden they break BD+ after HD-DVD throws in the towel. What a coincidence? yeah right! Until a Linux solution arises High Def can **** The DVD format can create a great picture especially on a upscaled HD-DVD player like the one Toshiba offered!

[sarastro]

Personally I feel SlySoft is becoming just as Greedy as our friends at Sony with there price increase

What price increase? Maybe you should read this http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=10394, you shoudn't blame slysoft for the fact that the dollar keeps falling.

[Furiousflea]

Personally I feel SlySoft is becoming just as Greedy as our friends at Sony with there price increase and all of a sudden they break BD+ after HD-DVD throws in the towel. What a coincidence? yeah right! Until a Linux solution arises High Def can **** The DVD format can create a great picture especially on a upscaled HD-DVD player like the one Toshiba offered!

I know it doesn't really belong here, but you are kinda right...

I find it a little strange that Peer has repeatedly said they would rather HD DVD win the format war than Bluray, yet they released the BD+ version of AnyDVD HD straight after HD DVD lost and it started to be reported that Bluray sales were sky-rocketing.

I think this late release was a deliberate one to improve sales, as now, there is only one format as a result of HD DVDs death there will be a lot more people buying into HD, and thus...

More sales for Slysoft...

If they really "supported" HD DVD they should have released BD+ beating software before HD DVD threw in the towel...In some ways one could say they were a cause of HD DVDs defeat.

Think about it, if Slysoft weren't so far ahead of the game with this there would be a lot more motivation for others to have made some effort, instead of, basically the last year where NOTHING happened at all, also stifling non commerical research.

Look I'm not having a go as such, but there are some negatives to Slysofts great achievement, a great a achievment it is and if I were them I'd be laughing all the way to the bank (which is completely fair).

Just wish they wouldn't make out to be whiter than white which some posts their team have made do imply to an extent. Personally feel that AnyDVD HD is over priced. It costs pretty much £50 which is quite a lot for a utility of this nature, if you think of the number of customers they have, and the competetion (none). Well, I don't mind paying it, but I'm not excatly "over the moon" about it :)

Anyways, congrats, just wondering if my thoughts are true etc in regards to the timing of the release and that, or I'm just being rude throwing wild accussations around.

Thanks, :thanks:

[wildchild77]

Anyways, congrats, just wondering if my thoughts are true etc in regards to the timing of the release and that, or I'm just being rude throwing wild accussations around.


At least you did not get smacked with a rule violation and have a complete post deleted as it seems I have. Looking for the rules right now to see which one I violated, it seems there not that easy to find even with the search feature! I will give it another go as I do not want to break any more rules and sorry to anyone I may have offended.

Edit: Found the rules at the top of the page. go figure. I see where the problem was and apologize! fot that error in judgment.

[SamuriHL]

The conspiracy theories are hilarious, that's for sure. You guys are acting as though they had BD+ cracked the day it was released to the market and simply decided to hold on to it. It's my opinion that this is not the case and that it simply took them longer to crack than they originally thought it would. As for the price increase, there was plenty of time to buy it at the old price, and with a discount on top of that. They release discounts all the time for their products, as well. They are a company and as such they are in business to make money. Therefore they need to sell their product for a profit. They have programmers that get paid. If the product costs more than you're willing to pay for it, don't buy it. :)

[Guest]

Looking for the rules right now to see which one I violated, it seems there not that easy to find even with the search feature! There's a link to them at the top of every page.

[wildchild77]

The conspiracy theories are hilarious, that's for sure. You guys are acting as though they had BD+ cracked the day it was released to the market and simply decided to hold on to it. It's my opinion that this is not the case and that it simply took them longer to crack than they originally thought it would. As for the price increase, there was plenty of time to buy it at the old price, and with a discount on top of that. They release discounts all the time for their products, as well. They are a company and as such they are in business to make money. Therefore they need to sell their product for a profit. They have programmers that get paid. If the product costs more than you're willing to pay for it, don't buy it

There is no conspiracy theory and I have no need or want for what Blu-Ray offers

And if you are up on the news here at Doom9 this is just another reason to never buy anything from Sony!

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9362/Sony%2BBMG%2BSued%2Bfor%2BSoftware%2BPiracy%2B-%2BAssets%2BSeized

There's a link to them at the top of every page.

I edited my previous post as I found them after using the search feature first!

Just a thought when the warnings are sent maybe a link to the rules should be included. Again sorry to those who may have been offended by my post, that was not my intention. Also the post was edited for rule#4 and the warning was for rule #15

[SamuriHL]

There is no conspiracy theory and I have no need or want for what Blu-Ray offers

And if you are up on the news here at Doom9 this is just another reason to never buy anything from Sony!

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9362/Sony%2BBMG%2BSued%2Bfor%2BSoftware%2BPiracy%2B-%2BAssets%2BSeized


That's no problem if you don't want to buy into Blu-ray. Many people don't and I really don't blame them. It's very expensive now and prices have actually gone UP since HD DVD was defeated. That's contrary to my belief that prices would continue to go down due to now having to compete directly with DVD. At this point it's "safe" to invest in BD but it may not be the wisest time to do so. The standard is still changing with BD Live coming out this month. Unless you get a PS3 or build an HTPC I'd be hard pressed to recommend buying into the format right now. So yea, that's completely understandable.

LOL! Yea, I saw that yesterday. Good to see Sony practices what they preach. :D

Anyway, I'm truly glad for this latest version of AnyDVD HD. If I had to make the purchase all over again I would buy it even at the new prices in a heart beat as it provides tremendous value to me. Even though my equipment is all HDCP compliant, many people's equipment isn't. AnyDVD HD can deal with that problem by removing the protection and therefore HDCP requirements allowing their equipment to simply work. This isn't even ripping discs, this is simply about watching them. 50 euros is less than a new video card and/or HDCP compliant monitor in most cases. Just a thought.

[Guest]

I edited my previous post as I found them after vusing the search feature first!

Just a thought when the warnings are sent maybe a link to the rules should be included. Again sorry to those who may have been offended by my post, that was not my intention. Also the post was edited for rule#4 and the warning was for rule #15
Please stay on topic for the thread. Discuss such matters in PM with a mod. I will send you a PM with an explanation.

[wildchild77]

LOL! Yea, I saw that yesterday. Good to see Sony practices what they preach.

I have been a major Sony hater starting with the fall of DVD Decrypter and even more so so with the demise of Ripit4Me never mind the whole Rootkit deal and there latest attempt at anti consumer crap BD+. That's enough for now before I get myself in trouble by for getting to far off topic.

[blutach]

My views on SlySoft's pricing are well known (see here (http://club.cdfreaks.com/f88/anybody-note-intended-price-change-after-jan-1-08-buy-licenses-fast-use-x_mas-20-off-also-233726/)). Changing the price from $79 to E79 (a 50% increase) overnight is a huge grab for profit. But you don't have to buy their products (I won't ever buy them and wouldn't recommend anyone to do so at that price). Wait for the inevitable discounts and coupons and Antigua federation day celebrations and SlySoft's CEO's birthday etc etc etc offers.

@SamuriHL - of course prices would go up after HDDVD became extinct. It's basic economics - no competitor and prices go up. It was HDDVD that was keeping BD prices in check (and vice versa).

Anyway, this is not what this thread is about, so let's get back on topic. If you wanna start threads about high software prices, go do so in General Discussions.

Regards

[setarip_old]

1) SlySoft is a commercial enterprise - it raison d'etre is to make a profit

2) SlySoft is presently the only complete source for software for creating unprotected/unrestricted backup copies of commercial BluRay discs - as well as providing the means for playing commercial BluRay discs on non-compliant, non-HDCP computer systems

3) Therefore, SlySoft is presently in the position to "make hay while the sun shines" - to both recoup its development costs and make as much profit as possible while in the extremely enviable, albeit temporary monopolistic position - by pricing its product at the highest possible price point, without totally scaring off its present and potential user base

All of this will change when, in the near future, other commercial enterprises, such as DVD95Copy, release competing products. Pricing for such software will be significantly reduced.

Additionally, I have complete faith that, at some point in time (perhaps when BluRay hardware prices drop significantly - likely in time for Christmas 2008, despite comments by SONY flacks), the great freeware developers here will "catch up" and develop a thorough and complete "user friendly" BluRay toolkit...

[gioowe]

My views on SlySoft's pricing are well known (see here (http://club.cdfreaks.com/f88/anybody-note-intended-price-change-after-jan-1-08-buy-licenses-fast-use-x_mas-20-off-also-233726/)). Changing the price from $79 to E79 (a 50% increase) overnight is a huge grab for profit. But you don't have to buy their products (I won't ever buy them and wouldn't recommend anyone to do so at that price). Wait for the inevitable discounts and coupons and Antigua federation day celebrations and SlySoft's CEO's birthday etc etc etc offers.

...

Regards

Don't think that it's Slysoft's fault that the US-Dollar is worthless.

[Doom9]

Actually, AnyDVD HD isn't quite complete.. it doesn't do region codes on BD-J titles, yet. But you do get lifelong updates and they already promised to spend more time on region codes.

And in a free market, price is controlled by demand and supply.. there's ample demand but only one supplier. Even though the price is high, you do get something unique for your Euro.. it's up to you do decide if you need it or not. And there's another way to see it.. at €25 a disc, it takes you 3 Blu-ray discs to make up for AnyDVD HD.

[gioowe]

I have no doubt that they keep their promises. They always have.

[mikeathome]

(...)
And there's another way to see it.. at €25 a disc, it takes you 3 Blu-ray discs to make up for AnyDVD HD.

yupp, I had already sharpened my pencil to write that exact reply, for the reason to avoid a strike I didn't.

Working in the engineering business I can tell you how much it takes to pay for all the fruitless attempts to make something happen. People are used to call these attempts DEVELOPMENT; which takes time and time is money.

I am sure the Slysoft developers have to feed at least themselves -if not their families as well- and that even throughout the periods where their compilers spit out crap.

And if Slysoft developers live in Europe -which my believe is- it is only fair to pay them in EUR.

mike

[Peer van Heuen]

Actually, AnyDVD HD isn't quite complete.. it doesn't do region codes on BD-J titles, yet. But you do get lifelong updates and they already promised to spend more time on region codes.


Yes it does do region codes on BD-J titles - it did that from day one on...
It fails with a few discs because of a special limitation due to the "on-thy-fly nature" of AnyDVD :) We're working on a way around this...

[Peer van Heuen]

Personally I feel SlySoft is becoming just as Greedy as our friends at Sony with there price increase and all of a sudden they break BD+ after HD-DVD throws in the towel. What a coincidence? yeah right! Until a Linux solution arises High Def can **** The DVD format can create a great picture especially on a upscaled HD-DVD player like the one Toshiba offered!

Yes, ok, we're an incredibly greedy bunch and all we really want is squeeze the last penny out of you all.
But let's put that one solid fact aside just for a moment...


I find it a little strange that Peer has repeatedly said they would rather HD DVD win the format war than Bluray, yet they released the BD+ version of AnyDVD HD straight after HD DVD lost and it started to be reported that Bluray sales were sky-rocketing.

I think this late release was a deliberate one to improve sales, as now, there is only one format as a result of HD DVDs death there will be a lot more people buying into HD, and thus...

More sales for Slysoft...


How many HD-DVD's + BDs are being sold compared to DVDs? Is around 1% correct? More? Less?
So how much money us greedy scum is making with high-def? ;)
Now guess - compared to DVD protections - how much effort do we have to put into covering those new protections and updates of AACS and BD+?

At present, the only driving force behind all that high def stuff for us is a little "fame", it promotes our products. It's nice to show off what we can do. :) Yes, admitted... and it's simply what we do.
Do you really think we would hold that back just for some "maybe someday we're going to make real money with this"-attitude?

Believe me - it just took as long as it took. And yes: we could've done it a little faster, but not much. And the price would have been to fall behind with that part of our business that really 99% of our customers expect us to do.
That's all. No complicated games we're playing.

And as for the Dollar - Euro thing: we simply don't live in US dollar land. We got dollars, changed them into "real money" and it turned out that we got less and less real money for the paper that was and is constantly being printed in the US.

So we decided to stop that early enough. BTW: at the time we discussed that, the EUR was around 1.30 USD, and when we started off the EUR was even less than a dollar.
So by no means have we increased the price by 50% - we really simply lifted it back up to the original level we had some years ago.

[blutach]

And as for the Dollar - Euro thing: we simply don't live in US dollar land. We got dollars, changed them into "real money" and it turned out that we got less and less real money for the paper that was and is constantly being printed in the US.
As does every enterprise in the world which trades in USD but is not US domiciled. What is surprising is the magnitude of the price hike. 50% in one gulp. Anyway, it's not for me to set your prices; only to decide whether I will pay them - and I don't see value in it - E79 for a decrypter is off the scale IMHO.

I agree with setarip_old. When other firms come up with a product that effectively competes against AnyDVD, prices will inevitably decline. That's competition for you.

Regards

[bk1987]

I cant Believe people are giving Slysoft crap, they have software that does what no one else can do, they have free lifetime updates,(how many co. do that ? most just up date for a year and some until a new version comes out) Anydvd HD does everything it promises and more, and they seem to care about its customers which is rare these days, Thank you Slysoft for a great piece of software its worth every penny, without it my HTPC would not work as well as it does keep up the excellent work

[Rectal Prolapse]

For $80 Euros you could buy a videocard that has HDCP and maybe have a little left over for a partial sum on an HDCP-capable display. :)

The price is steep for people living on the Americas, but I guess Slysoft is going after the Euro import market. Probably a smart move - the winds are blowing towards the EU and their potentially stronger economy.

Slysoft is a business and they can say whatever they want and get away with it - it's up to us to keep them honest for as long as possible!

Anyhow - I guess the glitches are fixed with the latest release - good work!

[gioowe]

As does every enterprise in the world which trades in USD but is not US domiciled. What is surprising is the magnitude of the price hike. 50% in one gulp. Anyway, it's not for me to set your prices; only to decide whether I will pay them - and I don't see value in it - E79 for a decrypter is off the scale IMHO.

I agree with setarip_old. When other firms come up with a product that effectively competes against AnyDVD, prices will inevitably decline. That's competition for you.

Regards

Well, I don't know. A few months ago 1 US-$ was worth twice that much. Compared to the Euro and other currencies. So if you compare todays price in EUR with the price a year ago exchanged from US-$ to EUR you hardly find a price increase.

50% price increase simply means 50% value loss of the US-$.

[Furiousflea]

The conspiracy theories are hilarious, that's for sure. You guys are acting as though they had BD+ cracked the day it was released to the market and simply decided to hold on to it. It's my opinion that this is not the case and that it simply took them longer to crack than they originally thought it would. As for the price increase, there was plenty of time to buy it at the old price, and with a discount on top of that. They release discounts all the time for their products, as well. They are a company and as such they are in business to make money. Therefore they need to sell their product for a profit. They have programmers that get paid. If the product costs more than you're willing to pay for it, don't buy it. :)

Hi there, might have opened a little tin of worms here as people seem to stand on one side of the "fence" or the other. I'm not too fussed and sorry that it appears that I'm having a dig at slysoft. As far as i'm concerned its purely intellectual and a point of interest to me, their motives\goals etc.

I was basing my thoughts on posts they have made and what has actually transpired, certainly no consipiracy theories! :)

Just felt it was a bit rich that on the sticky in the AnyDVD HD forum and a few others posts in there, they seemed to support HDDVD like Doom9 does in the front page of this site, with similar remarks. I just found there actions not quite matching there un-official stance, and that this could be attributed to...

1. Appeasing the HDDVD supporters, of which they were generally much better informed and helpful than the Bluray supporters.

2. Reaching the situation we are at now, which is ideal for them!

To be completely open about this, I couldn't stand Bluray, not because of the format but generally because the people that supported it were nearly all brainwashed fools. This was my perception and it was a total turn-off to the format. I knew the copy protection would be removed sooner or later, so that wasn't really an issue. But hey we all have our reasons...

Thinking about it though, I'm greatful for Slysoft releasing the BD+ removal now as opposed to before, and I'm actually quite happy that Bluray is the format we must now buy, for PC backup 25GB is much more nicer (when prices eventually come down) DL HDDVDs woild never be ideal (much like DVD+R DL), slow reading\writing.

Also, I can buy a player now (not just the 360 addon I owned) with confidence, only problem now is the price, and I'm not into Sony that much...A PS3 looks like the only real option right now...

Anyway really sorry, for my post, as well as this long one...But things are much better now HDDVD is dead, rather than the deadlock we were at. It's kinda remarkable how fast everything has moved since HDDVD said, "We're finished".

[Peer van Heuen]

E79 for a decrypter is off the scale

You can't be serious.
"a decrypter" applies to several well known simple and free tools we all know, that do just that: decrypt. You even have to supply the keys yourself.

AnyDVD does a lot more, including the automatic removal of annoying stuff, like previews, trailers and such - without even requiring you to rip the disc.
It supports DVDs, HD-DVDs and Blurays all in one and seamlessly.
It's the only tool that allows you to insert a disc and then region code, trailers, user prohibitions are gone instantly as if they had never been on the disc. No extra click, no typing complicated command lines, no chanting mantras, ...
This doesn't exactly make it easier - we often wish we had gone the simple way and created "just a decrypting ripper tool".

We're constantly working on updates to integrate updated keys and remove new structural copy protections, that keep coming and are, unfortunately due to its popularity, aimed directly at AnyDVD.

We have a support staff that answers several hundreds (!) of support tickets every single day (including weekends and holidays).
You know the kind of questions being asked here in your forum, so you can imagine, that the majority of those questions don't even apply directly to our products but are of a more general nature.

This is a service we are providing for a lifetime - and charge a one time fee for it.

So if a customer uses AnyDVD for let's say 10 years, he'll have paid a monthly service fee of 66 cents (!) and even got the program for free on top.

If you really call that "off the scale", then your scale seriously needs some fixing :)

There is a difference between saying "79EUR is more than I'm willing to pay for this", which is a totally acceptable - personal - position, and "79EUR is generally off the scale".

[Inventive Software]

People are just narked because their currency is rubbish! :p

[ron spencer]

@peer

some people just have an axe to grind....you could sell anydvd for $20 and they would still complain....just keep going about your work and ignore it. Just is not worth arguing.

[blutach]

@Peer

Actually, I was very serious. Especially when you consider your competion's pricing. And please do not try to claim credit for innovating those things - we all know the now defunct RipIt4Me led the way (in regular DVDs anyway) in respect of advanced analysis (you call it AI - a fancy name for something someone else pioneered for free), removing ads and annoying PGCs, RC, RCE, PUops, Jump to menu and provided cleaner output and timlier updates than $lysoft while answering plenty of forum questions for E79 lower than $lysoft charges.

So, as setarip_old says, go on and make hay while the sun shines; but I wait for the day when we users have competion in the marketplace and don't have to pay these prices.

And, as a request from a non-user (so feel free to ignore it), perhaps one day you can solve the issue of throwing up burn verification errors while your driver is loaded.

@ron spencer - I have no axe to grind; my comments have, are, and always will be objective.

@Inventive Software - certainly US residents may pause to reflect on the increased cost of AnyDVD, but speaking for myself, the FX rate for the A$ has risen strongly over the past 2 years, so I can't complain about that. Nevertheless, the full AnyDVD HD would today cost me A$135, which I still say is (at least historically) bloody expensive and is a rate I am unwilling to pay.

C'mon folks - compare this price to good old DVD Decrypter and RipIt4Me and even with all its warts, DVD Fab Decrypter - all free. I'm not saying AnyDVD's quality isn't there (in fact, from what I read, the opposite is true) or that the "monthly rate" isn't low, I'm saying look objectively at the price differential.

Regards

[Inventive Software]

Point taken blutach, I have wondered why the A$ rate is so much worse compared to other Western countries.

I must admit, $79 seemed more attractive in lieu of the £-$ exchange rate hovering around £1=$2 mark. Them switching to € is actually hurting UK buyers because the € is getting more stronger against the £, so they might consider dropping the price so it's similar to $100. Oh, and we can't forget inflation either. ;)

$100 for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray decryption. Now where's my chequebook? :)

[setarip_old]

@Peer van Hueun

Hi!This is a service we are providing for a lifetime - and charge a one time fee for it.Excellent business model! (A competitor uses the same one):

SlySoft continues to build and retain existing customer loyalty, while at the same time cultivating the next generation of users who perceive the added benefit of utilizing a well-established, apparently "clean and complete" commercial product.

As I understand, you are a software developer/programmer. As such, I'd suggest that you should, as a Doom9 forum member and SlySoft employee, allow yourself to be involved only in technical, non-financial discussion...

[laserfan]

C'mon folks - compare this price to good old DVD Decrypter and RipIt4Me and even with all its warts, DVD Fab Decrypter - all free.C'mon blutach - none of those decrypts HD discs of any type, much less BD+! DVD Fab HD Decrypter has dropped the HD part...

I think until there is even one competitor to SlySoft, they can charge whatever the heck they want--and what they charge now is extraordinarily reasonable. I further think that "one payment and you get free updates for life" is amazing given that WE KNOW there will be many more attempts on the part of providers to deter "backups".

[ron spencer]

@blutach

I think you are comparing apples and oranges (which, in a way, may mean that you have an axe to grind).

You are comparing freeware tools to commercial tools. Sure, the spirit of forums such as these is for freeware...it is everywhere (Imgburn, eac3to, x264, and I could go on and on and on and on...........and on). AnyDVD is NOT in this vain...they have officies, a technological infrastructure (their website is not free), families perhaps, etc. They make their life on this stuff presumably. The freeware tool makers, who I respect ALOT, are not in this same circle....if they are how do they eat? Simply put they do it for fun and knowledge dissemination, which I appreciate.

So you cannot compare freeware and commercial products....you just can't; it is not fair for people on either side.

If you do compare the commerical products then fine, but it is suprious to say the least to compare DVDFab free and the like to anydvd. How about DVDFab Platinum to AnyDVD? Then compare the incremental features AnyDVD provides to price. Of course, you will need experience in cost accounting (and the data) in order to determine Slysoft's variable and fixed costs components to their pricing structure. You are in no position to determine this...nobody is except them.

So lets compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges....the freeware cost structure vs. commercial cost structure (and the resulting pricing) just cannot be done.

Is there a freeware tool that does EVERYTHING AnyDVD does? Nope....

However, one can compare say Nero Recode to Elby CloneDVD in terms of price/quality.

I cannot do with ANY program now what Slysoft offers. Are they charging monopoly rents? Perhaps (likely even), but without knowing their cost structures any definitive answer is lacking as to what the monopoly rents are...so I think it is a bit insulting to compare it to DVDshrink, Decryptor, etc...that was a totally different era and under totally different business models and much easier decryption algorithms.


G-day mate!!!!

[zeroprobe]

Blutach I think you forget were not in the DVD era anymore and everything is THAT much harder now.

With Blu-ray and Hd-dvd you simply can't just bruteforce a decryption key anymore. I'm sure there is alot of work involved with Anydvd HD and with such a minority actually WANTING to rip HD discs Slysoft are charging a fair price for it IMO.

[mikeathome]

(...)
So, as setarip_old says, go on and make hay while the sun shines; but I wait for the day when we users have competion in the marketplace and don't have to pay these prices.

That's good old capitalism, we all like, don't we?

And, as a request from a non-user (so feel free to ignore it), perhaps one day you can solve the issue of throwing up burn verification errors while your driver is loaded.

I run both apps, a donated ImgBurn and a payed AnyDVD HD. Looking at the features I probably have to get LUK another donation ;-). Anyway are there certain configs where you (Blutach) see these verification errors? Never had any; just curious.

(...)
I must admit, $79 seemed more attractive in lieu of the £-$ exchange rate hovering around £1=$2 mark. Them switching to € is actually hurting UK buyers because the € is getting more stronger against the £, so they might consider dropping the price so it's similar to $100. Oh, and we can't forget inflation either.

C'mon guys, you had the chance an voted against the EUR and couldn't just let the good old £ go :-)

Regards
mike

[deets]

im also a bit confused by the criticism, cracking BD+ was surely harder than DVD? that was kind of the point of having BD+

its all relative i suppose, but personally, given the high cost of HD, the price they charge to enable people to playback their legal purchased movies on any system they chose, its not that high.

i could now rip my movies and play then back in 720p on this laptop which is something i could never have considered before :)

anyway, i suppose you can never please everyone :D

[ron spencer]

never ever had issues with burn verification errors.....never a one

[Inventive Software]

C'mon guys, you had the chance an voted against the EUR and couldn't just let the good old £ go :-)

Regards
mike

I resent that! The £ is a British thing, hence why it should thereafter be referred to as "Pound Sterling". The € just makes things easy for everybody else in Europe! :D

Must donate to LUK though. I consider ImgBurn a complete replacement for CDBurnerXP and Nero. :)

[Furiousflea]

im also a bit confused by the criticism, cracking BD+ was surely harder than DVD? that was kind of the point of having BD+

its all relative i suppose, but personally, given the high cost of HD, the price they charge to enable people to playback their legal purchased movies on any system they chose, its not that high.

i could now rip my movies and play then back in 720p on this laptop which is something i could never have considered before :)

anyway, i suppose you can never please everyone :D

Not at all. There's nothing wrong with being critical of a company\product if its constructive. The term "criticise" is wrongly interpreted these days far too often, nobody has a go at a film critic for criticising a film. He\she is just analysing it and commenting on what he\she found.

Anyway, I'm sure the cocktails taste good and the sun is beautiful in Antigua, my cup of tea tastes quite nice in wales, the sun isn't quite the same though I'm sure... :p

Wonder what would have happened with BD+ had Slysoft not stepped up to the challenge? Any veterens here care to hypothesize?

[blutach]

@Peer van Hueun

As I understand, you are a software developer/programmer. As such, I'd suggest that you should, as a Doom9 forum member and SlySoft employee, allow yourself to be involved only in technical, non-financial discussion...
Sorry, but he can (and should) say whatever he likes on this forum, within the rules.

Regards

[blutach]

And to the others. It is fine to charge whatever they like - I just wait for competition to set in. And I believe the pricing is outrageous and that costs did not go up 50% overnight - that is just malarky and no-one can make me believe it (by the way Ron, I was, in my much earlier days, a cost accountant).

Re the verify errors, if the driver is loaded and active while verifying, it throws up errors (I believe in the VIDEO_TS.IFO file, at least) due to it's on the fly nature of altering things like RC.

Regards

[Zotty]

Wonder what would have happened with BD+ had Slysoft not stepped up to the challenge?
Eventually some solution would come, but hopefully BR would have died a painfull dead by then and the content providers would hopefully get it into their thick heads that they can shove their DRM where the sun don't shine (sorry I couldn't find any better way of putting this).

What I don't get is that most people have no problems at all with paying a lot of money for a decrypter. Why do we need a decrypter in the first place? Because current HD media just screws us. A lot of people are willingly buying into the worst DRM infested format I've ever seen and then find it normal to pay a pretty high price for a decrypter to remove the DRM. I find that disturbing to say the least...

[blutach]

Perhaps we should stop supporting SONY and its cohorts and bypass the format altogether!

If it never takes off, what will be shoved where the sun don't shine is their millions in R&D.

I am so sorry BD won the format war.

Regards

[Peer van Heuen]

Re the verify errors, if the driver is loaded and active while verifying, it throws up errors (I believe in the VIDEO_TS.IFO file, at least) due to it's on the fly nature of altering things like RC.

Regards

I don't know - James is the driver guru, I'll pass it on. Thanks.

[blutach]

Thanks for looking at it - especially since I am not a user!

Regards

[stringer1967]

Anydvd just works for HD DVD(xbox 360)...
Blue-ray(Lite-on pc drive).
I just needed a one stop easy to use decrypter,Back up system.
Works great with my HTPC system(Dell XPS which I believe
is really overpriced)
Anydvd was a small price to pay
have my system up and running to it's full potential.

[talon95]

In regards to AnyDVD's price, which BTW has nothing to do with the topic of this thread, seems reasonable to me. PowerDVD Ultra is $100 US and it's full of bugs and gets updated poorly (relative to AnyDVD at least). Heck the Slysoft guys put out so many updates, I almost get tired of AnyDVD popping up and telling me there's a new version! :)

Blutach is right about one thing though. It's purely supply and demand. If more options come available for less, then AnyDVD's price may have to be adjusted. Right now they're doing what no-one else has (in regards to HD media at least) and have likely worked hard to get there. Isn't it only fair that they should make good money for this? Isn't that the point?

[setarip_old]

@blutach

Quoting out of context can lead you to erroneous conclusions ;>}

In my full post directed to Peer van Hueun, I said:Excellent business model! (A competitor uses the same one):

SlySoft continues to build and retain existing customer loyalty, while at the same time cultivating the next generation of users who perceive the added benefit of utilizing a well-established, apparently "clean and complete" commercial product.

As I understand, you are a software developer/programmer. As such, I'd suggest that you should, as a Doom9 forum member and SlySoft employee, allow yourself to be involved only in technical, non-financial discussion... Now, you blutach posted:Sorry, but he can (and should) say whatever he likes on this forum, within the rules.My suggestion to Peer van Hueun was intended strictly in his support and for his benefit - so that he shouldn't believe that he (who's forte apparently is programming and development) has to try to fend off the finance-related digs that have been sprinkled throughout this thread...

Instead, if I were in his position, I'd simply state once that, "Im a tech guy. I don't get involved in finances".

Hopefully you now have a clear(er) understanding of my post which should be taken within the context of the several posts that preceded it, so that to paraphrase you - I too can (and should) say whatever I like on this forum, within the rules...

[setarip_old]

@talon95

(Please take this in the light-hearted but accurate way it's intended)

If you're quoting, please quote the correct member - and read my post #149 in thread ;>}

[frenchglen]

Perhaps we should stop supporting SONY and its cohorts and bypass the format altogether!

If it never takes off, what will be shoved where the sun don't shine is their millions in R&D.

I am so sorry BD won the format war.

Regards
IMO the format is irrelevant. Whatever they chuck at us we will undo. If blu-ay becomes mainstream, there will be strength in numbers and all copy protection will be broken because enough people will want to backup and rip their discs. Only if BD doesn't succeed commercially will it's DRM win.

[Rectal Prolapse]

Perhaps we should stop supporting SONY and its cohorts and bypass the format altogether!

If it never takes off, what will be shoved where the sun don't shine is their millions in R&D.

I am so sorry BD won the format war.

Regards

Well, the other alternative is DRM-infested movie downloads! Pick your poison! :devil:

(At least with optical media we can decrypt the movie and take it with us!)

[blutach]

@setarip_old

If Peer believed that ("he has to try to fend off the finance-related digs"), he wouldn't answer. Enough on this. If you wish to take it further, PM or EM me.

Regards