UHD drives and limited functionality

Forum for discussions about UHD-capable dives
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iamamish
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2023 2:49 am

UHD drives and limited functionality

Post by iamamish »

Hello,

I recently found this forum and was able to patch my slim Blu-Ray drive, and now I'm able to read UHD discs. My question is - why wouldn't the manufacturer have allowed this originally? Is it a price discrimination issue, where they want to sell the same hardware with different firmware at a higher price to those who want the ability to read 4k? I haven't seen evidence of this in the drive prices.

Otherwise, it seems silly to intentionally reduce the functionality of a piece of hardware.

I've searched high & low for an answer to this question, but haven't found anything yet.
d00zah
Posts: 1412
Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2016 8:23 pm

Re: UHD drives and limited functionality

Post by d00zah »

It's more likely thanks to film production companies who would prefer...

a) ... you didn't copy their product

B) ... to garner additional fees from properly licensed functionality
Coopervid
Posts: 1130
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2019 10:32 pm

Re: UHD drives and limited functionality

Post by Coopervid »

a) Yes. And a back door was found in the friendly LG drives. Mike then also patched the "more secure" official drives and found another back door.

b) Likely. Pioneer sells identical hardware with just different firmware for UHD / non-UHD. One point is the fee, the other point is to charge the customer more for the UHD feature.
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