Archive for January, 2007

First HD-DVD hacked and shared


The uncrackable (yeah, right) HD-DVD format has been cracked, and high-definition content is now being distributed freely – and obviously illegally – over the BitTorrent file-sharing networks.

The first HD-DVD to be uploaded to BitTorrent was Serenity, the Joss Whedon Firefly blockbuster. It’s said that HD-DVDs of the films Batman Begins, The Chronicles of Riddick, 12 Monkeys and King Kong have been decrypted and are now showing up on torrent sites around the world.

A reported handful of very clever hackers have figured out how to extract the unique volume key from HD-DVDs. HDTV Blogger reports that the torrent is:

a 19.6GB file in native EVO format that should play on PowerDVD and WinDVD with HD DVD playback.

He says he got a nasty email after posting about the first HD-DVD torrent. The anonymous emailer was upset at the fact that he was drawing unnecessary attention to it within the P2P community. Of course, sending anonymous intimidatory emails is a sure-fire guaranteed way of getting more publicity for something than even the most attention-hungry D-list celebrity could handle. Was it a film company executive or someone playing at being one? Well, who can say…? What we do know is that this news will be very upsetting for the people who fund the films and those who make HD-DVD hardware.

Read the full article.

Tuesday, January 16th, 2007