Blu-ray's content protection "BD+" finalised

Expect a whole lotta new Blu-ray disks outta Fox

21 June 2007 15:04 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

BD+ Technologies, the company behind the BD+ digital rights management system for Blu-ray disks has announced that the specification has been completed and is ready to roll out.

Earlier than expected, movie studios will now be able to add an extra layer of protection, above the no longer secure AACS, to Blu-ray disks.

BD+ is a complex coding technology that creates "virtual machine" in the player and performs a series of checks, such as making sure the player hasn’t been hacked, before it will play the disk.

Fox are thought be likely to be the first major studio to implement the new technology as it has been a pro BD+ supporter from the beginning.

This could, possibly, mean that we could start to see the release of some of Fox's back catalogue of greats such as maybe – Star Wars - getting a Blu-ray disk release. Perhaps. File that under "S" for speculation.

BD+ means that Blu-ray disks are now a more secure format than rival HD DVD disks, but we don't expect the implementation to be smooth sailing all the way.

As a still developing format, Blu-ray has seen some major problems with compatibility between new disks and older players, with some players needing firmware upgrades before they could play disks with complex Java scripts.

It seems inevitable that there will be some teething problems with this new layer of technology.