[Ratfish]

I recently watched a blu ray at a friends, then tried to watch the special features listed on the cover. We couldn't. Turns out the blu ray player didn't have the most current firmware. WTF was my reaction, and I came to fully understand Jobs.

[anigbrowl]

I like having upgradeable hardware, as opposed to a) having to replace a perfectly functional existing device or b) being stuck with the same features for the lifetime of the format. How can you work with computers all day and still have a problem with the concept of a firmware upgrade?

Forgot to mention: Blu-ray is considerably more consumer-friendly than DVD in terms of region coding. BR players must support region coding (although this is easily defeatable because it's not part of the AACS DRM) - but there are only 3 regions rather than DVD's 6, and most publishers have opted not to use region coding. So when I wanted to get a collectible edition of Inception for my wife at Christmas but limited availability in the US had pushed the price above $1000(!), I got a UK edition for about $70. The included DVD won't play in a consumer player due to region coding, but the Blu-ray disc is just fine. The only difference is that the alternative language/subtitle tracks are for various European languages rather than the Pacific Rim options, but we didn't need those anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc#Region_codes