CONFIRMED FIXED: Wall-E Problems

[regwood]

Add Narnia to the growing list

"Unable to import". I now have three titles that are causing the same error.

Best,

 

[cinelife]

Narnia is another Disney title so apparently they are creating something on the disk (intentionally or not) that causes the KPlayer to think the disk is too large (capacity) to import.

K got back to me today to say they are aware of these Disney issues (and others) and are hard at work to rectify the situation. Hopefully we will get a fix soon.

Jim

 

[skunk-punk]

Narnia is another Disney title so apparently they are creating something on the disk..................
Jim

It's not just Disney that are placing code encryptions on disc's Sony are renowned for it. Fundermentally there is no law against production companys doing this, however K have paid all the rights (apparently a considerable amount) to be able to unlock any encoding.

This is a link to all "Poorly Authored DVD's" some just take a long time to upload e.g Casino Royal, others won't allow an import at all. All titles will be unlocked in due course........ apparently. Wall-E was only realised two weeks ago in the uk so I ain't that bovvered innit
http://www.kaleidescape.com/support/poorly-authored-dvd-list.php

 

[mitch]

I seem to remember having problems loading the last Spiderman film, but the Wall-E import problem is really annoying. I'm just hoping there aren't any issues with Dark Knight next week or I might have a nervous breakdown.

M

 

[cinelife]

It's not just Disney that are placing code encryptions on disc's Sony are renowned for it. Fundermentally there is no law against production companys doing this, however K have paid all the rights (apparently a considerable amount) to be able to unlock any encoding.

This is a link to all "Poorly Authored DVD's" some just take a long time to upload e.g Casino Royal, others won't allow an import at all. All titles will be unlocked in due course........ apparently. Wall-E was only realised two weeks ago in the uk so I ain't that bovvered innit
http://www.kaleidescape.com/support/poorly-authored-dvd-list.php

Most DVD's have some degree of encryption. Newer methods are adopted regularly and the bigger the movie, the more likely it will receive the latest encryption scheme. AFAIK, the studios are under no obligation to provide K with any assistance regarding their encryption efforts. Also, keep in mind that K never "breaks" (disables) encryption. The full DVD, encryption included, is written into storage. This process is, however, complicated by these schemes and occasionally K has to expend extra effort to adjust the operating system to accommodate these DVDs.

Jim

 

[josh]

This is indeed frustrating, and I've been one of the more vocal users out there on this topic.

The studios will keep trying things like this, but I keep hoping there's one bright spot we should remember: The studios run a real risk each time they try some new scheme like this - after all, if their new scheme causes some regular DVD players to not play the disc properly, they'd have a huge financial disaster on their hands with recalls, reissues, channel headaches and upset mainstream consumers.

Monkeying too much with purposely corrupting data on the disk to thwart imports could cause this nightmare scenario for them. So I'm hoping there's only so many other things they could try before cheap legacy DVD players in minivans and such barf on the disc. They won't take that risk... so I hope that this arms race is nearing an end, at least for standard DVDs.

--josh

 

[davebei]

This is really getting annoying. It seems that more and more of the new movies I buy are failing. I started getting around it using the DVDFab copy trick mentioned earlier in the thread. Works fine, except for extra time and having to manually load cover art and movie facts.

Why can DVDFab keep up with the necessary patches but it takes KScape months and months?

 

[Croptop]

Why can DVDFab keep up with the necessary patches but it takes KScape months and months?

Because KScape has a significantly larger code base that has to go through a much more rigorous set of regression testing whenever changes like this are incorporated. They have to ensure that not only does their fix enable you to import these malauthored titles but that no other imports -- or other system capabilities -- are affected by the code change. Add in the fact that they have to test Movie Player 2s, 1080p Players, Bulk Loaders and Speed Readers -- all with a variety of drive types in them -- and you can see that the effort is a large one.

I hasten to point out that even though Wall*E won't import at the moment, you *can* play the disc directly and take advantage of the bookmarking to skip the commercials etc. Not as good as importing but that, too, is coming.

 

[davebei]

Not sure I fully buy that argument, but in any case, I hope they come up with some architectural changes that supports a quicker turn around on these patches.

 

[JerryL]

Seems to me this is not a new encryption but simply the studios getting cute by making the disc size info= mega large insdead of the DVD standard max size of 9GB. Thats all it seems to me. This method may not cause normal players to hiccup. I don't know, but it looks to me that this is a deliberate move to upset the Kaleidescapes of the world.

 

[cinelife]

I wonder if K couldn't just insert an instruction in the load part of the operating system telling it to ignore such statements. I would think that would be easy. (But I don't **** about programming.)

Jim

 

[JerryL]

Jim, I agree 100%. It could be as easy as a small patch that says: when you see a DVD with the title "Wall*E" - replace its claimed file size of 1.2 billion gigabits with the proper filesize of 7.5gb.

 

[josh]

Jerry -
Well, yes, but as a (former) programmer that would not only be sloppy, it wouldn't help the next time a disc came out with this same issue. We don't want to have to wait another month when the next hot movie comes out and it doesn't import. Better to try to solve this problem for all discs of this type. then they'll stop all of our griping for the next DVDs.

 

[cinelife]

Yes, I was referring to a "global" fix of some type.

Jim

 

[Thorpeedo]

Has anyone pestered Kaleidescape recently? Has there been any kind of ETA tendered?

It's impossible to imagine what it would take K to fix this issue from a far, but my hope is that if we've seen this from 3 DVD's now that the this area of the code can be isolated or objectified enough that it will lend itself to faster fixin' in the future.

This is taking too long.

Sam

 

[JerryL]

My guess is K is making a disc image- I think they need a way to really verify the size of the files on a disc vs. what the initial disc info tells the system. Sloppy or not, that doesn't bother me. I just want it to work.

 

[cinelife]

I speak directly with K regularly and I did speak with tech on these importing issues the same day they were reported. I can assure you they are working diligently to create a fix. I was also told directly "we understand that the fix for Hairspray took far too long, so we're working hard to get these done right away."

In the end, that's all we ask of K. (They didn't create the issue, but they know it has to be corrected, and they're actively working on it.)

Jim

 

[cinelife]

Good news, I was just able to confirm that a fix for Wall-E will be released this week. The others are being worked on.

Jim

 

[JerryL]

AWESOME! Thank you Jim for letting us know and to Kaleidescape for the continued good work.

 

[josh]

That is great news! Thanks Jim.

Oh, and for those who feared it... I'm relieved to report Dark Knight imports just fine.
(Well, the important one, Disc 1, imports fine. The Bonus Materials disc imports but isn't recognized properly. However, they usually get little things like that corrected within a few days.)