Pioneer's latest Blu-ray drive caters to disc diehards

[mountains]

I'm surprised no one mentioned the widely held theory that optical media in general has a reputation of having a much longer lifespan than other forms of data storage. It allegedly is one of the only forms of storage that can withstand an EMP attack.

The M-Disk format is supposed to have a 1000 year shelf life. Now that obviously can be debated, but the disks are also more durable than standard disks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC

 

[wiyosaya]

It IS a UHD player. Go to the product page and let Google translate it:

"Ultra HD Blu-ray movie playback compatible drive
※Ultra HD Blu-ray playback software is not included.

With compatible PCs, playback software and displays, you can enjoy immersive images with enhanced dynamic range and rich color gamut in addition to 4K images that are higher definition than full HD.
Of course, you can also play Blu-ray movies and DVD movies.
You can download the Ultra HD Blu-ray Advisor Tool on your PC for the PC environment."

UHD Support on a PC under Windows is a slippery slope of no longer supported hardware - at least in an official sense. According to the Blu-ray Forum (the official source of the Blu-ray standards) official UHD playback requires Intel's, now no longer included with new Intel processors, SGX (which turned out to be a train wreck of hardware security issues) "Software Guard eXtensions", and only Cyberlink's PowerDVD supported it - but not anymore. You can see Cyberlink's requirements here.

I don't know that this drive will be compatible, but if you have a "compatible" drive (that can be flashed with unencrypted firmware), a combination of MakeMKV and AnyDVD HD could possibly support UHD playback. I won't get into specifics other than what I already said, but those details can be found on the AnyDVD HD/MakeMKV forums if you care to look.

IMO, the Blu-ray forum, with such restrictive requirements, is just shooting UHD Blu-ray in the foot. There are lots of people out there, myself included, that would buy a PC/Windows UHD solution in an instant if the hardware restrictions were not so stringent. In fact, those hardware restrictions, because of a flaw in SGX, might just lead to someone cracking AACS 2.X

 

[thewelshbrummie]

Years ago, when EA used to do free game giveaways on Origin, they had C&C Red Alert 2 on it. I got a copy of it.

Doesn't seem like they offer it for purchase anymore...just red alert 3.

It's not available individually but you can buy it as part of Command & Conquer The Ultimate Collection for USD$20 from Origin - which includes all of the C&C games from the original through to C&C4, or everything released between 1995 and 2010. Everything except the remastered games.

The last time I installed it on Windows 10 it did work but not without making some changes e.g. compatibility mode being set to Win XP. I may has also had to download a different .exe but it was a few years ago so can't remember what I did - just be aware that it may not work out of the box.