digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About
See the original image at dailytech.com

Obama's Gift to British PM Ruined by DVD Zone Restrictions

dailytech.com — Arriving back home, PM Brown settled in to watch "Psycho" only to receive a far greater horror than the movie itself could bring -- none of his DVDs would play, due to zone restrictions. While saddened and shocked, the PM maintains that American and Britain still have a "special partnership".

Who dugg this? Made popular Mar 25, 2009

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

360 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • atomicpoet, on 03/24/2009, -10/+349Or, they download VLC Player and it won't be so restricted.
  • enantiodromia, on 03/24/2009, -35/+260it is nice to see our foreign relations blunders have gone from "slam dunk WMDs" to "he forgot about region codes"
  • DrJen, on 03/24/2009, -23/+238Sigh. Isn't there someone in the White House that's supposed to watch out for these errors?
  • relaxeder, on 04/17/2009, -13/+188Toot toot! All aboard the wormhole to LAST WEEK.
  • palmer, on 03/25/2009, -3/+133Considering the administration's recent alleged pro-RIAA comments, having their ass bit by BS media restrictions provides a valuable lesson.
  • odkin, on 03/25/2009, -9/+102Keep in mind that this was an exchange of gifts. When Obama gave the British PM these useless plastic coasters from Wal-Mart, Brown gave Obama PRICELESS ARTIFACTS including a pen carved from the timbers of an famous British ship, and a first edition set of the Churchill biography.

    Imagine if Bush had done this, we would all be hearing and reading about it in every media outlet, instead of just pointing out the hypocrisy of the Digg Obamatons when it comes to making fun of stupid politicians.
  • IJstickI, on 03/25/2009, -1/+91if there were i think they wouldn't have allowed obama to give Brown DVDs in the first place.
  • Frostman3D, on 03/25/2009, -5/+86It was a lame gift to start with, nowhere near as nice as what he gave obama.
  • inactive, on 03/24/2009, -13/+88Ruined? When was it good?
  • vinetari, on 03/25/2009, -3/+67Or they set out to do away with such silly region codes
  • shandy28, on 03/25/2009, -13/+74This never would have happened with Bush.
    Pop-up books don't have zone restrictions.
  • Endit, on 03/25/2009, -2/+51"Bush Gives Region Locked DVDs to British PM" / 2561 diggs
    comments section: "Obama would never do this!"
  • Auraness, on 03/25/2009, -9/+54How many times has this been "news?"
  • cadmiumpaint, on 03/25/2009, -5/+48not everyone watches dvd's on a computer.
  • Paulish, on 03/25/2009, -2/+44***** the MPAA!
  • inactive, on 03/25/2009, -6/+44VLC doesnt give a ***** about that. WinDVD does though.
  • gerbil20, on 03/25/2009, -2/+37It is either an extremely poorly thought out gift or extremely smart insult.
    A gift to a visiting head of state is expected to be representative of the host state.
    Obama's gift is indeed representative - a bunch of Hollywood cr@p movies that can only be played on a hacked Chinese DVD player.
  • TheInformer, on 03/25/2009, -4/+38This is what happens when you have an aid go into the White House store at the last minute to buy something for the person that is the Head of another country.

    The British PM obviously spent time thinking about his gift to Obama. Obama's "gift" shows that Obama spent zero time thinking about his gift to the British PM.
  • oboshoe, on 03/25/2009, -10/+44
    "Look. Region encoding was something that I inherited from Bush administration. I've only been in office 60 days and you can't expect DVD miracles. This is a luxury cruise liner, not a speedboat."
  • ASfinkterSezWut, on 03/25/2009, -1/+34Seriously... this had to be the *****, most poorly thought out present from a President ever.

    The only way to beat this would be gift certificates to Wal-Mart and McDonalds.
  • relaxeder, on 04/17/2009, -0/+32You're a pokemon, you don't know a goddamn thing!
  • Cannonballkid, on 03/25/2009, -19/+51Only socialists "Give" DVD's away! Why do tax payers have to pay for these so called "gifts" (my neo-con impression)
  • IJstickI, on 03/25/2009, -0/+31i think it's fair to say that the second he gave him DVDs the gift was ruined, although the region issue does add to it.
  • CylonsOfTheLamb, on 03/25/2009, -1/+31Yep, absolutely. When he saw the gifts Brown had brought, he should have kept the DVDs in his desk drawer, and explained to Brown that he just couldn't decide on the perfect gift, so after lunch, he was gonna load Brown up in the limo, take him down to the Smithsonian, and let him pick out something he really liked.
  • coheedcollapse, on 03/25/2009, -18/+47Dear god the comments on this story are laughable. The way you asshats are acting you'd think he accidentally pissed on the leader of another country or something.

    He ***** bought some DVD's for the guy and they happened to be region locked. Jesus Christ. If you want to bitch about something, bitch about the movie industry that demands that we be locked out of DVD's that we've purchased with our own money at their own asking price just because they were pressed for a certain region.
  • TouchingThePod, on 03/25/2009, -16/+44buried for submitting article that was on here like two weeks ago!
  • celotil, on 03/25/2009, -1/+28I see a few people digging down MickJT while digging up mattiohkamp, and you're idiots (*watches digg counts drop*).

    It was typical for older drives to be able to be "soft-driven", i.e. the drive sent the details of the DVD and its own region to the player software, and the player software could still decide, if the regions differed, "YES, play the damn DVD."

    However, newer ***** and Panasonic drives have a hard-coded check built into the firmware. The drive checks the region of the DVD and, if the DVD differs to that of the drive, tells the player software, "You cannot play this disc, for any reason."

    VLC cannot ignore this type of region check because it's told, as soon as the disc is inserted into the drive, that the disc is unreadable. There is no option given to VLC to even try to initiate playback. If VLC DOES try to initiate playback, it is told, "This disc cannot be read."

    There is no way to get around this without rewriting the firmware of the DVD unit, and even that is no guarantee that it will work - apparently with some of the ***** drives, hard-wired isn't a figure of speech; the drive's region coding and checking procedure is built into a literal hard-wired circuit which cannot be updated even with new firmware.
  • AndrewDB, on 03/25/2009, -25/+52Actually it sounds just like your comment.
  • knowitman, on 03/25/2009, -5/+32Thank you for pointing out the hypocrisy of many Diggers and the media.
  • inactive, on 03/25/2009, -0/+26True. Unusually bad taste. Perhaps he didn't know the protocol or one of his staff picked it out. They should have known better. Obama doesn't need these kinds of blunders in his foreign relationships.

    FTA: "PM Brown presented President Obama with ... a penholder carved from the timbers of an anti-slavery ship. The ship was the sister ship of the one that was broken up and the timber used to form the current desk at the Oval Office."

    "... as a gracious gesture, President Obama gave him a gift set of 25 classic American movies, including the timeless thriller 'Psycho.'"

    (*slightly embarrassing*)
  • youannoyme, on 03/25/2009, -5/+31Did you even read the article? The article isn't from the right, its a tech site. The only thing close to criticism was at the end where it pardoned Obama for the gaff and declared how silly this whole region thing is... Not everything is political, even if it is talking about Obama, and trying to make it so only hurts your own cause.
  • arvvvs, on 03/25/2009, -4/+29Personally I think the point should be how useless these region codecs are. Personally I'd rip it on to the computer and and burn it again after fixing it.
  • bigbangbuddha, on 03/25/2009, -1/+25"...such restrictions do little to stop actual pirates, and instead merely hinder cultural exchange..."

    I'd say its a good case for piracy.
  • tehjai, on 03/25/2009, -25/+49Wow... Nitpick any? At least Obama hasn't choked on a pretzel yet.
  • JAVandiver, on 03/25/2009, -1/+23"During his historic trip to Washington, Gordon Brown gave Barack Obama an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet - once called HMS President.
    The unique present delighted Mr Obama because oak from the Gannet's sister ship, HMS Resolute, was carved to make a desk that already takes place in the Oval Office in the White House, after being presented by Britain to the US in 1880."

    And what President Obama give PM Brown, a freeking grab bag of DVD's... Gee, lets give the leader of our closest allies something less than a grab from the Peoples Choice Awards!
  • Scott2, on 03/25/2009, -4/+25Moments like this I'm reminded exactly how far left Digg users lean. Wow.
  • aussieNickuss, on 03/25/2009, -3/+24Aren't region codes hardware restricted on modern drives?
  • Eslamicolt3, on 03/25/2009, -12/+33I don't know why you're getting dugg down. That's pretty spot on. And I fully accept that I'll prob be dugg down right now, but I sleep well with the knowledge that I'll be dugg right back up in a few months after it becomes more apparent how ***** we are.
  • Fosnez, on 03/25/2009, -2/+23FIRE ZEE MISSILES!
  • MickJT, on 03/25/2009, -4/+24@prophetpimp

    You didn't understand aussieNickuss.. on certain Panasonic and ***** drives, not even VLC can play it unless the region code is set on the drive to the region of the content on the disc.

    The G4 Mac Mini has those types of drives.

    Not even AnyDVD can do anything about it (read the forums).
  • coheedcollapse, on 03/25/2009, -12/+31This was literally everywhere on the internet a few days ago - including Digg.
  • andrewpmk, on 03/25/2009, -3/+21Smart people own region-free DVD players.
  • Culyt, on 03/25/2009, -0/+17Well I've never met a wormhole that didn't toot…
  • coheedcollapse, on 03/25/2009, -5/+21That is the dumbest ***** thing I've ever heard.

    Since when has accidentally giving some region locked DVD's to a guy as a gesture of good will trumped starting a war on false pretenses that has killed hundreds of thousands of people?

    I'm really not an all-out Obama fan, but Jesus, you idiots make me glad that I don't hate him.

    Or was that sarcasm? It's sad that some of the comments from you guys have gotten so devoid of intelligence that I honestly can't tell if someone is being sarcastic or if someone is lacking a brain.
  • KnightofOrder, on 03/25/2009, -2/+18Needs more Jesus and weird Obama name changes.
  • cadmiumpaint, on 03/25/2009, -3/+18hospitality and manners...what archaic and foolish gestures of goodwill. They should just give each other a high five or something.
  • Scott2, on 03/25/2009, -1/+14Obama insulted the Prime Minister by giving him DVDs. The article focuses only on the region codes being incorrect - I'd say the article was the exact opposite of nitpicky.
  • chickentonight, on 03/25/2009, -13/+26No, he's not.
  • GTC55, on 03/25/2009, -1/+13It was a well weird gift, wasn't it? Speaking as a Brit - all he needs to do is go to Tesco and get a Tesco Value DVD player - they're Region Free!
  • mcquitty, on 03/25/2009, -0/+12Don't forget the "Reset" button that didn't say reset, but Overcharge.

    Who the hell gives a reset button as a gift to a foreign government?
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 100 of 368 discussions

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...


© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.