Thanks to another poster's suggestion, I Googled "Starship Troopers" + "won't play" and found the solution.
It seems that this disk requires proof of citizenship -- I mean a memory card -- to run! I retrieved the little card supplied by Sony, plugged it in, and -- et tu, Viola! -- it plays.
Who'da thunk it...
Plug it into where? Is there a smart card slot? A green card slot? This reeks of yet another Sony copy protection scheme.
Reality sometimes follows fiction: "U.S. Military Will Offer Path to Citizenship"
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
in,
There's a memory card slot on the back. It's required for Web access or something. It has no software on it; it's just for storing files. Many BD players have them.
It couldn't be used for copy protection because, at the moment, there's no way to copy BD movies.
On the back? That's rather inconvenient if you have the unit installed in a cabinet or under a pile of similar equipment. I guess you're suppose to leave the card in there.
I hate to tell you this, but a quick Google search for "copy Blue-Ray movies" yielded quite a bit on cracking the encryption and duplicating the content. I don't know anything about it so I have no idea if the various programs actually work. For example:
Copying is apparently sufficiently important to Sony that they devised the memory card slot (dongle) copy protection scheme to reinforce the MMC protected content.
I sorta recall that the ancient Romans had a rather serious problem when most of their legions were foreign nationals. Whatever works, but I guess we don't learn much from history. I saw the original Starship Troopers when it first came out. It was ok for the violence, but I don't think I would pay to watch it again. I read the Heinlein story in the 1960's but don't recall anything remarkable about it.
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Well, that's not what it's currently used for. And this particular film seems to be one of a very few with this quirk. I have other Columbia films that don't require it.
It's a nasty little piece of anti-Fascist satire, which appears to invert Heinlein's intentions.
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.