We watched Casino Royale recently via NetFlix. It was such a good movie that I thought I'd like to own it. Then I started reading about how the disk had problems with a number of DVD players - what I read said that Sony had on purpose introduced subtle errors into the disk that trips up programs like DVD Decrypter.

Guess what? Some people can't play the movie on legitimate DVD players. I'm not going to pay money for that. I'm sure the Blu-Ray version has no problems.

Anyway, a couple of news items on this below. When a studio pulls this, they should not be able to call their product a DVD let alone put a DVD logo on it. You'd think after the rootkit CD problem that Sony would have learned a lesson.

Sony Recalling New DVDs
18 April 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has discovered the source of a problem in their recent DVD releases that prevented them from being played on some players, including some manufactured by the consumer electronics division of Sony itself. The company said the problem was caused by an update of its copy-protection system, which it continually updates in order to derail potential hackers. Among the DVD movies affected were the new James Bond film Casino Royale, The Pursuit of Happyness and Stranger Than Fiction. Sony said that anyone who had purchased one of the discs and has experienced problems playing it may receive a replacement disk free of charge by phoning 800-860-2878.

Sony Films Won't Play on Sony DVD Players, Say Reports
16 April 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Complaints have begun appearing on some tech websites that copyright-protection coding on new releases from Sony, including Stranger Than Fiction, The Holiday, Casino Royale, and The Pursuit of Happyness, has made them unplayable on certain DVD players. One person complained on an Amazon.com discussion board that when inserted in Sony's DVP-CX995V player, the disks "load up to the splash title screen and then load no further, then after about 60 secs the player turns itself off!" The writer said that when he contacted Sony he was told that the company was aware of the problem and that it was working on a firmware update. The writer then asked Sony, "Would it not be a good idea to test changes you intend to make on your DVDs at least on your own equipment so that if you find a problem you could have the firmware update available instead of not only inconveniencing, but alienating your own customers?"

Source: Casino Royale (2006) - News