U.K. leader can't view Obama's gift

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Brown gave Obama some pretty cool gifts. Obama gave him a crappy gift in return... and they don't even work!!

The movie industry's digital protection schemes have turned President Obama's present for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown into little more than a set of coasters.

British newspapers earlier this month made hay out of the supposedly unequal exchange of gifts between the two leaders during Brown's visit to Washington. Brown gave an ornamental pen holder with an indirect tie to the Oval Office desk — both items were made from the timber of sister ships — and a first-edition set of a seven-volume biography about Winston Churchill.

Obama responded with a DVD set featuring 25 classic American movies. "About as exciting as a pair of socks," declared The Daily Mail.

Now it turns out Brown can't play the discs because of region-specific limitations, The Daily Telegraph reports.

DVD players are coded to limit themselves to material meant for specific geographic areas. The United States and Canada are Region 1. Western and Central Europe are Region 2.

Players sold in one region aren't supposed to play discs sold in another. Had the same sort of protection applied to Brown's gift, Obama would need a special key sold only in Europe to open the Churchill books.

People willing to experiment with hacks can go online to find relatively easy ways around region-coding prohibitions on discs. But a spokesman for the prime minister referred a Telegraph writer to the White House for "technical assistance."

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2009/...eader-cant.html

Edited March 20, 2009 by LuckyStrike

[HAL 9000 96]

The Outrage.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I'm sure Brown is a smart guy. Most DVD players have built-in handset hacks to change the region.

The writer of this article really knows their tech don't they - I wonder if he also knows that US TV sets use an NTSC standard, which is incompatible with UK PAL televisions that can't decode the image. Most can of course - so its moot, but still...

You can't buy R2 PAL DVDs in the US without importing them....

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Teleprompt THIS, B.H. Obama!

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

Almost everyone I know in the UK has a multi-region player.

the article doesn't mention that Brown is practically blind, but never mind

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Brown is blind?

I thought that was Blunkett....

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

He has no vision in one eye and limited vision in another

[HAL 9000 96]

Almost everyone I know in the UK has a multi-region player.

the article doesn't mention that Brown is practically blind, but never mind

Oh that's cool.

Seriously... this whole Region business is lame.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

He has no vision in one eye and limited vision in another

Didn't know that - my dad has that too.

[Otto 83]

Yeah and like there's a shortage of pens in the whitehouse...

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

retinal detachment from playing rugby I think?

same thing happened to the other eye, but I think they were able to save it

[one...two...tree 2,762]

He has no vision in one eye and limited vision in another

I take it he probably doesn't watch too many DVD's period.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

retinal detachment from playing rugby I think?

same thing happened to the other eye, but I think they were able to save it

Dad had a pencil shot into his eye by his cousin when they were kids. But I think he was actually colorblind before that too.

[Peikko 1,575]

That's hilarious. Since when did anyone care what 'gifts' were exchanged between leaders?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Or what the Daily Mail's opinion of them is....

The only time I cared about foreign gifts was when Prince Charles was hawking them off on the side for his own profit. That was an 'actual' scandal. Noone cared that silver teapots weren't exactly practical for brewing tea in.