Sony claims to have fixes a glitch on which prevented some new DVD releases, including Casino Royale and Stranger Than Fiction, from playing on some DVD players.

Fixing this glitch doesn't change the fact that DRM still sucksThe issue, as I guessed earlier, came down to the ARccOS copy-protection mechanism that Sony used on these DVD discs.  Sony has now updated ARccOS so that it doesn't give DVD players a headache.

Sony is also at pains to downplay the scale of this problem.  While Sony says that some 25 million DVDs contain the defective version of the ARccOS copy protection technology on them, the company hasn't received many complaints:

Recently, an update that was installed on approximately 20 titles was found to cause an incompatibility issue with a very small number of DVD players (Sony has received complaints on less than one thousandth of one percent of affected discs shipped).  Since then, the ARccOS system has once again been updated, and there are no longer any playability problems.

Sony says that affected customers will be able to exchange DVD discs that don't work for ones that have been updated. To get a replacement you will need to contact Sony Customer Service at 800.860.2878 and ask for further instructions.

How do you tell if your disc is incompatible with your DVD player?  The main symptom sees to be that when the DVD loads and displays the title screen it then freezes and after about 60 seconds the player switches itself off

Fixing this glitch doesn't change the fact that DRM still sucks.