Customers who are early adopters of HD Blu-ray and HD DVD players could soon be caught in the cat-and-mouse war between studios and pirates and be forced to continuously download firmware upgrades as hackers break the DRM codes, according to Information Week on Thursday.

Last week, Fox published some new titles utilizing the new BD+ encryption technology, and some users had problems playing the discs. While the encryption mechanisms are designed to prevent pirating, the industry is still ironing out problems that could keep some legitimate customers from viewing their movie. As a result, customers of these early systems may have engage in constant firmware updates over the Internet, just as they do with their PCs.

"You’re going to have to get use to patching your Blu-ray or HD-DVD player," said John Pescatore, an analyst for Gartner.

Michael Gartenberg with JupiterResearch agreed that the situation is unavoidable. "This is the nature of DRM, and the nature of locks in general," he said. "The more you create these types of controls, the greater the likelihood that at some point you’re going to lock out the legitimate user," he said.

The net result is that consumers are generally staying away from the HD disc technology and staying with DVDs. "The last thing a consumer wants to deal with is updating the firmware on one of these devices or caring about doing something like that," Gartenberg added.

Mr. Pescatore noted that, considering how much movies cost to make, they have no choice. However he felt that the situation will be ironed out soon and that recent problems are the exception and added: "You’ll see better testing of DRM systems before they are deployed."

Meanwhile early adopters are paying the price and the HD disc DRM technology teething pains combined with the format war is leaving consumers spinning.