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There's a license for that!

I think they went here.

Surprised that it's taken this long to get to market. The technology has been around for years.

Lake Technology in Australia pioneered this technology way, way back. Lake was bought by Dolby back in 2003 and the technology re-labelled as Dolby Headphone. Their technology uses HRTFs.

I want it in Dolby Atmos and add some rumble seats. http://www.dolby.com/us/en/professional/technology/cinema/dolby-atmos.html

I don't get the feeling that they expect people to actually install 62 speakers. I believe the idea is the solution to the problem that there are many different audio systems (stereo, surround, 5.1, 7.1, 11.1, 22.2) and currently they have to mix the audio separately for each one.

By providing 128 different tracks (with metadata giving their 3D location relative to the audience), capable of mixing down to at most 64 output channels, a theater can mix down to their exact speaker configuration. If one auditorium has overhead speakers and another doesn't, they can still play the same soundtrack through both of them, just mixed differently.

If you read the Dolby technical guidelines, you'll see they show what appears to be a 47.3 configuration. They have 5 behind the screen, 6 in back, 9 on the left, 9 top-left, 9 top-right, 9 on the right, and subwoofers front-center, left-rear, and right-rear.

dom

Since the post goes to a blog that contains no information here is a link to Dolby talking about it. Why would this link not be in the article? http://www.dolby.com/us/en/professional/technology/cinema/dolby-atmos.html

Found this on Dolby's website for the Atmos system:

http://www.dolby.com/uploadedFiles/Assets/US/Doc/Professional/Dolby-Atmos-Cinema-Technical-Guidelines.pdf

Actually after reading Dolby's page the system supports up to 128 discrete pannable audio streams, but no more than 64 speakers.

After a bit of digging, I found a list of the Atmos locations, and it's barely a handful:

http://www.dolby.com/us/en/professional/technology/cinema/dolby-atmos.html#Locations

If you're on the US east coast, there doesn't look to be a theatre between New Jersey and Florida ... so most of us won't get a chance to find out if it's worth it. (and as one of those people w/ poor vision ... this I'd be interested in ... 3D video, not so much)

> Or maybe $1 per speaker in the theatre.

You may laugh but Dolby is already pushing the next generation of audio by using 64 speaker channels; quite a significant boost up from 7.1 ;-)

http://www.dolby.com/us/en/professional/technology/cinema/dolby-atmos.html#Theatre_Setup
http://www.hometheater.com/content/dolby-atmos-demo

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/understand/volume-control/dolby-volume.html

I was expecting a real game changer, something using an exclusive technology like e-ink/lcd hybrid which is also manufactured cheaply to end the division.

They sticked with conventional LCD. Fine... Why didn't they at least implement Dolby lab's Dolby Vision? http://www.dolby.com/professional/technology/home-theater/dolby-vision.html

Dolby have an ~$4 dollar solution for this problem. "Dolby Volume" processors are currently fielded in about 12 to 14 Consumer devices - High end A/V receivers, a few laptops and 4 Toshiba LCD Television receivers. Look forward to the day when Dolby Volume is incorporated into a great many more devices, to include built in audio in PC motherboards. Not only will our viewing be more pleasant but surfing the net at a fixed volume will actually be possible. Support Dolby by visiting their web site for the demo and asking your equipment suppliers for this essential feature in an increasingly louder world. . . http://www.dolby.com/consumer/understand/volume/dolby-volume.html

Well, Sunnybrook later renamed itself "Brightside Technologies", and was acquired by Dolby last year.

http://www.dolby.com/promo/hdr/

Could be that we are seeing the first commercial product spun out of Dolby's licensing efforts.

Beowulf was in Dolby 3d in many places, which uses fairly expensive dichoic filters to separate light from 3 primaries into one eye, and light from 3 slightly different primaries into the other eye. Since these are more expensive than the RealD circularly polarized glasses, the theaters ask for them back.

3D Cinema is moving away from active LCD "shutter glasses" and moving towards RealD circularly polarized glasses or Dolby 3D Digital Cinema which illuminates each eyes' image with light created from three slightly different primary colors and uses glasses that pass those different primary colors through fairly narrow band filters.

Would you rip your CD collection to AAC unless you were a complete Apple or Sony fanboy?

OK, further semantics as well.

Regardless, Dolby is the licensing administrator for AAC in the MPEG-4 standard. From the point I was making, Dolby is still the key player for AAC licensing from Apple's perspective. http://www.dolby.com/assets/pdf/press_releases/723 _aac_pr_0203_MPEG4.pdf

I don't recall saying MP3 WAS mpeg3, btw.

True - and there's a pretty cool demo of what you can do with two speakers (well, headphones) here: http://www.dolby.com/consumer/technology/headphone .html.

Of course this is a good example of why multiple speakers is a GoodThing(tm). The human ear is pretty good at telling where a sound came from (based on echos, etc). Doing what they do in the demo above would be pretty tricky if your speakers weren't stuck to the side of your head.

I can't speak to the xbox in particular, but it's probably worth pointing out that part of the dolby digital spec deals specifically with downmixing (not to be confused with downsampling, an example of which would be converting 48khz audio to 44.1khz audio) to stereo. What this means, is that if the xbox is outputting dolby digital encoded audio, it will output it in 5.1 if you have a 5.1 speaker system attached, or it will output in stereo if you have just the two speakers attached. This is all done automatically, as part of the decoding process, I believe. (This is why you don't necessarily have to select 5.1 or stereo when watching a DVD - only if the mixing engineer has provided a separate stereo mix.) A quickly googled reference, so you believe me - here.

The xbox could be different, but if it is actually dolby digital, which I would imagine it is if they are saying it is, the 5.1 output should also provide a true stereo mix, if you have a stereo speaker setup.

For what it's worth, I am a mixing engineer, though my work in surround and on films has been very limited.

P.

Well, that's somewhat true actually. The XBox is capable of Dolby Digital 5.1 sound during gameplay, while he PS2 is not. I have a PS2, and it will only play sound in 5.1 during prerendered cutscenes (or playing DVDs). It will switch back to Pro Logic II for gameplay. Take a look at the intro to MGS2 on the PS2 for an example of this.

even though it's still going over the same link quality 44.1kHz/16-bit PCM link to the amp in the end, anyway.

It's not the link that's the issue. The PS2 just isn't capable of playing 5.1 during gameplay.

First off the article makes it sound like IBM invented this when in fact all they have "invented" is a consumer way to utilize the real invention, DLP. Texas Instruments tied their Digital Micromirror Devices to two DLP processors quite a while back for the purpose of faster image processing, which would include 3D.

Christie Digital (3-chip DLP Cinema projector with the dual source inputs necessary), Dobly (media server), Disney (content creation) and RealD (active LCD panel and media processor) have already implemented this technology and you can view it for yourself if you go to see Chicken Little 3D. You are still required to wear a pair of cheap, lightweight polarized glasses but the active polarization portion of the image is being handled by an LCD panel placed in front of the projected image. IBM's version is placing the active polarization in the glasses, thereby creating a much more expensive pair of glasses (ok for home use, not practical for cinema).

Anyway, considering Disney's huge investment in outfitting theatres with 3D projection technology and the demonstration earlier this year at Showest of Star War's, Top Gun, and a few others in 3D, I think it's only a matter of time before we see more available 3D content. IBM's "invention" will be a good thing for consumers but it's certainly not the first implementation of this technology.

oh, btw...the key is DLP's ability to produce the 144fps needed by using dual processors but don't expect to see this in an LCD TV no matter what kind of video processing you put behind it. The crystals just cannot move fast enough.

I think I remember reading about some company working on sound drivers to mimic this effect with just a pair speakers or headphones.

There is a system for getting 5 channel positional sound from stereo headphones by mimicing the audio characteristics and timing of seperate speakers.

It's called Dolby Headphone and it has been available for a while on portable DVD players and other devices.

They could start using more modelled sounds in the soundtrack to act subliminally to add some (interesting) effect. Like the low frequencies often used to make you feel uneasy/disoriented. EEG experiments could provide algorithms know to induce certain states. Anything from joy to fear to psychotic episodes to free paper bags for vomit!

Talk about immersion! &Talk about rating!

It was not created by Fraunhofer but Dolby Laboratories.

According to the Fraunhofer website: "Fraunhofer IIS has been the main developer of the most advanced audio coding schemes, like MPEG Layer-3 (MP3) and MPEG AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)."

AFAIK, the main developers of AAC are the same group that developed MP3 before. Of course it was developed in collaboration. To quote Dolby (PDF file):
"Dolby Laboratories serves as a worldwide patent license administrator for AAC licenses on behalf of the technology's co-developers, which include Dolby, AT&T, Sony Corporation, and the Fraunhofer Institute of Integrated Circuits."

AAC is already an open standard - you can download the specs right now and get started making an encoder/decoder as you wish, royalty free.

Are you sure? What's then the point in handling the patent licensing by license administrator. (which by now seems to be Via Licensing, btw, not Dolby anymore)?

Fairplay is an additional encryption wrapper around AAC

That's what I meant by saying "adding DRM". But you expressed it more clearly and accurately. :)

According to this (9/20/04 - 12:30 PM PDT), this (9/20/04 - 10:30 PM PDT), and TheForce.Net, there are audio issues in Star Wars Trilogy DVD set.

Lucasfilm denied with this statement, "We are always impressed with how closely fans listen to the many different sound mixes we have made for the Star Wars movies over the years. It is flattering to know that, indeed, the audience is listening. Consequently, each mix comes out differently and any changes that you hear on the all-new Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX tracks on the Star Wars Trilogy DVD set are deliberate creative decisions. We can confirm that there are no technical glitches as reported."

From Dolby's press release:

Dolby Laboratories announced today that the Dolby® Digital Live encoder has been integrated into select 915 chipset-based Intel® Desktop Boards featuring Intel High Definition Audio. Dolby Digital Live is a real-time encoding technology which converts audio signals into a Dolby Digital bitstream for transport and playback through a home theater system via a single digital connection.

Using this technology, users can enjoy PC-based audio entertainment in thrilling surround sound through Dolby-equipped A/V receivers or other devices. PC-users simply connect a single digital cable (such as S/PDIF or optical cable) directly to the home theater system, thus eliminating the confusion and hassle of multiple cables and ensuring the quality of the audio signal.

Additionally, PCs featuring Dolby Digital Live technology enable PC gamers to enjoy realistic and exciting Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround effects during interactive game play by reproducing the audio cues and effects to correspond with the onscreen action.

Not only was the nVidia SoundStorm APU the only sound solution capable of encoding Dolby Digital on the fly (which produces true and accurate 5.1 surround sound via either optical or digital coaxial cable to a set of computer speakers supporting these connections or to an external amplifier), it was also hardware accelerated meaning it does not chew up precise CPU cycles like other inferior onboard solutions which in turn reduces frames per second and do not have the ability to send separate digital signals to anymore than two channels. You'll get 5.1 sound using three analog cables but this type of setup is nowhere near as impressive or realistic as what the SoundStorm produces.

...the beauty of the nVidia SoundStorm APU is that it is capable of encoding Dolby Digital 5.1 on the fly via hardware acceleration and not software (CPU). This means that in any games you play and as long as you are using optical or digital coaxial cable with your surround sound speakers (anything above 2.1 channels), the hardware APU will do the intensive job of reproducing the sound from the game to Dolby Digital 5.1 or AC-3 so you get proper positional surround sound.

Onboard sound solutions utilizing their digital SPDIF output (whether it be optical or coaxial, depending on what the manufacturer chooses to go for) can only output to the front two speakers as without an encoded 5.1 signal from the computer end beforehand, what is being sent through your digital optical/coax cable is limited to stereo (two channels) of sound...

The only way you can achieve proper positional surround sound in gaming with all other sound solutions on the market apart from the mighty SoundStorm is to utilize their analogue outputs (centre/sub, front, & rear jacks) but then it is not digital so you don't get the true to life effects of proper digital.

Really? Look here

My reciever supports Pro Logic IIx.

Pro Logic IIx is the first and only technology to process any native stereo or 5.1 signal into a 6.1- or 7.1- channel output, creating a seamless, natural surround soundfield that immerses you in the entertainment experience..

So what point, precisely, do I stop taking you seriously?

...tell me that it is not of a good enough quality because most people still listen to the TV through 2 inch papercone speakers and they don't complain. The next generation of kids who have made it to college don't even think anything of setting up a surround sound speaker system properly. Most new consumer computers come with the very least a 4:1 system and with the price of a decent 5:1 system coming down in price all the time who says that the consumers are not already preparing themselves? They do make 5:1 headphones as well, ya know.

Here's the link to Dolby.com, it has a very good explanation for both dolby pro logic and dolby pro logic II.

http://www.dolby.com/tech/#head2

Apple doesn't own AAC, Dolby does.

Also not quite true. According to Dolby:

Dolby Laboratories serves as worldwide patent license administrator for AAC licenses on behalf of the technology's co-developers, which include Dolby, AT&T, Sony Corporation, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits.

(emphasis mine)

"Pro Logic", among other things, adds a center channel to "Dolby Surround". source

You're referring to Dolby Pro Logic. Dolby has a couple of surround methods...

Not quite the same thing, but has anyone had any experience with this? Dolby says, "Best of all, it works with any stereo headphones", yet they claim it "isn't some kind of pseudo-surround effect: it's for real". Hmmm...

Apple gains an enormous amount from this- they will further solidify their proprietary audio codec as the standard for internet music distribution. We can be sure that HP won't be the only licensee. Apple has done this exactly right- create the most seamless integration in the industry, then graciously allow what would otherwise be their competition to join the party...

Well, here's a PDF link to look at--

http://www.dolby.com/trademark/meridian.pdf

And there's plenty more on Google (just do a query for 'Meridian MLP' and you should turn up a ton of hits). I just like the idea of a lossless encoding, vs. what's used today (lossy AC3/DTS). =)

I just hope they don't implement it poorly like it was in DVD-Audio (e.g. - none of this crap with having to have *6* audio cables running from the back of your DVD-Audio player to 6 inputs on the back of your A/V Receiver). See, that was the problem with lossy compression-- the recording industry didn't like the idea of perfect digital copies that were basically as good as their studio copies. So rather than using the optical or coaxial digital outputs offered by DVD players, they use 6 analog outputs (one for each channel) that go into 6 analog inputs on DVD-Audio ready A/V receivers. Supposedly this prohibits piracy. Until someone finds out how to copy DVD-Audio discs ala DeCSS of course. :P

Hopefully, this thing will include something like Dolby Headphone for the surround sound.

Mr. Ray M. Dolby would probably disagree to that... ;)

Here is a page that describes the fact that Dolby supports AAC, but it doesn't look like it has anything to do with "Dolby Digital Surround sound".

Using a technique similar to that employed in 3D movies - the speakers target each ear individually the way colored 3D glasses target each eye - 3D audio promises to deliver 360 directional sound. It does this by mimicking how the ears distingish sound to create that fore to aft perception.

AAC doesn't have the open source buzzword compliance.

Is the AAC spec patent-free? And if not, why should I bother encoding my purchased music to a format that I don't have control over? Especially since Fraunhofer seems hell-bent on making it fully "Digital Restrictions Management" compliant, according to this press release.

I'll stick with an open format, personally.

Sorry, here's your reference.

The newest development from Dolby Laboratories puts a 5.1-channel digital optical soundtrack in addition to a matrixed four-channel Dolby SR analog track on 35 mm prints. As well as multiple channels, the Dolby Digital track provides extraordinary dynamic capability, frequency range, low distortion, and immunity to wear and tear.

Digital data for 5.1 channels are located between the sprocket holes on a Dolby Digital print. An analog Dolby SR track enables the print to play in any theater.

That's correct, you can search the AMPAS database for these awards here. If you search for keywords, you can see that Dolby, for example, has received 6 awards, Sony has 3, and Apple none...

I see many people commenting here has no idea what AC3 is all about, and so say how it's Dolby's right to enforce their patent. Well, it could be, except that Dolby is trying to push AC3 as the standard digital surround format.

AC3 is a codec that is used as one of the standard audio formats in america, together with PCM. In Europe, they use PCM and MPEG audio. Well, DVD is a proprietary format, so they (the DVD people) have the right to select the codec they want, and licence it accordingly.

Unfortunately, AC3 is also the standard audio format selected to the american digital TV system. That means that it is a de juris standard, and that this standard is selected by government (FCC) which is elected by you people.

Dolby has claimed that it would licence AC3 under a fair licence. This was required as one of the steps of becomming the standard format.

If today we don't do anything, I doubt that in the future there will be anything like video4linux, since the audio decoding will need to decode AC3.

I have already brought up the topic on ask slashdot here, where you can read that Dolby will license AC-3 technology under reasonable terms

Well here is the information on licensing. License is $10,000 plus royalties on each sale. Looking through the steps they have to certify the product before granting the license so I am not sure how compatible that would be with open source.

To Whom It May Concern:

I'm Writing to inform you that we have recently discovered the presence of unlicensed downloadable content from your website:
slashdot.org
and:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/08/07/206201 &mode=thread


Dolby Digital is the licensor for the AC-3 audio coding technology commonly referred to as Dolby Digital. From your website we were able to download software containing unlicensed AC-3 code components which may not be distributed under any terms absent a license agreement. The distribution of this software, whether directly of (or?) indirectly (via link to a remote URL), without such a license is unlawful as it infringes on the intellectual property rights of Dolby Laboratories. Civil liability for intellectual property infringement requires only that the offender reasonably believe that his actions are likely to result in the infringing use of another's property. Linking to a remote URL known to contain downloadable AC-3 material exposes you to the same liability as the offender providing the downloadable AC-3 file. Accordingly, the AC-3 software accessible from your site must be removed from public access immediatly

AC-3 code and its components are the exclusive property of Dolby Laboratories (San Francisco, California) and are registered as such with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Use and distribution of AC-3 technologies whether for commercial distribution, research, component development or other personal interest requires our issuance of a license tailored to your specific use or business model. Without a license, you may not distribute or utilize the AC-3 code or its components and doing so exposes you to civil liability including money damages.

If you are interested in obtaining an AC-3 license, I encourage you to contact Dolby Laboratories at SRF@dolby.com. Licenses are modeled on an adaptive basis relative to your business plan. Our goal is to provide inexpensive licensing arrangements to promote the use and adoption of the AC-3 technology.

Dolby Laboratories considers the unauthorized use and distribution of the AC-3 technologies a direct threat and will persue their legal right to extent permissible by law. Accordingly, and until a license agreement is issued, please remove all AC-3 code and code component material from your website (including all mirror sites, and links to off-site content) as well as all links directing click through traffic to known AC-3 material.

Please confirm your removal of the AC-3 material and all related links providing direct access to AC-3 products. We thank you in anticipation of your cooperation and encourage you to contact us to discuss licensing options.

Sincerely,

Christina L. Bonner
DOLBY LABORATORIES LICENSING CORPORATION

What concerns me even more than this is as I understand it, the DTV that the FCC has mandated that we migrate to will be, by law, encoded in pay-to-license formats. (Dolby Digital and MPEG.) Currently, NTSC television is (to my knowledge) license free. This means all sorts of nasty private corporate interests between people who want to make stuff and the Evil Companies. ("No, it won't run Ogg or on Linux.")

• The analog SPL meter from Radio Shack is both more accurate and cheaper than the digital one.
  
• Some receivers make you enter a delay value for the center and rears. The formula is pretty simple once you find it, like from this FAQ from Dolby. They have a lot of meaty info on their site.
  
• I don't think that audio setup guide mentioned the trick to sub setup: put the sub where your sweet spot will be and crawl across the room with the SPL meter. Wherever it registers the highest readings should make for a good sub placement. You should generally avoid corners though.
  
• For the period you have to return the items you purchase, listen critically. Continue listening to other setups. Once this time is over, stop being so critical. There will always be something else out there just a little better, and it may even have a cheaper price tag on it. It's much better to enjoy what you have (even if it's a Bose) that to continuously beat yourself up and say "I should have gotten that".
  

Prepare to witness the most concerted and massive engineering effort -- both social and technical -- ever undertaken by mankind: The digital equivalent of damming the ocean.

I wrote about this on Slashdot almost a year ago, in the vague hope it might become a featured article: The music and movie industies are working very hard to prevent you from using your lawfully-obtained material in any way they don't want. To that end, they have formed the Copy Protection Technical Working Group (CPTWG), which is working hand-in-hand with a ton of high-tech companies to bring pervasive copy protection measures to your PC.

I saved my original screed on the subject, and it's reproduced below, with appropriate updates. Bottom Line: Do not let them sneak this garbage past you or your friends. If you find that a product contains copy protection, don't buy it, and encourage others to do likewise.

____________________

Recent stories on Slashdot have told of the ongoing "tennis match" between digital content providers versus consumers and technically skilled people. The recent cracking of DVD's Content Scrambling System (CSS) lent ammunition to the opinion held by computing professionals and users that copy protection systems are doomed to fail. The effort has been likened to building a dam against the ocean; a foolish and useless exercise. In Slashdot discussion fora, the point has often been raised, "If you can perceive it, you can copy it. What are they going to do, encrypt the bits all the way to the speaker/electron gun?" If the Copy Protection Technical Working Group gets its way, that is precisely what's going to happen.

I received a piece of email spam today, which actually turned out to be useful (probably the only time that's ever happened anywhere). It directed me to a flat panel display industry group. Among others, one of the links pointed to the California Display Network, which had a link pointing to technical info on flat panel technology. Since I currently earn my living writing graphics card and display drivers, I clicked through to see what I could learn.

I found an entry for an overview of digital visual interfaces, provided by Silicon Image. As I reviewed the headings of the slides, one entry stopped me cold: Conten t Protection Status. Content protection? In a flat panel?? Yup: "Implementation of DVI content protection is suitable for PCs and monitors." [emphasis mine]

Thus began an evening of link clicking and Google searches to find out what this off-handed remark could mean. The slide made mention of the 'CPTWG'. This is the Copy Protection Technical Working Group, a consortium of content providers (movie companies), consumer electronics manufacturers, and players in the IT industry. This is the same group that developed CSS for DVD players.

One paragraph from the above page is particularly disturbing:

CPTWG has focused until now only on "casual piracy [sic]", characterized as what a grandmother can do in her home with her DVD. Piracy [sic] requiring even the level of expertise (and equipment) of her grandson, who might be an EE student, has been excluded from consideration. There is a growing awareness that a broader content protection effort may be necessary.

The most recent meeting of the CPTWG was yesterday, 8 December, 1999. Their meeting announcements may be found here. It costs $100 to attend. According to the site, their last meeting was on 11 April 2000. It's not clear if additional meetings have been held at regular intervals.

The attendance roster from the April meeting (RTF file) lists a very interesting, and possibly worrying, mix of organizations. A partial list of representatives included:

• MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America),
• AFMA (American Film Marketing Association),
• Sony Pictures Entertainment,
• Universal Studios,
• Warner Bros.,
• Disney,
• Paramount,
• CEMA (Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association),
• MEI (parent company to Panasonic), makers of consumer electronics,
• Pioneer, makers of consumer electronics,
• JVC, makers of consumer electronics,
• Philips, makers of consumer electronics and VLSI components (including video encoders),
• Sony, makers of consumer electronics, computers, and displays,
• Toshiba, makers of consumer electronics, computers, flat panels, disk drives, digital cameras, copiers, and laser printers,
• NEC, makers of computers, displays, printers, and telecomm equipment,
• Hewlett Packard, makers of computers, printers, and testing/measuring equipment (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, etc.),
• Quantum, makers of disk drives,
• IBM, makers of computers, disk drives, and bunches of other stuff,
• Compaq, makers of computers,
• Apple Computer, makers of computers,
• ATI Technologies, makers of PC graphics cards,
• Dolby Labs, creators and licensors of audio enhancement technologies,
• Intel, makers of microprocessors, motherboard controllers, and graphics and peripheral chips,
• Microsoft, software market monopolists,
• Dow Chemical (I have no idea why they're here),
• DVD-CCA, licensors of CSS, and currently in court trying to prevent the spread of DeCSS,
• A number of law firms.

If you download the roster and read closely, you'll see every major piece of your computer represented. There is no doubt that at least one part of your computer -- your CPU, your RAM, your disk drive, your graphics card, your monitor -- is manufactured by one of these companies.

If you look further still, you'll see there are no consumer advocacy groups listed.

What are they all working toward? Quite simply, to prevent you from using your lawfully obtained digital material in any way they don't want.

Here's one example of how they'll do it: If you've visited Fry's or CompUSA recently, you'll notice that full-size flat panel displays are starting to appear. Currently, most of these displays are based on the old VGA analog signals, which are converted into the digital signals needed by the panels. The Digital Display Working Group is working on a new connector and signalling standard called Digital Visual Interface (DVI) that will allow computer displays to go all-digital. You won't need a DAC on the video card; the digital signals will be fed straight through to the display. Image fidelity will be much higher, since there won't be any intervening DAC/ADC conversions. Version 1.0 of the standard has been published and is available for download (PDF format). The DVI spec currently does not stipulate copy protection measures. However, plans are in the works to incorporate it.

Intel is one of the primary contributors to this effort. On Intel's developer site, they have some papers on copy protection for IEEE 1394 (Firewire) digital streams. In two separate articles, 1394-based Digital Content Protection: an Intel Proposal, and Content Protection for IEEE 1394 Serial Buses (the latter being a Powerpoint presentation masquerading as a PDF file), Intel outlines its proposal for protecting digital content over Firewire. By using cryptographic authentication techniques, a device offering digital content will "handshake" with other devices on the bus to assure that digital data is only received by, "compliant devices." In a revised overview of the proposal, IDF Talk: Content Protection for the IEEE 1394 Bus, Intel offers concrete implementation details, including:

• DSS (Digital Signature Standard)
• Diffie-Hellman key exchange for device authentication,
• Blowfish cipher for content encryption, with a keylength of 32-128 bits,
• Digital watermarking techniques to declare "rights" (right to playback, right to copy, etc.) to the receiving device.

The full proposal (currently version 0.91), with lots of technical detail, is mirrored on CPTWG's site (the links to Intel's site don't work).

Intel's proposal also recommends that the copy protection system be field-upgradeable to thwart ongoing attacks, and that it should be possible to revoke (read: disable) a device determined to be "compromised." (The tone of the proposals is also interesting. It's previously been thought that, because of USB, Intel is hostile to IEEE 1394. Yet these proposals suggest that Intel's quite enthusiastic about 1394... Once copy protection is incorporated.)

Intel's proposal mentions only IEEE 1394. However, it also mentions that there's nothing preventing the technique being applied generally to any bi-directional link. So for all occurrences of '1394', substitute 'DVI', and you've got an idea of what to look forward to in your new digital monitor. And your new DVD player. And your new HDTV set. And your new USB speakers.

Intel goes even further in their paper, A Framework for DVD-Audio Content Protection. In it, the author suggests that DVD-Audio recorders permanently remember the IRSC (International Standard Recording Code) of every song the device is asked to copy, so that it may only be copied once, period. They go on to suggest that the recorder could have a modem built-in to authorize (read: purchase) the ability to make additional copies.

In short, through this industry consortium, Hollywood proposes to exert control over every link in the digital chain, from the digital camera, to the disk drive, to the CPU, to the graphics card, to your display. They will decide what rights you have. Even if a court decides Fair Use includes multiple copies for personal use (such as assembling a video montage), it won't matter. Your computer will still refuse to make the copies (and probably fink on you, as well).

This coordinated effort is ostensibly to combat unsanctioned copying (which the industry chronically refers to incorrectly as 'theft' and 'piracy'). However, no one has ever been able to provably quantify the value of unrealized sales due to such copying. All dollar estimates that have been published are just that: estimates, based on idealized extrapolations of what-if scenarios. Moreover, although the industry claims to "lose" billions every year, they continue to post record profits. Finally, despite the proliferation of CDR drives and the Internet, most unrealized sales are the result of organized mass counterfeiting rings, not casual copying. None of the proposed methods I've seen appear to thwart mass counterfeiting at all. So clearly there's some other reason for all this.

The thing that puzzles me most is why the computer and consumer electronics industries haven't told Hollywood to take a hike. Intel's copy protection proposals state, in bold letters, "No content protection = No Hollywood content." This belief is taken as axiomatic by all the players, and appears to be the driving force behind the entire effort. This belief is also false.

Audio on CDs are recorded as plaintext, and the music industry continues to earn rapacious profits. Even the with the advent of CDRs, no music industry executive in his right mind would suggest dropping CD sales and going strictly with cassettes and vinyl. If nothing else, the manufacturing costs for CDs are lower than those for cassettes and vinyl. Likewise, DVDs are tremendously cheaper to produce than videotapes. Videotape duplication is a labor-intensive process; DVDs can be stamped out automatically. The savings in cost-of-goods alone would more than balance against any unrealized sales from casual copying. Corporate shareholders, always mindful of the bottom line, will also demand that the studios move to the cheaper, higher-quality process, copy protected or not.

The fact is that the computer and electronics firms are in the driver's seat, and are free to dictate how the new digital formats will work. Hollywood will use whatever format becomes popular, whether it has copy protection or not. They may grumble about it, but they'll use it. The economics afford them little choice.

We are only now beginning to explore the social and ethical consequences of a Star Trek-like universe where everything can be infinitely duplcated at zero cost. We have no idea where things will end up. But now is not the time to start erecting electronic walls and imposing artificial scarcity. The ignoble and richly-deserved death of DIVX showed -- fairly unequivocally, I thought -- that consumers want to make free, fair use of their digital media, without interference from outside. I believe its death reinforces the future toward which we've been pushing for centuries: Increased abundance at reduced cost. We can only hope that the lesson of DIVX will be repeated until it is learned.

Schwab

Well, judging by this page pointed out in another thread, they're probably just streaming (Dolby) AC-3. No details about the network part, but the compression spec is here or here.

Same stuff that's on a lot of DVDs.

Just as a head's up, there's a plan to add a more flexible surround encoding to the Ogg Vorbis audio format.