Firewire Receives An Emmy

AxsDeny writes: "The makers of the ever-so-popular FireWire, Apple Computer, are being given an Emmy by the television industry. Apple will receive the primetime Emmy, which is given by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, in a ceremony later Wednesday at the Goldenson Theatre in Hollywood. " So, maybe we can start giving Pulitzers for better keyboards and Oscars for a printer that really prints scripts well. Heh.

Comments

Check your facts first.

[piecewise]

Apple came up with the technology entirely independent of anyone. It's then handed to the IEEE for standards-recognition. Apple controls the technology, IEEE controls things about branding and reviewing the technology itself, etc.

So you're wrong, it IS Apple's.

FireWire = IEEE 1394 = Sony i.LINK

As of right now, FireWire is the #1 recognized brand of IEEE 1394.

Apple's FireWire Not the First

[maggard]

For those confused it's not unusual for a product that has had profound influence on the Television Industry to recieve an Emmy. Communications Satellites have been honored, video cards have been honored, DVD technology has been honored, MPEG has been honored, now it's Apple's FireWire high-speed digital interconnect.

Why Apple for it's FireWire and not IEEE for it's same 1394-1995 spec or Sony for it's i.Link (again the same)? Because Apple is the one that did the development and the popularizing of the technology thus their holding the majority of the patents & controlling the licensing.)

Hidden agenda?

[.@.]

This isn't too surprising. The 5C coalition (includes all major video equipment manufacturers and many content producers) are about to eliminate your ability to record any form of audiovisual entertainment without their prior consent.

How? HDCP/DTCP (see http://www.digital-cp.com/). They will require all audiovisual equipment (your receiver, DVD player, cable box, speakers, TV, STB, VCR, etc.) to connect to each other via firewire, to ensure end-to-end digital transmission.

Why end-to-end digital transmission? Two reasons:

1) They don't want you recording anything without their permission. Content will have a set of bits that define if and how many times it may be copied, and at what resolutions. There's a possibility this new equipment will also incorporate the ability to restrict the number of times it may be viewed as well. The entire bitstream will be encrypted. No "approved" device, no content. Period. And they reserve the right to remotely disable any device at any time.

2) They want to control the AV quality of what you watch. Want to watch Pay-per-view? Great. Want to cough up an extra $5 to watch it in 1080i or 720p? You don't? Too bad. 480i for you. Want to watch the Superbowl in anything other than 480i? Are you ready to pay for the privilege? You'd better be. Want to watch HD content? Better be 5C compliant; they won't allow that over analog connectors at all.

Some people already aware of these issues say "Don't worry; it'll be years before even the first pieces of 5C equipment are available at the high-end, and more years before it's achieved enough penetration to matter."

Perhaps. But the penetration has begun. Sony is now selling the KDP-34XBR2, the first in a series of 5C-compliant sets. It's in stores. Sony's cut a deal with Cablevision to roll out 5C-compliant cable boxes (Sony is a member of the 5C coalition).

It's not a matter of if, but when. A matter of months rather than years.

Yes, the movie industry is all aflutter about IEEE 1394 (aka FireWire). And that's because it's the delivery vehicle for their final and total control over what you see, how you see it, and how much you're going to pay for it.

Well...

[2nd Post!]

I guess you have been misinformed, at least a little bit.

Macs do all of the above, now, what with iMovie and iMovie2, straight out of the box, without dealing with buying a video card and software, etc.

Grab a digital video camera, an iBook, and you have yourself a portable digital video workstation. Not terribly powerful, mind you, but very convenient.

Working over USB? How the heck do you capture film, then? From a video source to a box to be compressed before sending it over the meager USB line? Last I checked, the video quality over most USB video boxes was 320x240 motion jpeg at a fairly low framerate... as opposed to the DV standard of 720x480 DV compression at 29.xx fps...

Similarly via the ATI AiW card, though they probably get better framerates and resolutions... on the other hand, that's entirely dependent upon the CPU speed and the ability of the AGP bus/drivers to stream the data to the CPU to compress on the fly.

The whole point of the award and the contribution Apple made, with FireWire and their Macs, is that *any* two bit (well, I guess most television studios would prefer a more impressive title) hack director can make movies and films for a measly $2k investment. Television studios can now use FireWire CDRWs, DVD-Rs, HDs, camcorders, Macs, and software to keep the entire production chain digital and seemless.

So that's why Apple gets the award for FireWire =)

FireWire gave them the technical advantage.

Re:Stop the insanity now

[unitron]

Time for a new poll.

The best code is written by programmers drinking...

a. Mountain Dew

b. Pepsi

c. Coca-Cola

d. Mountain Dew Code Red

e. Jolt Cola

f. beer

g. RC Cola and eatin' a Moon Pie

h. Cowboy Neal's bath water

Whether this poll should be subdivided into open and closed source code I leave as an intellectual exercise for the reader.