Slashdot Mirror
HD-DVD Wins Support of 4 Studios
An anonymous reader writes "Looks like HD-DVD has won the latest round in the Blu-ray/HD-DVD format war. Toshiba announced today that 4 major studios (Warner,Paramount,Universal, and New Line) have endorsed the HD-DVD format. Toshiba also said it will use AACS for content protection, which is basically just CSS with better crypto & no ability to recover from security failures."
Someone does.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. - Yogi Berra
The mandate makes absolutely no requirement that broadcasts be HD (High Def) - only that they stop using analog transmission and go to digital. The FCC's motiviation is to get a lot of spectum back, and MPAA/broadcasters motiviation is they get the 'do not copy' concept.
While I wouldnt mind if the spectrum was freed so that there could be some unlicensed bands to enable 802.11 style equipment for consumer use, I'm sure licenses for the newly freed TV bands will be auctioned off to megacorps instead. I'm just hoping that they dont just sit on them to prevent competition for high speed services.
Why do so many people confuse High Def and Digital - they are *NOT* the same thing, nor do they always go hand in hand.
You *CAN* broadcast HighDef in analog, and you *CAN* broadcast digital, and still be using standard definition (and if stations are forced go digital, it isnt all that likely that they will switch to HighDef)
umm, actually, no. HD dropped it because MS lied about its abilities.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
SPDC and Format Security
Formats with Self-Protecting Digital Content(TM) solve this problem by enabling discs to carry their own security software that runs in a tiny security interpreter (VM) in each player. This software can identify and correct security problems in the player, re-establishing secure playback without revoking legitimate users' players. This capability is called system renewability or true renewability.
Who thought this up? Emulation of a player's security VM in software would eliminate the renewability of the security anyway, just as a comprimised key would. You'd have to resort to revoking the ability of a certain hacked or emulated VM to decrypt the content anyway.
This whole thing is asinine. With the right equipment you can make bit-for-bit copies of CSS-protected DVD's, thus "pirating" them withouth having to break any security whatsoever. It would be reasonable to assume this may be possible with any HD disc format as well. With any HD player, unless you integrate the codec processor into the security processor, you can probably build some hardware to get at the decrypted datastream too (169time.com does this type of hack).
DirecTV and digital cable and all that use this same model, only this replaces the smartcard with essentially a more limited type of smartcard on each disc. The model works with directv because to hack it you must be able to decrypt the live stream for immediate viewing. With a DVD this is not the case - you only need to be able to decrypt it once then distribute the decrypted copy. Only one person need have a hacked piece of hardware to accomplish this. This is where the true "priacy" is taking place anyawy. All this new junk does is just make players more expensive and discs harder to watch.
So just because you own a DVD player that was hacked, you won't be able to play future DVDs? That's a load of crap.
I'm not sure if you're trolling for people who haven't read the article or posted before you finished reading it yourself, but the paragraph you quoted was arguing against revocation. It's quite clear from the next two paragraphs and the first requirement listed.
From TFA: Revocation is completely ineffective, however, if pirates develop tools or instructions for hacking a popular player model. This is the most common kind of security failure in consumer devices, because attackers who have figured out how to compromise one device can repeat the same technique against others with the same design. While some revocation technologies could shut off all players in an entire model line, the harm caused to legitimate consumers makes this unacceptable.
SPDC and Format Security Formats with Self-Protecting Digital Content(TM) solve this problem by enabling discs to carry their own security software that runs in a tiny security interpreter (VM) in each player. This software can identify and correct security problems in the player, re-establishing secure playback without revoking legitimate users' players. This capability is called system renewability or true renewability.
Requirement #1: High-definition disc formats must support renewable security logic.
Here. But it says they were considering dropping the WMV format... who knows what'll happen in the end.
The Xing key helped get to this point, but it's far from necessary now.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
Actaully BR and HD DVD formats use the same laser, so it should still be compatible with the HD format.
[n8.r0n] http://petesweb.spymac.net/
The Wikipedia article claims a home computer can brute-force CSS in 24 hours. I don't doubt it. But DeCSS runs in seconds, so it's largely a matter of convenience now.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
Actually, VCD uses only Layer II audio, not MP3. There aren't any controlling patents or licensing fees for MPEG-1.
Your general point is very apt, of course. Except for VCD, virtually all media technologies require various patent licensing, and in practice these haven't resulted in any company gaining undo control over the technology. It just means that makes of encoders, players, and/or content have to pay a fee to make the stuff. But the licensing contracts don't let a company revoke or re-negotiate the license after it has been launched.
My video compression blog
Blu-Ray is a better format than HD-DVD. They will both include security measures to prevent copying, but:
:(
- blu ray has a special coating that is meant to eliminate 90+% of handling scratches to the disk.
- blu ray holds more data (changes in materials and tolerances).
They both require the same 3 codec support in the player (MS WM9 (VC-1), MP4 (H.264) and MP2). They both need blue lasers. They both will use next generation Dolby Digital and DTS sound formats for 7.1 (or higher) surround sound. The only reason HD-DVD is even in contention is because the manufacturing methodology is nearly identical to normal DVD. Therefore, the same factories and materials can be used to produce HD-DVD and normal DVD content. With Blu-Ray all new equipment needs to be purchased and the per-disc materials costs is higher. So, the studios are faced with the following choices:
- Use a more consumer-friendly (scratch resistant, more data) format, or
- Use a format that gives us more profit.
Wonder which one will win?
Dan
The post I was replying to was talking about `professional pirates' --
and assuming that piracy here means copying DVDs and selling them, and not plundering ships at sea (I don't like the definition, but nobody consulted me before first using it), then this copying wouldn't fall under the fair use provisions. Or do you disagree?What I was saying is that you don't have to break encryption to violate the DMCA. There are other ways ...
Not so basically, +R has much better lossless linking support and +RW offers Mt.Rainier support (although i've yet to see it used) and a better technology for modulation of information (wobble instead of pits between tracks. Easier to manufacture too).
Otherwise, they are read the same way.