HD DVD Player Delays in Japan

TheSync writes "EE Times is reporting that Toshiba is delaying introduction of HD DVD players in Japan because of the unavailability of Advanced Access Content System (AACS) DRM system licensing. The Register reports that Toshiba is still planning a late Q1 launch of HD DVD in the US." From the EET article: "Toshiba hoped to introduce HD DVD players by the end of 2005, ahead of Blu-ray Disc players, but decided in September to postpone the U.S. introduction until 2006. In July, IBM Corp., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Sony Corp., Toshiba, Walt Disney Company and Warner Bro. Studio formed the AACS Licensing Administrator (AACS LA) to develop license AACS technology. AACS LA has completed its version 0.9 of the technology."

Comments

Reasons?

[dada21]

How much of the delays in either format has to do with the actual demand for the format?

I've had HiDef for years -- not including just the monitors on my PCs. I've always been happy with upconverted video, and the variety of HD coming over cable is getting better every day. I'm in no rush to repurchase all the DVDs that I have in HD, especially when I'm happy taking an anamorphic DVD, upconverting it, and feeding my projector its native signal.

I'm likely one of their preferred targets, but I will definitely not be one of the first buyers -- probably the first time with new technology that I'll take a backseat at the release.

Re:Reasons?

[egomaniac]

Upconverting is just an ordinary interpolated scale. An upconverting DVD player can output a signal at 720p or 1080i instead of 480i or 480p.

No, of course it doesn't add any more information, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't look better due to reduced pixelation. In the extreme case, consider comparing an image that has been scaled up using nearest neighbor vs. one scaled using bicubic interpolation.

Of course, most high-definition display devices will themselves upconvert a low-resolution input signal to their native resolution, and most of them will do a better job than nearest neighbor. So there's only a win if the DVD player does a better job with the scaling than the TV or projector would have. Of course, the odds are in the DVD player's favor, because it has access to the original binary data on the disc and does not have to work with an already-decoded signal. In general these players do in fact do a better job scaling than projectors do.

I don't personally think it matters much until you get to giant screens. On my 160" screen, I use an upconverting player. The image is definitely improved, but only slightly. On all of my other TVs, I don't bother with it as there isn't much of a difference.

AACS longevity: place your bets here!

[kjots]

How long will AACS keep HD DVD secure? Two weeks? Three? Place your bets, people! Closest to the mark wins, oh, I don't know, you think of something.

Re:AACS longevity: place your bets here!

[convolvatron]

i just scanned the spec, and it looks alot like css...except*
that it has built-in support for revocation. which means that
the one weak device that leaks the key could possibly be
disabled in all future releases of content.

i dont know what this is supposed to mean for the poor people
that own a current instance of the weak device, but they
certainly spent alot of time thinking about how to do it
efficiently.

Irony

[Eli Gottlieb]

When they delay HD-DVDs because they can't get licensing for their DR-MMMMM! Now that! Is! Irony!

Re:HAH

[mysqlrocks]

Lack of DRM? Impossible, this is 2005...

Sure, they could just borrow Sony's DRM technology.

Improve Sales?

[Ruff_ilb]

Wait, I thought DRM was supposed to improve sales and market share by avioding those pesky pirates... If we're releasing whole lines of products much later because they don't support DRM, doesn't that defeat the purpose?

Ridiculous mistake

[timster]

Wow, this is a stupid error. They are blowing (or at least, reducing the impact of) one of their biggest advantages over Blu-Ray: that they were ready to go to market. All for one of the most useless features in the spec.

Come on, is there anybody who believes that DRM of DVDs was successful? What evidence is there that sales were increased due to DRM?

Re:Ridiculous mistake

[Zed2K]

DRM is not about increasing sales, its about getting studios to sign on and release movies in your format. This has nothing to do with the consumer and everything to do with making the studios happy. No studios no movies, no movies no sales.

Nice features for AACS...

[gasmonso]

Chec out these fantastic "benefits" of the AACS DRM...

* Support a superior viewing experience delivered by next generation media formats

* Enable greater flexibility to manage distribute, and play entertainment content on a wider range of devices

* Enable groundbreaking home entertainment choices and the ability to use content on PCs and a range of CE devices

* Work across a variety of formats and platforms

Too bad that having no DRM has more features. What a joke.

http://religiousfreaks.com/

So old....

[tktk]

HD DVD is old news. I'm moving on toward supporting the Next Greatest Format®.

It'll be due out in 2015 once all the standards, licensing, in-fighting and backstabbing is complete.

Sorry, typo...I mean 2051.

The prize?

[The Rizz]

...a lawsuit?

see?

[akhomerun]

see what DRM is doing? it's beginning to delay technology!

without DRM we'd probably have the next gen DVD formats by now since a huge chunk of development time toshiba and sony are just trying to get their DRM/encryption as perfect as possible so that it takes 3 weeks to crack it instead of 2.

There goes Christmas...

[Black Art]

I guess I have to get DVD-Jon something else for Christmas.