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HD DVD to Screw Early HDTV Adopters
orionware writes "Apparently the folks who designed the Advanced Access Content System (AACS)for the new HD DVD formats have decided to stick it to the early HDTV adopters. If your set used the older component video, expect to watch your new HD DVD at a quarter of the resolutions. To thwart piracy of course." From the article: "AACS says the new players won't output a full-HD signal from their component-video connections, since those jacks are analog instead of digital and thus have no copy protection. The 'down-rezzed' signals will be limited to a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels -- exactly one-quarter the 1,920 x 1,080 pixels that you'll get through the copy-protected digital connectors on the players. The potentially huge problem with this strategy is that the only HD inputs on a lot of older HDTVs are component video."
Such an adapter would have to break the encryption--which is, of course, a violation of DMCA.
There is a "Contact Us" form on the HD DVD Promotion Group's website.
I just told them that I would buy neither HD DVD content nor devices if it doesn't work with my two existing component/DVI HDTV television sets. I suggest you all do the same.
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
Actually, that's the bitch of it. Both the HD-DVD and Blu-ray call for a small portion of the disc that is writable only by approved and licensed players. We consumers won't have any write access to this block (in theory) and they can write whatever they want on it using the licensed DVD player. I assume this means they could write the serial number to your player on the disc, and if anyone else puts it in their player, it will refuse to play. Obviously, it will be a matter of hours until people figure out a way to:
a) make their players not write the code,
b) make their players ignore the code,
c) hack their HD and BD writers on their PC's to gain access to this "secret" block,
d) Fashion some sort of circumvention technique using duct tape,
e) some other fantastic means of circumventing this stupid policy.
Unfortunately, Joe Consumer will likely never access these tricks and will play right into the MPAA's hand. If you want proof, just Google "DVD region hack" to see all the effort that's been put into circumventing region encoding. It's all for naught, though, becuase 95% of people just blindly obey the gestapo tactics used by the MPAA
Of course, I reserve the right to be completely wring here, but that's my understanding of the situation.
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
HDTV DRM standards are still really in a state of flux. I have a digital projector I purchased around Christmas of 2004 that has full HDTV 16x9 capabilities, and includes a DVI connection to allow for straight digital content to be fed into it. I recently decided to upgrade my Comcast cable box to HDTV, thinking this would be a great combination. Even better, the Comcast cable box had a DVI connector on the back that would allow for straight digital to digital high def, with no analog conversion in the mix anywhere. I was excited that this would truly be a technical marvel (I'm one of those guys that gets excited over shit like this). I turn on the projector, turn on the cable box, jump over to the Discovery channel, and see one of the most amazingly detailed pictures I have ever seen from a tv - for about 8 seconds. Then a big box comes up blocking any further video, telling me I can't enjoy HDTV from this cable box as my projector does not include an HDCP digital rights management chip. This is something that is required to be built-in from the factory, and not something I can add later. This truly, truly pissed me off. Apparently many earlier HDTV's do not have this, as it simply did not exist at the time. I look everywhere for an intermediary device to provide this HDCP functionality while retaining the benefit of a straight digital connection, but unfortunately nothing realistic exists yet (there is a small $400+ option available in Germany, but that is out of the realm of realistic to me).
So, to make a long story short, I now have my cable box outputting its digital signal over firewire to a small media PC I built for a few hundred bucks (and doubles as my video recorder). I then have the DVI out on this going to my projector, and I am back up and running with true high def support (HBO won't come in over firewire due to other DRM issues, but I digress). I just wanted to carry on with your theme of people doing whatever they can to circumvent this stuff, but I think it finally just allowed me to vent about what a pain in the ass technology this is proving to be.