2010 — the Year AACS and HDMI Kill Off HD Component Video

For home theater buffs who want (or already have) a high-def system using component-video connections, time may be growing short. Audiofan writes with this story, which begins: "Digital HD (high definition), like that enabled through HDMI and Blu-ray, is awesome. It offers amazing picture and audio quality. It allows you to conveniently connect one single cable to provide both picture and sound. It is royally going to screw up a lot of homes next year. Wait, what was that last part? After December 31, 2010, manufacturers will not be 'allowed' [to] introduce new hardware with component video outputs supplying more than an SD resolution (480i or 576i). Should this go through as planned, it's going to disable or throw a wrench in a lot of existing custom installations as soon as the end of this year." The AACS in the headline stands for Advanced Access Content System, the industry scheme to block "the analog hole" by controlling content from storage media to eyeballs.

Comments

Hmmm...time to buy

[HikingStick]

If I were one with a little extra cash (or a lot of available credit), I might just buy up a lot of the desirable components now, and then make a modest margin by reselling them on Amazon or eBay after remaining stocks dwindle.

Shrug. Only affects legitimate consumers

[Anonymous Coward]

Up to about 2001-2002 I was a legitimate consumer, but when the trend of shafting legitimate consumers became the industry standards, I went 100% piracy.
My entire entertainment system is a lean, mean, swashbuckling, pirating machine. There is no hole in which to insert a physical media; why would I need a DVD or Blu-ray source, since I have no intention of buying any discs? DVD player went to the dump with my VHS.

Now my country does levy a blank CD tax...Oh yeah, I never buy any blank discs because EVERYTHING is on Hard drives or flash cards.
I'm laughing man, because I am so not legit.

Ok, queue up the haters, I don't give a shit what any of you think.

Re:Shrug. Only affects legitimate consumers

[ScrewMaster]

It's people like you who give the movie studios one more reason to make things miserable for their law-abiding, paying customers.

As if they needed one. Their approach (and that of the music outfits) has always been to murder in the womb any media reproduction technology more advanced than the LP. Forget video ... go to the theater and get in line, sheep. That's how they think ... if a new tech is capable of making copies, they want it gone. Period. Doesn't matter what we think or want. You will consume whatever crumbs we offer, and you'll pay whatever we ask. Hell, left up the likes of Jack "Ding dong the bastard's DEAD!" Valenti the VCR would have been made illegal at the Federal level. Now, that was before anyone had even begun to distribute pre-recorded tapes that could be copied. They can't even entertain the concept that someone, somewhere, might enjoy something without paying the proper amount of juice money to a bunch of literal gangsters. Fact is, these sociopaths just want absolute, unquestioned, end-to-end control of media consumption and if they don't get it they go crying to Congress, pay a few bribes, write a few laws that their tame Congresscritters then dutifully have signed into law. It's disgusting, the level of corruption the media companies are capable of, and anyone who feels the slightest twinge of guilt over a torrent of the latest theatrical release is just uninformed. The Internet and Bit Torrent gave, and is still giving, these jerks exactly what they deserve.

My point being that blaming people who commit copyright infringement for the actions of the media moguls is misguided. The pricks that run the content cartels are, well ... pricks.

Re:Oblig...

[AmigaHeretic]

If you really want a laugh, read the customer reviews of that cable. :-)

The Real Analog Hole

[LionKimbro]

The real analog hole is the display screen.

With all the camera and video technologies coming out, I wouldn't be surprised if creating an exact digital replica in the future was as simple as putting a camera in front of a screen and loading in a "record video on a screen" app.

Play the movie once, (perhaps even at a higher speed,) and you have a perfect copy of the video.

Sound might be a bit trickier.

Re:The Real Analog Hole

[maxwell demon]

With all the camera and video technologies coming out, I wouldn't be surprised if creating an exact digital replica in the future was as simple as putting a camera in front of a screen and loading in a "record video on a screen" app.

You think so?

HDMI = PITA

[Fishbulb]

Due to the enforced end-to-end DRM nature of HDMI, switching components can be a pain in the ass. I've had no end of trouble getting HDMI switching correct. It seems that if a component is already on before my receiver is up, or switched to that component, that HDMI won't negotiate correctly and often requires the whole chain to power off and power back on.

Not that it prevents the piracy that HDMI exists solely to prevent...

yeah, reall tricky.

[Anonymous Coward]

For starters your would need a camera that has the resolution to see every pixel without interpolation. Then how do you get the correct pixel color value after it's been corrupted by 1) ambient light, or if you are in a dark room 2) the light from the adjoining pixels? Perfect copy? Hardly. Once a signal becomes analog (from the pixel to your eye/CCD) it's impossible to be perfect.

Re:Just buy the unofficial ones

[Joe U]

It remains that HDCP has not been cracked.

Publicly. A while ago someone figured out there was a fundamental weakness in HDCP and didn't publish, but hinted at where to look.

Re:Why force the market?

[Anonymous Coward]

Depends on if you're talking Depression, Prohibition, or both. Quite frankly if there's one thing we learned from both of those, it's that if you take something away from people completely, then give them back only a fraction of it while saying it's 'for the good of society' they'll aquiesce and you can control that thing more thoroughly and more quickly than if you attempt to change it slowly, or control it completely.

There was once a time where every town had a still.... how true is that any more?
How many people can make their own hard liquor in their basement?
How many people can make their money on wall street without being nickeled and dimed by the same scammers who caused the current crash?

What are the barriers to entry to both of these items thanks to the government regulations that went into place around them?

Cable run length is a problem!

[MojoSF]

I have a 70 ft. conduit run from my equipment to the projector in the back of my room. HDMI max run length is, what? 15 ft.?

Re:Just buy the unofficial ones

[Taco Cowboy]

And my hope is that someone will start a class action lawsuit on behalf of owners who legally bought home theater equipment and legal copies of HD movies against those DRM trolls.

I am sure that many people all over the globe will support this cause.

This is getting too ridiculous.