Slashdot Mirror
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.
There will still be plenty of HDMI to composite converters coming out of China, etc.
1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual.
Why attempt to force the market to change? Oh right, money. Someone stands to make a lot of money from a bunch of people being forced to upgrade.
I mean, they could just let the old tvs slowly die out and eventually noone will have a need for anything but HDMI, but where is the short term profit in that?
Somehow I still doubt it will work. People don't like being told they can't have their way and someone will find a way to give them what they want anyways.
What we have is a perfect recipe for greed!
I am the richest astronaut ever to win the superbowl.
It says that they "...will not be 'allowed' [to] introduce ____new____ hardware..." and then says, "...throw a wrench in a lot of ____existing____ custom installations..."
How are these things related? Is the submission suggestion that your component video output will suddenly cease to work? Or are they trying to make the leap of logic that old displays will not have any new gizmos to connect to them? I've never seen a piece of display equipment that couldn't be connected to an HD source through some trickery with adapters or an upscaler etc. What's the worry here?
Where is this happening? Dare I assume the United States? Epic description fail.
I'm sure there will be a $1000 cable from Monster that has 'no analogue holes'. "Use this for your composite video to ensure you get the best composite signal with no analogue holes" Buyers will SWEAR their 480i show 'looks as good as HD'. I love Monster Cable, they collect 'stupid tax'.
The Wii can still put out whatever they want over RGB and there is no law stating your device (TV) can't accept RGB as an input and still be included..
It states anything playing licensed MPAA content over RGB will be forced to be artificially limited to 480i.
Now what if you have your own video over 480i on say a camcorder or on a BR and would like to use RGB? That I do know if the law or the technology will differential that from "protected" content.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
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.
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
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.
I seem to remember the same argument with Region Codes and DIVX. People voted with the wallet last time, why would this time be any different?
Even if they do get their way, all they will do is create a cottage industry of security-defeating technologies. And like always, the real pirates who make tons of money selling counterfeits will find ways around it.
It's the actual consumer that can't watch that latest DVD because of DRM that doesn't quite work right that get screwed.
- Brett
An overpriced underperforming platform get bypassed in favor of digital media players with increasing sizes of flash storage or hd storage.
Its a story of a clever technology undermined by its own advocates. Why buy a blu-ray player that may not play new favorites 3 months
from now when you can get a digital download. The old tech people may stick with DVD while the new tech people may switch
over to direct digital download. If Im gonna hook my player up to a network to get firmware updates, I might as well just get a network
media player.
There is so much streaming stuff out there now, torrents of stuff ripped from streams and paid downloaded movies that optical storage is not really necessary or useful anymore. I have never had more problems with optical media than anything else, discs that go bad after a certain time, coasters and silly copy protection schemes.
Blu-ray is the latest mainstream optical storage has to offer and it's a nasty proprietary format pushed forward by the notorious DRM worshippers that are Sony. The discs are too expensive and fewer people are going out to buy movies. There isn't much point either since when you buy it it's not even yours.
Unless low-cost holographic storage becomes available without restrictions or DRM I'd say optical storage has had it's day. and anyone developing optical storage these days has to be in the least position to force DRM on the market. The SD card guys have had much more luck with peddling DRM to the masses and I expect that SD-DRM usage will become widespread any day now
I typically try to express some kind of intelligent or informed opinion on /. stories, but all I can come up with here is, "Screw you, AACS." I have not yet moved to Blu-Ray or an HD TV, and this makes me much less likely to want to. Bastards.
Though not exactly on topic, I feel like I should post this like I always do...
"24K gold-plated connectors help protect the cable's optical lens to ensure consistent signal transfer"
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Rocketfish%26%23153%3B+-+8'+Digital+Optical+Cable/8315147.p?id=1174694191675&skuId=8315147&st=optical
None of this says HDTVs have to abandon analog inputs. There will continue to be models that feature them. It's more about Blu-Ray players and other devices that decode AACS protection on video not being able to output analog signals. The HDTV is the receiver, not the sender.
because one way or another, you'll get screwed?
Huh? We need a "poster misunderstood the point of the article" flag.
Purely FYI: AC means this cable. Thanks for the tip on monoprice, had not heard of them before. Geek fail.
Liberal? Conservative? Compare perspectives at Left-Right
I think your setup is perfectly reasonable. How much moralizing do you see companies go through when they employ slave laborers to make goods or outsource your job to some third-world worker for a pittance? They are taking things away from others just because they can, so why shouldn't you do the same?
Slashtards go on about how it's okay because "corporation are amoral" and they "have a responsibility to make as much money for their shareholders as possible." If that is the case, then it's perfectly sensible to do the same thing yourself. Pirating is cheaper than buying, and allows me to have more money for other uses, therefore it is the right thing to do.
As they have sown, so they shall reap. All hail the false idol of money and bow before the might of the corporate gods.
The SD resolution you'll be restricted to is NOT 480i. It's 540p (960x540 in Widescreen). It's still better than DVD resolution (720x480 non-square pixels).
Hands in my pocket
Component video cables are hardly ubiquitous. Lots of people have never even seen them and even less could tell you what they were if you asked. The majority of people with HDTVs bought a $150 HDMI cable along with them.
Whale
Any manufacturer who wants to make his TVs attractive to the millions of people who already use component video inputs from their existing DVD/Blu-ray players, cable boxes, Wii's etc. In other words, all of them.
The reason they can enforce this is because they can refuse to issue patents related to Blu-ray to any manufacturer that does not agree to their terms, which a blatant abuse patent system.
The purpose of patents are to promote the development of novel ideas, and the primary mechanism for doing so is to allow the original inventor to be compensated when these ideas are used. A government-granted monopoly is completely unnecessary to accomplish these goals, and is a horrible anachronism in a free market society.
Patents should be reformed to require all grantees to license their patents to anyone who is willing to pay a reasonable and non-discriminatory fee. This would at least solve the problem of patents being abused to force agendas and limit competition, while still achieving the goal of compensating inventors.
Content and components developed and made by legitimate providers should, in theory, be better then simply just DLing, connecting the HDMI to your laptop and calling it a day. That's of course a pipe dream - pirated components and content is always going to be slightly better, but is this really the time to make the legit side even worse? I've been hearing they're not exactly tolling in dough and this won't really hurt anyone willing to use non-licensed components, only those who bother to actually pay them (otherwise known as the last people you want to alienate further).
This is just the first time they've removed the old standard by legal caveat, rather than simple obsolescence.
Component can easily handle very high definition, but it won't be allowed because (snicker) of course it's only possible to (chortle) copy video if you (guffaw) have access to an analog data stream of it. (HA HA HA !!!!! snort)
I mean, it's just not going to be possible (tee hee) to make an unlocked copy (ha ha) of the video at its full resolution.
BWAAHAHAH!!!!! Sorry, sometimes I kill myself.
Don't you worry none, as soon as BluRay turns on this flag there'll be an MKV extractor and you won't have to fret about this silly flag nonsense.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
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.
Don't confuse a cable worth $10 you bought for $100, with the placebo effect. Ones and zeros look the same to a TV with glasses or without.
I can almost see the day when I will turn off the television for good and I used to buy a lot of movies but now that is rare. The entertainment industry is walling itself off from it's own audience. I don't see how that is going to help them. All the technology is focused on the people who do not buy, the people who do buy keep getting shafted so they will stop buying also. DRM won't save the industry once it no longer has an audience.
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...
So once again we have more hoops for paying customers to jump through and perhaps have their legally purchased content automatically downgrade itself in order to "protect" the MPAA and member companies. Meanwhile everyone who has given up on the ridiculously outdated and self-defeating content distribution system suffers no inconvenience whatsoever.
The further along this train wreck progresses the more my outrage turns into bemused detachment. I haven't bought any non-indie media in quite a long time now (occasionally I catch a movie or concert). I do feel somewhat sorry for the people who haven't figured out how totally messed up the system is and are going to be badly affected by this, but I just can't bring myself to the point of actual outrage over it any more.
How many people are going to just give up trying to be "good consumers" and switch over to piracy based on this? I would expect it will be far more people than will be dissuaded from participating in casual "copyright infringement" by trying to make backup copies of their media or god forbid just trying to watch a movie they bought on the wrong type of TV.
I have no intention of ever buying into BluRay precisely because of the ability to play these sort of anti-consumer games. Wake me up when they start their attack on HD OTA broadcasts.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
Lot's of comments already so probably nobody will see this but it's been said before and it's the most basic truth that the MPAA and RIAA et. al. need to come to grips with eventually:
If it can be read it can be copied.
The only way to prevent people from copying their precious Hi-Def movies and super awesome digital music is to prevent them from PLAYING them. Which in a sick and twisted sort of way appears to be what they are slowly trying to accomplish.
There are plenty of over the air broadcasts which are 1080i. All old TV antennas are digital and HD compatible. It is just hype that you need a new one.
Star Trek, there maybe hope.
Creating artificial scarceness to raise prises?
That's what copyright is. It's not a normal market by any stretch of the imagination. If market forces were to take hold, competition would drive the price of copies of digital goods to zero, since the marginal cost is zero.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Most businesses in which need to run a signal a long distance need to use a Cat5 to Component system. My family owns three businesses and they all use a system in which cat5 is ran to all three of our TVs and converted to component right before reaching the TV.
As much as HDMI is great it simply is not as good as component for running an HD signal over a long distance. Component is much better with cat5 because it is split into 3 cords. That way you Cat5 can easily handle the signal. However Cat5 is insufficient for carrying the entire signal if your using HDMI.
The AACS should not have the authority to break so many people's installations. We certainly can't afford to take out our nearly one thousand dollar system of splitters and converters and I'm sure many businesses can't either.
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.?