If you have an older TV or HDTV or monitor you are screwed!

[Psionicist]

Link 1: http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/hardware/hdcp-vista.ars
Link 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDCP

You have probably heard about movie studios being annoyed with piracy. You have also probably heard about the new HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, that is the higher quality DVD's being worked on. As you can guess, both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will have lots of copy protection mechanisms, exactly like DVD. Unfortunately there's a problem with the latest copy protection technology being worked on. It's known as HDCP.

Unlike many other copy protecion technologies, such as the one that makes it difficult to create copies of DVD movies, this new one must be built in the TV/Monitor itself to work! Combined with Blu-Ray or HD-DVD players that also support this technology, it makes it difficult to copy the TV-show or movie or whatever is shown on the TV. Doesn't sound so bad you may think.

However! Because the player and the TV works together to make sure the content cannot be copied, you need a TV that supports the tech. In short, future HD content such as movies and TV-shows will simply not play, or play at a reduced quality, on current TV's, computer monitors and HDTV's that doesn't support the technology. This means if your current HDTV doesn't support HDCP, it will be completely useless in only a few years because it will show future HD content in DVD quality - at best. If you are unlucky the movie will not work at all on your TV.

I just bought a HDTV for $2000. Unfortunately, it does not support HDCP. So even while the store said my new TV will work for at least 5-8 years, it will not be able to play future HD content in HD quality. My new TV will be completely useless in a year or two. If I'm lucky future movies will play at DVD quality at most...

 

[Ranger REG]

I should thank my lucky star and the currently high price of HDTV that I did not replace my old TV yet.

Besides, how long before they will put Blu-Ray and HD-DVD to commercial application?

Hmm. Perhaps if they're savvy, they could utilize the existing V-chip technology to filter out pirated playback video. It may not work with TV with no V-chip or the current V-chip (unless found a way to install patch if the chip uses EPROM), but the second-gen V-chip (perhaps dubbed "VP" for violence and piracy) might help screen any signal that screams "this is a pirated copy!" and won't play it.

 

[ergeheilalt]

Give it time. Give it time. There will be good folks who have common sense definition of fair use who will charge to our rescue, replete with shining armor and an aura of digital salvation. Studios will try, but people with a little technical know-how will be able to bypass what ever stumbling blocks MPA or RIAA throws our way.

I'm not the least bit worried - Erge

 

[Viking Bastard]

So there'll be a couple of months of now new DVDs. I'll get by until there's a hack or
mod or something.

 

[wingsandsword]

Vote with your wallets, don't buy the new stuff.

Frankly, if people don't buy the new Blu-Ray or HD-DVD formats, and don't replace their TV's and DVD players to do so, then they won't make money off of them.

Simply put, the DVD format is well entrenched and I don't see people dumping their new DVD players en masse to buy brand new ones just because there is a format-war going on between new "secure" formats. These "secure" formats require customer buy-in to be effective, remember the DIVX debacle? Buying a new DVD player which requires you to buy a new HDTV all so you can get the newest DVD when you already have a DVD player and TV but it's not "secure" is a ticket to potential market ruin.

The DVD was originally created as a "secure" medium, and that security lasted not very long at all. The CD was "secure" when it was created because when it was created nobody in the industry thought any consumer would be able to copy it or record their own. Nothing is "secure" forever, and there quickly comes a point where you are so "secure" you've made the product nigh unusable (DRM'ed .pdf's anybody?).

Also, there is no such thing as a secure video storage medium. Ever hear of a Kinescope? It's the only reason we have copies of a lot of old TV shows and movies, you can set a camera up to record from a TV. Sync it up right and it's a pretty high quality copy. The moment this new format hits the public, you know there will be hackers in a dozen countries working on a way to decrypt the data stream, turn it into an unencrypted stream, and record a conventional DVD of the product. It only buys time, all encryption and electronic security is only temporary.

 

[Dagger75]

How about them new fangles anti-piracy CD's that came out a few years ago. The recording industry spent millions devolping them only to have it broken by a $1.50 sharpie pen marking the edge of the CD.

I have no worry, nobody is going to get rid of there DVD players over night to buy expensive equipment to watch movies they already have on TV's that work perfectly well.

 

[Digital M@]

Yep, remember 10 yearas ago when they siad, buy HDTV now or you will not be able to get TV in the future. Well, I have bought a new TV since then and it is not HD and it seems to work fine. Since the DVD industry brings in so much $$$ for the movie industry, I hardly believe they will stop supporting the masses. First of all, rental stores would go out of business if a large percentage of the population could not watch their movies on their TVs. Second, the movie industry does not want to, under any circumstances, stop the momentum behind the DVD sales monster. One of the first things you learn in sales and marketing is take adavantage of someone currently in the buying mood.

 

[Ranger REG]

Vote with your wallets, don't buy the new stuff.

Frankly, if people don't buy the new Blu-Ray or HD-DVD formats, and don't replace their TV's and DVD players to do so, then they won't make money off of them.

If this boycott is for copy protection technology for current owners of DVD players and TVs, I may join you.

But the allure of those second-gen DVDs is more capacity, meaning you could put the one of the extended edition LOTR film on one disc not the existing two.

Meh, I'm waiting for the public to wise up and force retailers to make HDTV, plasma, LCD, flat-panel more affordable (i.e., 36-inch flat TVs for less than $600 standard price). But when you have customers that goes ga-ga for "collectible" products, willling to pay $10 a month to play a game software online, and $50 for a full-featured cell phone/PDA, my confidence in the public's IQ is next to nil.

Forget humaniti, I'm waiting for the next evolution of intelligent life form.

 

[mojo1701]

But the allure of the second-gen DVDs is more capacity, meaning you could put the one of the extended edition LOTR film on one disc not two.

But then you don't have an excuse for a pee break.

 

[Ranger REG]

But then you don't have an excuse for a pee break.

Perhaps, but you gotta give props to the guy that invented the Pause button. Without it, I'd be blue in the face and yellow below my waist.