The Clicker: Microsoft's OPM for the masses
posted July 14th 2005 7:16PM
A lifetime of computing has taught me one thing: shortly after a new operating system hits the shelves, I end up
upgrading my computer.
Oh sure… I do my best to limp along with the "antiquated" hardware. After all, my computer is always well within the
minimum specs. However, despite my best efforts, the story always unfolds the same way: I begin to crave the speed. I
drool over the new features. I want the latest and greatest. In short, I fold like a cheap suit, and I upgrade.
The one bright spot in the upgrade process has always been the monitor. Like the North Star, the monitor is always
there to ease the transition. I look to it for comfort, and it stares back at me as if to say, "It's OK, Buddy; I'm
here for you. You'll always have me." Sure, monitors can get a bit dated (think dirty beige 14-inch CRT), but
when have you had to upgrade your monitor to avoid functional problems in the new OS?
That all changes with Longhorn.
Why? With Longhorn, Microsoft
will begin pushing opium. Well, technically its OPM. However, opium might be a good option for those livid that the
video content being sent to their pristine 24-inch Dell LCD monitors is purposefully being fuzzied (more on that
later).
So what is OPM? The successor to Microsofts rarely-mentioned COPP (Certified Output Protection Protocol), PVP-OPM
(Protected Video Path Output Protection Management) is the first play in Microsofts game plan to ensure that
protected content stays protected. PVP-OPM performs two main functions. First, it detects the capabilities of the
display devices attached to the computer. For instance, does the DVI LCD monitor that youre using have HDCP
(High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection)? Second, it manages what, if anything, gets sent to those devices.
If youre one of those rare people whose display is equipped with HDCP, youre fine. However, in the world of
computers, those users are few and far between. While HDCP has become the de facto standard for display copy-protection
in televisions, its penetration in the computer display market would be pleased to merely be called
anemic. Whether youre plunking down money for one of the new ultra-fast LCD displays with 4ms response times or youre
becoming the envy of neighborhood with
Dells UltraSharp 2405FPW
widescreen display, youre buying a monitor that wont play nice with premium content in Longhorn.
So what will happen when you try to play premium content on your incompatible monitor? If youre lucky, the content
will go through a resolution constrictor. The purpose of this constrictor is to down-sample high-resolution content to
below a certain number of pixels. The newly down-sampled content is then blown back up to match the resolution of your
monitor. This is much like when you shrink a JPEG and then zoom into it. Much of the clarity is lost. The result is a
picture far fuzzier than it need be.
Thats LUCKY?
It sure is when the alternative is a black screen. If OPM determines that your monitor falls below the security
restrictions (i.e. isnt DVI or HDMI w/HDCP), you could be greeted with a polite message explaining that [your
monitor] doesnt meet security requirements.
Who determines when you get the restrictor and when you get the black screen? You guessed it: the content owner
does.
But I use VGA with my monitor, you say. Too bad. Unless you upgrade your monitor, you too will be hoping your
content provider opted for the blurry-but-visible protection mechanism.
Microsoft is quick to point out that many content providers have agreed to not totally block all analog displays.
Instead they have agreed to compromise and allow the constricted (down-sampled) versions to pass through. Still this
is a far cry from enjoying the unmolested goodness of hi-def content.
To be fair its not just Microsoft. The next generation of digital content will, by and large, be protected to the
display. Recently Toshiba released their HD-DVD specifications and have dictated HDMI/HDCP as a display requirement for
playing back high-definition content. Most expect Blu-ray to have similar restrictions.
What makes the PC situation so insidious is that nearly every monitor being sold today will fall victim to this
gotcha. Blame whomever you like (the monitor manufacturers should shoulder their portion of the blame too), just be
careful when buying a monitor these days. Or at least know that you could be setting yourself up for
disappointment.
If have comments or suggestions for future columns, drop me a line at theclicker@theevilempire.com.
And then to think that Intel sneaky is making DRM based chips!!!
http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=4915
I wonder how long it will take before Longhorn gets its 1st virus. I am going to say about 12 to 24 hours after it hits the selfs.
Very good article. This is the future folks, it goes down hill from here. When are the MS cybernetic implants coming? :)
Let M$ make their proprietary crap. They are just pushing more people away from their products. It is giving more people a reason to try an alternative such as Linux, Mac, and BSDs. I say "So Be It" I hope that the Redmond giant falls right on their greedy ass. /
Let M$ make their proprietary crap. They are just pushing more people away from their products. It is giving more people a reason to try an alternative such as Linux, Mac, and BSDs. I say "So Be It" I hope that the Redmond giant falls right on their greedy ass. /
I hope all of you apple-advocates realize that apple is working on its own drm-enabled hardware?
This is just the direction that the industry is going in, and large companies (apple, microsoft..) are being forced to comply. Well, forced is a big word, what i mean to say is: they're whores.
They'll put in crap like this, stuff that isn't to the benefit of their consumers, but rather the opposite.
Someone up there, #56 I think, asked since when we had a right to experience content however we want. I say we've had that right since there was content. When I buy a CD, what am I buying? The plastic disc? I better not be paying $20 for a one cent bit of plastic. No, as Bill Gates said in his own book 10 years ago, I am paying for the right to listen to all those songs on the CD form the time I buy it until the time that the songs can no longer be encoded. Again, I am buying the rights to LISTEN to these songs. Therefore I can listen to them on CD, OGG, MP3, AAC, etc (you get the point) and on whatever device I choose to listen to them on. I doesn't matter if CDs become obsolete and this is really why the content providers are mad. Before it was perfect, release Elvis on LP. Oh darn, LPs are obsolete. Ok, release it on cassette tape. Oh, your car doesn't play cassettes anymore? Ok, I'll put it on CD. They expected this cycle to continue so that they could continue to force you to buy the same songs over and over and over.....
But digital music changes that. If I have a CD I digitize it and there will always be software to play it. If the software is about to become obsolete, I use a conversion program that some hacker who didn't want to lose his whole music collection wrote. Bam! I no longer have to keep buying your music. And that's where they cry because (and this is a fact I heard on the news) they make most of their money not on these silly teen idols, but on re-releases of the old favorites like the BeeGees, Elvis, etc.
The same goes for DVD. First there was cassette tape, but that wears down as you watch it. So they come out with laser disc. Haha, we tricked you, it's DVDs now! But then they had a problem because a DVD never wears down. If you don't let the kids/pets play with it, you will never buy Police Academy 6 again! Crap! Um...oh yeah, let's invent HD-DVDs, yeah! I mean, you have to see Police Acedemy in HD! What's that you say? The prints are so crappy that you won't notice any difference in HD for the old movies? Go silence that luddite! You must buy buy buy!
That's why all the DRM so that when they want to they can obsolete the content and it will be against the law for us to convert it to the new version.
I hope I made a bit more of an articulate point than "boo hoo" for some of those who were complaining that no one had properly explained the problem.
To the person(s) who said this couldn't be hacked... there are hacks for iTunes that work rather well. I'm not going to mention it by name because that would make me a criminal because of DRM. But it's there if you google hard enough. From the days when Disney tried to make it imppossible to copy their video casssette tapes to the current DRM, they always try to lock us down, but we can always find a way around it. It may be harder or easier - free or an expensive import for Asia, but there will always be those who can get around it.
Switch to linux kids, it's time. release youreself from the propriety and monopoly grip of Microsoft. Enter a free world!
BTW, for newbs, try Suse linux
This is right in-line Microsoft's stated policy to integrate DRM right into the OS itself. I imagine there will be 3rd party programs (like DVD Shrink or Region Free) to get around DRM issues, but it's only a matter of time before even that approach becomes impossible. Since this kind of thing is happening in the hardware world too, the end-user's options are increasingly limited. Linux won't be immune forever - it runs on PC hardware - and Apple has already taken steps towards integrating content censoring into OS X anyway. To add insult to injury, Apple's recently announced decision to switch over to Intel chips and embrace the PC hardware model leaves no doubt that hardware will become uniform across the board for all mainstream computers on the market. This hardware mono-culture is going to be a boon for fat-cat hollywood execs and seems likely prove a disaster for the very hands that feed said fatties.
Microsoft, Apple, and other software publishers have limited options here. These MPAA & RIAA types have more financial resources, legal avenues, and political clout at their disposal than do the likes of software companies. On account of the US Government siding with Hollywood, Silicon Valley finds itself having to play the role of David facing Goliath.
I suppose the most frustrating concept about this whole mess was illustrated clearly with Napster's demise. The industry completely wasted a prime opportunity to move FORWARD in a new era, as opposed to their now-standard default choice of fighting tooth and nail to keep things in the dark ages like spoiled little brats. They had a real chance to do something incredible and change how we hear music and watch movies. All of this could have been done in a way that was mutually beneficial and fair to everyone, without the customer having to live as guilty before paying more and more to be proven innocent. But that didn't happen. The RIAA didn't buy out Napster and make it more popular than iTunes ever could be. And the MPAA isn't interested in following footsteps that haven't been taken. Instead, we got stuck with lazy and selfish whores who lament the passing good ol' days of their drug-laced youth, before technology "ruined" the industry. People so out of touch with reality that they can't - and won't - see the internet as connected world of information where they can setup shop, but as a necessary evil in their quest to grow even more bloated profits. These 12:00 flashers are the ones sinking the ships of Entertainment, but that doesn't matter because perception is reality. What do these people care that they can't play the game when they can just hold their breath until their faces turn blue or until congress changes the rules for them?
The Entertainment Industry hates technology, but they love what it does for them at the same time. Tell me that's not realistic.
get into linux. none of this ms BS.
it doesnt have this crap copy protection & cant get viruses. What are you waiting for?
try it today.