Switched On: Hi-Def and Dumb
posted September 7th 2005 5:13PM
In the long-running rivalry between the PC and consumer electronics worlds to provide the best entertainment experience, both sides have recently been dealt blows by an increasingly paranoid content industry. The Blu-Ray group, made up of three performance artists named Ray whose Vegas show has been voted best on the Strip, recently announced that it would add more stringent copy protection to its high-definition DVD successor in order to woo studio support. Blu-Ray discs may even be able to render compromised players unusable, after which they will doubtless sprout ninja star blades, emit a piercing battle cry, and eject themselves from such players with a force deadly enough to decapitate most pets.
Similarly, Microsoft is planning to put a sandbox around media playback in Windows Vista amidst a host of technology initiatives by itself and partner-against-crime Intel to ensure that content stays far from the screens of P2P file-sharing service users. According to a CNet article, Microsoft did not give in to everything that Hollywood wanted, which we can only presume included automatic deductions from your bank account to buy soundtracks and sequels and keyboard-administered electrocutions until you break down and cry "Gigli is the finest cinematic masterpiece ever filmed!"
Members of the MPAA were fortunate enough to observe largely on the sidelines as their sister companies in the RIAA struggled to fight the original Napster bloodbath. Hollywood�s sudden skittishness about the next generation of playback devices is generally attributed to their ability to play back high-definition content. Sure, DVDs looked good especially compared to those fuzzy tapes. As far as Hollywood is concerned, though, it is on the precipice of releasing its crown jewels into the grubby hands of the thieving public (the same desperados who created the multi-billion dollar home video market). If someone figures out a way to make a perfect copy of a high-definition original, Hollywood forever forfeits its most valuable assets (see earlier Gigli comment).
The fatal flaw with this reasoning is that the high-definition version of a film will not need to be cracked in order for Hollywood to lose virtually all of its sales potential � as dubious as it is � to committed pirates. Many pirated DVDs sold on the streets of major cities, for example, are incredibly poor. I recently saw the opening credits of a bootlegged DVD shot so that the left and right sides of the frame were simply not visible � no pan and scan here.
Meanwhile, as purists bemoan the lack of true high-definition prerecorded media in the digital world, progressive-scan and upconverted DVDs have been compelling enough to help upsell many an HDTV. Those who are taking the time to rip DVDs frequently convert them into more efficient formats so that they take up less space. Video is creeping into PSPs, 1.5� OLED screens on MP3 players, and of course cell phones taking advantage of advanced data networks. People are all too willing to forego hi-def if the price � or even the context � is right.
Copy protection on DVDs was a smart move on the part of studios if the aim was discourage ripping. But as tough as they may want to make the locks surrounding their high-definition content, pirates will be all too eager to break into vaults guarding less valuable booty.
Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis at NPD Techworld, a division of market research and analysis provider The NPD Group. Views expressed in Switched On, however, are his own. Feedback is welcome at fliptheswitch@gmail.com.
Money for nothin,
Chicks for free,
I want my 1080p!
"they will doubtless sprout ninja star blades, emit a piercing battle cry, and eject themselves from such players with a force deadly enough to decapitate most pets."
I'm sure this will be marketed as a "feature". (Now your cat is 25% more space-efficient, thanks to Blu-Ray!)
The problem isn't that the industry would lose money if they dropped all copy protection, it's that they would not be able to ensure they squeezed every penny from everyone they could. There's a difference between making a profit and maximizing your profit. Pirates will pirate one way or another. They're not really maximizing profits, they're scaring away customers like me who want to view their paid for content on other machines besides my DVD player.
Is the name Switched On a reference to Stereolab's compilations?
OK here's how you rip HD movies, even with AACS, this cracks me up, it's not even out yet and it can be circumvented. get one of these http://engadget.com/entry/1234000230050640/ a Spatz-Techs DVIMAGIC which removes the HDCP/AACS from the DVI signal, then plug it in to one of these http://www.gefen.com/kvm/product.jsp?prod_id=3183
it converts the DVI signal to HD-SDI (broadcast HD) then get one of these http://www.aja.com/products_kona.html
it captures HD-SDI, so now you have the HD signal digital all the way captured on your PC, author a blank Blu-ray disc and hey presto a perfect copy. total cost about 4-5K peanuts to organised pirates. they might figure out the key used on the HDCP stripper and revoke it, buy a new one, China will be churning them out by the bucket-load.
The only way you can make a perfect digital copy is by decrypting the high definition video before it is even decompressed. Your solution, milktoast, is equivalent to playing an MP3, saving the wave output, then re-encoding it to MP3, which degrades quality.
very good idea #6
Very good point #7
However, the #6 idea will result in a better quality copy than a HD videocammera pointed at a screen (better than most pirate videos then).
... And I guess just like DVD+/-R 4.5Gb media vs double layer 9Gb media, it will be a long time before affordable double (/quad?) layer recordable BluRay media become avliable so there will be a drastic shirnk in data rates required from commercial Bluray movie disks..
...so the artifacts generated by #6's approach will be negligbale compared to the artifacts from using such a significantly lower bit rate.
I can see many users wanting to convert a ~30Gb dual layer Bluray movie to fit on a DVD-R using WMV 10 or DivX etc. (to play back on a PC) or single layer Bluray (15Gb?) to playback on a Bluray player.
Either way you are lookign at least a 50% shrink so #6 method is still very useable, alhtough mathetically not as pleaseing.
It is like going from 160-320kb/s VBR MP3 to 16bit/44kHz Wav to 80-160kb/s VBR MP3
vs.
direct MP3 to MP3.
My idea.....
In the early days of 9Gb DVD back up it was hacked PC DVD playback software -> uncompressed AVI (by captuirng each DVD frame as a bitmap) -> Mpeg2/4, at a bit rate that would fit on a 0.7Gb CD.
I can see hacked pc playback software as again being the weak link.
The push to hack DVD encryption directly on the PC and MPEG2 transcode the data occured alongside the sale of cheap DVD media and burners.
So likewise I think transcoding of Bluray movies will be much later.
No one's going to buy a DVD player they have to constantly keep connected to the internet in order to use. I know I won't. Remember how well DivX went over?
The current trend of manufactures locking down software and hardware will continue as long as people buy it. Let your consumer voice be heard and don't buy it if its locked down. As Alex pointed out, I too wish to see the content that I've purchased on other devices than the original format that it was bought in. The more I read about Windows Vista and now the next gen of DVD's the less I want to buy them. I intend to make my consumer voice heard and hope you do as well, sure you may not have the best stuff first but if these locked down new products don't sell, new less constricted products will follow and do well and major companies will be forced to follow suite.