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New PS3 model drops HD Blu-ray display over component
The PS3 has gradually shed features over its lifespan -- like PS2 backwards compatibility and OtherOS. That's happening again with the latest revision of the PS3 hardware, but it's not entirely Sony's fault this time. Kotaku obtained an internal GameStop communication detailing the new "K" model of PS3 hardware, which states that an HDMI cable will now be required to display high-definition, and that component cables will no longer work. GameStop doesn't quite have all the details right, but part of that is true. "The new CECH-3000 series PS3 requires HDMI only for BD movie output in HD, in compliance with AACS standards," Sony told Ars Technica. "PS3 continues to support component output for HD gaming and streaming content." The restriction is just on high-definition video from Blu-Ray discs. So this isn't a cost-cutting measure like the removal of PS2 hardware -- it's to conform to the Advanced Access Content System, a standard for DRM developed by a consortium of media companies including ... Sony. The standard requires that devices restrict analog outputs to 960 x 540 to prevent recording from analog capture devices. The strange part, then, is that the PS3 ever supported HD Blu-ray playback through component. Digital Foundry speculates that the rule didn't kick in officially until the AACS Final Adopter Agreement in December 2010, and thus only affects PS3s produced after then. That would mean that Sony (and pretty much every other electronics company) skirted its own rule for as long as possible.
Analog sunset begins, all the new Blu-ray players will only output HD via HDMI
The chicken littles have been worried about this since long before the first Blu-ray (or even HD DVD) title was ever released, and the first step towards the analog sunset has officially come. Any new Blu-ray player announced after January 1st 2011 will only output HD via HDMI -- players that started shipping last year can still be sold until the end of this year though. If you just love component video, you might figure you'll be able to get a player today and continue to enjoy it for years to come, but maybe not. You see the studios also have the Image Constraint Token (ICT) which when set on a title will tell every and all Blu-ray players to down convert analog output to 540p. The only reprieve is that if its set on a title, it must be marked on the box, and of course it can't be retroactively set (any title you own now will continue to play exactly the same way it does on your existing players). We're waiting for final confirmation, but apparently the ICT hasn't been an option to studios until now so start looking for the icon on your latest purchases. The final stage in the sunset is 2013 when analog outputs will be removed from Blu-ray players completely, but we suspect we'll have better things to worry about by then like ultra HD or digital distribution.
Analog HD from Blu-ray isn't going anywhere
People just love to hate on DRM and honestly we understand, in fact we hate DRM as much as anyone. But like we've said in the past, as much as we hate it, we aren't willing to lie to paint it in a bad light -- the facts do a good enough job by themselves. The latest from a few chicken littles is that after December 31st 2010, Blu-ray Discs won't play in HD via analog outputs. Now anyone who's followed Blu-ray and AACS knows that the analog sunset is nothing new and is not good news. But the fact is it only applies to new Blu-ray players released after said date. So in other words it does NOT apply to all the players currently on the market. This of course means that the Blu-ray player you installed today will continue to work the same ways it does today for years to come. Now to make matters worse, some have confused the AACS's analog sunset policy with the Image Constraint Token. While both are bad for consumers, they aren't related. The analog sunset defines the types of outputs a Blu-ray player has, while the ICT is per title and affects all Blu-ray players no matter when they were manufactured. The other important point about the ICT is that studios have had the ability to implement since it since the first HD DVDs shipped, but has never been used. Each studio announced its plans not to use the ICT for the foreseeable future, but the rumor is that the ride might be over this year, or next. The only good news about the ICT is that the outside of the box must be marked if its used, so at least you know before you buy. Bottom line is that any player or disc you buy today will be playable as long as you own it. So as long as the player doesn't break, it'll continue to output HD via its analog outputs and any Blu-ray disc will continue to work the same way it did when you bought it. Everyone knows that analog will die one day -- and for good reason -- but lets not run around and pretend that the Blu-ray players and discs we buy are going to somehow self destruct any time soon.
At this point it doesn't look like Managed copy will ever get here
Oh Managed Copy, the feature that made such a big stink so early on in the Format War still can't seem to become a reality. It was bad enough that it took until the very last version of the AACS to even be defined. Now here we are six months later and although last month all the studios have signed the new AACS license, Managed Copy doesn't seem any closer. It doesn't matter that all the discs being shipped today support it, because evidently the license servers aren't anywhere near being operational. In fact the only thing that has seemed to have happened in the last six months -- other than discs shipping today that support it -- is that we caught a demo of it from Pioneer in September at CEDIA and Cyberlink was telling people at CES that PowerDVD will support it this year. Don't get us wrong, we still think it's coming, but it just need to go ahead and get here already.
Managed Copy hits Blu-ray Discs December 4th, but you still can't use it
The egg had to come before the chicken right? Well either way, one of 'em came first and in the case of the latest Blu-ray feature, Managed Copy, the Blu-ray Discs will come before the hardware. Less than five months since AACS was finalized and the details of Managed Copy were revealed and so far we've only seen one demo and not a single product announcement. This doesn't surprise us, but AACS-LA is apparently surprised because although all Blu-ray Discs sold after December 4th have no choice but to allow at least one copy to be made, the requirement to label the packaging as such has been postponed until Spring of next year. We'd expect at least a few products that support Managed Copy to be announced at CES and although we highly doubt any stand-alone Blu-ray players will sport this feature anytime soon, we do have our hopes on PC software and expect a few movie jukebox devices like Kaleidescape -- that we won't be able to afford -- will be announced at the big show in Vegas.
Video: First working Blu-ray Managed Copy demo
Just because Pioneer isn't in the plasma business anymore doesn't mean the company is dead, and one of the new points of focus over there is on media aggregation. So part of the new do-it-all Entertainment Tap concept Pioneer was displaying today included a demo of storing Managed Copies of Blu-ray Discs on a hard drive. The copy itself was done in about 4x real time (dependent on the drive's speed) and looked great thanks to some hardware transcoding. We also appreciated the Pioneer interface that made copying the disc easy. Of course at this point this is just a demo, with no word on availability or price, but it is a start to what will one day hopefully be a better way to enjoy HD movies.
Poll: How much would you pay to make a copy of a Blu-ray Disc?
Now that Hollywood is going to finally give us a way to make a copy of the movies we buy -- and maybe rent -- we wonder how much people are actually be willing to pay. It obviously should be somewhere between free and the original cost of the disc, and while we go back and forth about the idea of paying for a copy at all, we can see both perspectives. Ultimately we're just happy to have more choices, but paying $30 for a copy of a $30 disc would obviously be no choice at all. %Poll-31185%
The plan for legit Blu-ray copies explained at Engadget HD
For those with a disc rack full of Blu-ray packages and who'd like to shove all those optical discs to the attic for a streamlined media server solution -- without resorting to other routes like downloading or cracking open AACS -- Managed Copy is finally on the way, thanks to the just finalized AACS specification, to offer an authorized option for making a copy of your Blu-ray disc. We had a nice long talk with gatekeepers AACS-LA about what to expect when compatible Blu-ray hardware arrives in 2010 and Managed Copy-enabled discs begin shipping later this year; for more details like how many copies can be made, how the DRM works and how much this might cost head over to Engadget HD and see what it all means, and hopefully when we can put away our discs for the last time in favor of a Blu-ray Jukebox.
Blu-ray's Managed Copy explained, a Movie Jukebox is possible
We'll be honest, while others were predicting how poorly implemented the new Managed Copy system for Blu-ray would be -- mostly because the studios can charge for copies -- we were dreaming of new ways we'd like to enjoy our favorite movies. With DVD's CSS, everything was very restricted; simple tasks like transferring a movie to your PMP or storing 'em all on a Media Center PC was way, way more complicated than it should be -- not to mention a violation of the DMCA. Obviously we wanted to know more, so we went straight to the source and asked the AACS-LA exactly how it'll work, as well as how it'll handle things like rent, rip and return. Surprisingly, we were actually happy after the call and contrary to what you might believe, Managed Copy was actually designed with the consumer in mind.
Blu-ray gets Managed Copy next year, requires new hardware
It took over three years, but mandatory Managed Copy is set to become a reality next year as each studio is required to sign the recently finalized AACS license by December 4th 2009, and any studio that signs early receives up to a 25 percent discount on licensing fees. What isn't mandatory, though, is hardware support, and although the current generation of players definitely won't work, most expect the majority of new BD devices to. The cost (you didn't think it'd be free, did you?) and the number of copies is up to the studio, but at least one copy will be allowed. That copy can be made via a menu on the disc and can take the form of another Blu-ray Disc or a DRM-laced Microsoft file. Up until now, Apple hasn't joined the party so no joy for iPod users -- although this could still happen. Either way, a connection to either the AACS' or studio's authorization server will be required to make it work. As cool as this all sounds, we're still skeptical; and although we'll be the first to try it, somehow we don't think it'll live up to our expectations.
AACS finalized, death to analog in 2013
Not that any of this really matters since AACS has long since been made irrelevant, but this really pulls back the reigns on anyone who thought Hollywood was making progress in its perspective on DRM. What we mean is, at a time when music is sold DRM free, Hollywood demands that new Blu-ray players made after December 31st of 2013 will no longer support analog on any AACS protected content. Of course who even knows what we'll be watching in four years, or if HDTVs will even have analog inputs by then, but what's worse is that starting in 2011, new Blu-ray players will only output SD via component, which for all intents and purposes makes component useless. The only good news in the final version of the AACS is that Managed Copy is alive and well, but a lot of good that does if no studio ever decides to use it. [Via Blu-ray.com]
SlySoft working on user friendly Blu-ray player software
There is no shortage of Blu-ray playback software for Windows, but most of it can be pretty annoying. Assuming you even have all the HDCP compliant hardware to use it, it is still pretty limited in regards to audio capabilities and then worst of all, there is all the forced video like previews and legal warnings. Lucky for us the AACS LA's worst nightmare, SlySoft, has plans to make Blu-ray playback on a computer even less painful. While AnyDVD already allows you to playback Blu-ray Discs on non-HDCP complaint hardware, in addition this should let you output uncompressed PCM audio via HDMI without the protected path that is only available in very expensive audio cards. It would also let you disable BDJ and skip straight to the start of a movie -- possibly even resuming BDJ discs. And our personal favorite is the ability to skip those annoying legal warning, of which we are actually close to reciting the one in French because we've read it so many times. No word on availability but at free, the price is right. While SlySoft is working so hard, we'd also like some Mac software to help ease Apple users' "bag of hurt."
BBC breaks down the new DRM rules for Blu-ray recorders
The reason Blu-ray recorders have migrated from Japan to the UK recently -- and why you'll likely never see them in the U.S. -- is all about the copyright holders. Danielle Nagler, head of BBC HD, hit the blogs to break down the wheres and hows of the DRM changes associated with bringing FreeSat disc HD DVRs like the Panasonic DMR-BS850 and Humax FOXSAT-HDR to market, basically meaning users are allowed one HD copy of a show, which can be played back on protected devices and connections only (transfer to portable players is planned to the future.) Follow the flow chart for the details, and figure out if it'd be worth it to make your own BD-R DVR backups so easily.[Via Pocket-Lint]
S1Digital to roll out Xonar-equipped HTPCs
We've seen (and heard) ASUS's Xonar HDAV1.3 HDMI card that is able to pass along lossless digital Blu-ray audio up close and personal, so it was only a matter of time before the hardware found its way into a custom-install HTPC. In this case, the first to market might just be S1Digital's P500 Media Center HTPC. As we said after our demo at CES, the ArcSoft + Xonar setup is a little involved, so it's probably a good fit for the custom-install world where integration legwork carries a high premium. S1Digital's free Windows 7 upgrade offer will remove the "instantly obsolete" barrier to entry, so really the only one remaining is that pesky $6,000 entry price. Any other OEMs are welcome to jump in and try to beat S1Digital to market, but we wouldn't count on a much cheaper option just yet.
CableCARD recordings and Blu-ray play at full resolution over analog outputs
Yes we know this is not news, but you'd think it was based on the various stories around the web like this one from Yahoo Tech. We don't mean to pick on this one specifically because honestly it is a very common mistake -- although this particular article is way off as the newer Macs do support HDCP -- but as draconian as CableLabs and the AACS can be, the analog hole is still open. Now that doesn't mean these DRM requirements aren't crazy or that this protected path we always hear about is a joking matter, but it is all for naught when the HD signal hits the analog outputs -- the digital outputs do require HDCP though. This means you can watch any Blu-ray Disc or digital cable program recorded with an ATI Digital Cable Tuner at full 1080i via VGA or component -- Blu-ray Discs can be played back at 1080p via VGA but component doesn't support it. Now we're not trying to say this will always be the case, as both technologies support down-rezzing via analog outputs, but as it stands now these bits have never turned on. Now to the main point of this particular article, which is why Macs don't have a CableCARD option. Our best guess would be that Elgato doesn't want to pony up the $200k for the CableLabs certification process and honestly we don't blame 'em.
SlySoft takes down BD+ DRM once more
A fresher, probably completely unbreakable version of BD+ isn't even expected until February, but SlySoft's making sure you have plenty to watch on your non-HDCP compliant display over the holidays. The newest refresh of its AnyDVD HD software (v.6.5.0.2 at last count) reportedly "decrypts copy protection on all current Blu-ray movies." In conjunction with the celebration, the outfit is also reminding everyone that it will be moving to a subscription-based update program starting in the New Year, so you've got T-minus two days and counting to buy now and secure that 20% discount.[Thanks, Erie]
ASUS demos Xonar HDAV1.3 HDMI Deluxe sound card
One might assume that it'd be easy to forget a device that was introduced way back at the front end of this year, but for HTPC owners looking for a reliable way to bitstream Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio via HDMI, this one would be impossible to shake from the memory bank. Reportedly, the card went on sale (at least in some parts of the globe) this September, but early adopters were deeply saddened by the unit's inability to bitstream. Thankfully, ASUS has heard the weeping, and it has conjured up new drivers (and the Xonar HDAV1.3 HDMI Deluxe) in order to remedy the issue. The crew at TweakTown was able to video a live demonstration in Taiwan, and they came away emphatically impressed. Shoot on down to the read link for a look at what they found.
SlySoft moving to subscription-based upgrade model
It was nice to purchase SlySoft's AnyDVD HD once and let the gurus in Antigua continually re-break whatever DRM Hollywood chose to throw out, wasn't it? After this year, you can kiss that luxury goodbye -- that is, if you continue to sit on the sidelines. SlySoft has just announced that starting on January 1, 2009, it will "change its update policy from free lifetime updates to an annual subscription fee." The good news? Anyone who buys a SlySoft product before that day will not be affected by the change. In other words, you've still got a few weeks to decide whether or not you want to join the Blu-ray backup crowd, and to make your decision easier, the outfit is offering a 20% discount on all software products (save for upgrades) through December 31st.
Tsutaya online video portal to allow HD-to-optical disc burning
For all the digital download pundits who are quick to harp on the "limited viewing window" of downloadable material, chew on this. In a move that can only be described as "miraculous progress," Japan's own Tsutaya has somehow twisted the arms of four US film companies in order to allow HD content to be recorded to Blu-ray Discs or other optical media (up to two times) for later viewing. Initially, the Tsutaya TV on acTVila will have around half of its library (412 titles and growing) available for burning, and while details are somewhat fuzzy, we are told that HDTV video can be exported "without down-conversion" to BD-Rs, DVD-Rs and iVDR-S media. Of course, AACS protection will be applied, but this is infinitely more convenient than that whole Qflix disaster. Better still, we're told that future improvements will include down-converting HD content for use on portable devices (think Digital Copy), and it's anticipated that the downloadable films will be available day-and-date with hard copy releases. The rub? Each film will cost around ¥3,675 ($40), so for now, you're still better off heading to the store. Still -- focus on the progress, people, progress.
Hollywood can already control what you record on your DVR
There has been a bit of a ruckus lately about the fact that Hollywood recently petitioned the FCC so that the ban on selectable output control (SOC) would be lifted. The articles go on to say that the this could impact the way you record with your HD DVRs, but it really isn't the case. As DirecTV HD DVR, TiVo HD and Vista Media Center owners (among others) can tell you, there are already flags out there that can either limit the amount of time you can keep a show, or prevent you from recording something entirely. The copy never flags are not supposed to be used, but it's obvious that they are, and the copy once flags get abused by some providers as a rule, rather than the exception. But SOC has nothing to do with recording on your HD DVR; SOC is all about closing the analog hole.
