dtcp
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Fujitsu's MB88395 HD-over-Firewire controller hits the road
HD video is headed for your auto, and just like your home, you need to be able to soak up those pixels from more than one seat. To keep manufacturers from having to pull HDMI cables through the door panels and running boards, Fujitsu has the MB88395 controller (catchy name, right?) for streaming your entertainment around the cabin over a DTCP-protected 1394 network. At the heart of Fujitsu's silicon is the SmartCODEC, which can take a decompressed 1280x720 pixel video stream at 885Mbps and compress it down to 249Mbps with only a couple of milliseconds of delay. Never mind that Blu-ray only spits out a maximum data rate of 54Mbps, the analog hole comes through again -- just like in the home. Don't you just love copy protection?
WirelessHD nails down content protection spec
WirelessHD has finished its own content protection system, under the guise of Hollywood's big studios, Digital Transmission Content Protection (DTCP). The idea behind DTCP is establishing that content protected under another system -- like DVD's CSS or Blu-ray's AACS -- it will retain that same copy protection after it's transmitted, while still allowing streaming and copying from one device to another. Moving beyond simple wireless displays, this allows for easy wireless transmission of managed copies to DVRs, portable media players, etc. Ordinarily, we'd be rather averse to anything the MPAA has had a hand in, but we're cautiously optimistic if managed copy can actually become more than a theory. Punch the read link for a look at the specs and see if our trust has been misplaced. Of course, they also promised we'd be seeing hardware in 2008...we're running out of time while WHDI and UWB are calling.
Sony's Vaio X, now with DTCP
Sony just gave a little bump to their Vaio X living room PCs. The VGX-XL71S features an ISDB-T digital tuner, a pair of terrestrial analog tuners, up to 1.5TB of disk, a 2.8GHz Pentium D 920, nVIDIA GeForce 6200 graphics, a dual-layer DVD recorder, up to 2GB memory, and whole host of audio and video outs including HDMI. Notable here, is Sony's expanding product support for DTCP-IP allowing you to pump your TeeVee recordings around your home network packaged in a delicious DRM wrapper. Coming at the end of the month for ¥214,000 (right around $1,880) to your local tech bodega in Japan.
