managed-copy
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Joe Belfiore interview on WMCE - Engadget
In case you missed it, Engadget ran a great interview with Joe Belfiore on all things WMCE, Vista, HD-DVD and more on Thursday evening. Stephen Speicher got a chance to chat with Joe and the first part of the interview provides the Microsoft insight into topics we've been bantering around as late. Joe provides clarification as well as rationalization on the costly CableCARD certification process for both large and small OEMs. Microsoft's dealings with the satellite television industry get some attention, which is good news for you DIRECTV subscribers. If you were looking for Microsoft's involvement and reasons for Managed Copy (required in HD-DVD, but optional in Blu-Ray), that's in there too. All in all a great first part to the interview with something for everyone interested in high-def.
Managed Copy and Xbox 360 - Chris Lanier
So if and when Microsoft intros an HD-DVD player for the Xbox360, how will Managed Copy come into play? That's a good question asked by a Green Button reader and Chris Lanier, a Microsoft MVP, gives his thoughts. Since AACS supports Windows Media DRM and WMDRM-ND, or networked device flava, there's a good chance that Managed Copy won't have a major impact, but it likely depends on if Windows Media Extender software is updated to support streaming AACS content. Our money is on "Yes, it will".One interesting point that Chris makes: Microsoft will need to release a video cable with HDMI for the Xbox360. We saw that one coming a mile away, but in reality there was no reason to have one available at launch time.
CES: How the hell am I supposed to make this stuff work together?
Connecting. It seems like companies had no problem doing that at CES. Everybody was in a partnership with everybody else and was in a hurry to tell people about it, I'm not even going to make the lame high school compariso...oops. But seriously, after all the talking is done, I still don't know what is going to work with what, or how. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like for the average consumer this year, because this stuff is gibberish to me. Let me run down a list just of the things I'm left with far more questions than answers about.Intel: Viiv: I still don't know what this is. I know that Intel has partnered with everyone and their mother. (Seriously, at this point I wouldn't be at all surprised if I visited home and found that I needed at the least a software upgrade before I could eat some DRM protected home cooking). The questions I need answered are, will I absolutely need to buy an Intel PC to take advantage of this content? How will I take advantage of it, can I build my own Viiv PC? And what does this mean anyway? Microsoft: Congratulations, the Xbox 360 is getting HD-DVD playback. How much, how will it connect to my 360 and my TV and when can we expect it, until you answer those questions I'm not excited in the least. Is Wintel really dead? Viiv relies on Windows Media Center, but Microsoft is partnering with AMD on their competing AMD Live standard, (btw, everything I said about not knowing what Viiv is, goes double for AMD Live). Now that Google is using DivX, is Microsoft going to add support for streaming to the Xbox 360 or am I going to have to wait for a mod chip? Continue on for questions for Google, Sony, HANA or provide your own answers/questions.