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terpfan1980
terpfan1980
Join Date 08/2004
+13

Microsoft and Hollywood conspire on hardware/software

New standards will require completely new equipment because of Digital Rights technology

October 5, 2005 9:11:53 AM from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Got a nice computer, with nice monitor you bought recently thinking you'd be getting ready for the next generation of entertainment viewing -- High Definition DVDs and the like?

Think again, it seems that because of digital rights technologies and requirements, unless you upgrade your operating system and your hardware you will be lucky if you see a blurry screen.

Thank Hollywood and their insistence on digital rights technologies for this one folks. If you want High Definition DVDs and other coming high tech gadgetry, you'll be buying all new equipment that includes built-in support for copy protections and digital rights management. You'll be completely controlled in what equipment you can use, with what features, resolutions, and other specifications that are set entirely by the fine folks in Hollywood, and Microsoft will be along for the ride selling new operating systems that include the rights management technologies that will lock you into those features.

There may be some choices, and certainly the hacker communities will come out with homebrew versions of players for operating systems like Linux, but it may take some time, and the hardware very well may refuse to cooperate without confidential information and specifications that most likely won't be made public to the people that would create their own drivers for such hardware.

You have to love the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and the monster it has helped Hollywood to create. (NOT!)


Original article from PCWorld.com (or snippets from it) follow. Please check the original article and read it entirely for complete details.




Most Monitors Won't Play New HD Video

Vista's content protection will block or blur high-def movies on today's displays.

Scott Spanbauer
From the November 2005 issue of PC World magazine
Posted Tuesday, October 04, 2005

If you dropped a bundle on a high-end computer display or HDTV, you could be in for an unpleasant surprise when you slip your new high-definition DVD of Star Wars: Episode III into your Windows Vista PC. Vista, the next version of Windows that's slated to appear in about a year, will feature a new systemwide content protection scheme called PVP-OPM (see box below). If your monitor doesn't work with PVP-OPM, all you'll likely see is either a fuzzy rendition of your high-def flick or Hollywood's version of the Blue Screen of Death--a message warning you that the display has been 'revoked'.

High-Def Hard-Liners
Forthcoming Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs promise higher resolution than a standard DVD's 480-line maximum. But to protect its high-quality content from pirating, the film industry, along with disc and hardware makers, has created an umbrella content protection scheme known as AACS. If Windows is to play the new discs, Microsoft has little choice but to support AACS, which is where PVP-OPM comes in. According to Microsoft, PVP-OPM will prevent pirates from attaching recording devices directly to the PC graphics card's DVI or HDMI video outputs in order to capture a pristine digital copy of the disc's otherwise encrypted content. A related component, PVP-UAB, will prevent savvy computer owners from installing data capture cards in order to grab high-def movies straight off the PCI Express bus.
Unfortunately, PVP-OPM will also shut out plenty of law-abiding video watchers whose current displays aren't future-proof. To comply with the film industry's protection scheme, PVP-OPM employs HDCP technology to determine whether graphics boards and displays are allowed to output and display high-def video. If HDCP sees a blocked display (such as a video capture device) or one that does not support HDCP (including any HDTV with only analog connectors), it prevents output or reduces the video resolution until the offending display or protected content is removed from the system.


... more at linked article (please see original article for complete story)
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terpfan1980
Dr Guy
Join Date 09/2004
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Reply #1 October 5, 2005 10:03:07 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
They sound more like the Dodo birds than a going concern.  They can do what they want to.  I dont have to buy their crap.  We'll see how rich they get selling no units.
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terpfan1980
terpfan1980
Join Date 08/2004
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Reply #2 October 5, 2005 10:41:55 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
They sound more like the Dodo birds than a going concern. They can do what they want to. I dont have to buy their crap. We'll see how rich they get selling no units.


I seriously hope that is what happens Dr. Guy, but sooner or later the clowns will win. They'll hit critical mass somehow, push the hardware and software upon us someway, and before we know it, we'll be wondering how we got so bamboozled.

They sneak the DRM stuff in little by little, and they start pushing out content that uses copy protections little by little while we pay no attention and while the generally uninformed masses are not paying attention to what is going on. Those uninformed masses wind up buying the new hardware, the new media and software, and use it while the DRM features sit quietly waiting to be activated.

Then at some point the DRM features become more onerous, and we wonder why the disc we bought last week won't play, or why it does, but looks like crap. And the stores that we bought it from refuse to take it back because we opened the package and they still continue to fear that we've copied whatever it was in some way.

It's a recipe for disaster if we don't pay attention and object in advance and remind ourselves not to buy the crap. Be an informed consumer and avoid the DRM'd materials. Sit on the wallet and refuse to spend money to buy content or hardware that can't be used freely and in the ways we as consumers want. If we do that, then perhaps Hollywood will get the message that they seem to be continuing to ignore right now -- that we aren't buying their crap, we aren't feeling sorry for them over their slump in the movie and record businesses, and we don't appreciate their strong armed tactics in their "war" against piracy.
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terpfan1980
Dr Guy
Join Date 09/2004
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Reply #3 October 5, 2005 10:57:33 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums

I seriously hope that is what happens Dr. Guy, but sooner or later the clowns will win. They'll hit critical mass somehow, push the hardware and software upon us someway, and before we know it, we'll be wondering how we got so bamboozled.

I am sure they will try.  But like the article today (http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/ptech/10/04/music.copy.reut/index.html ), ways will be found around it, and eventually, there will be a rebellion.  When the money dries up from DVD sales, they will be forced to.  It will be a long and painful process, but the whole reason P2P exists is due to the myopia and stupidity of RIAA and MPAA.  They can try to bail the titanic with a sieve, but they will lose in the end.

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terpfan1980
greywar
Join Date 05/2003
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Reply #4 October 5, 2005 11:01:54 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums

I am not too concerned about it. Pirates break that stuff before it hits the market usually. Just ends up costing people who have never pirated anything money and also making some of them into "pirates" themselves.

You can blame business degrees for this one since it is hard to convince a Business major that just because 300,000 copies of a movie were downloaded from the net that DOESN'T mean that they would have sold 300,000 more copies if they just had better copy protection. You might have sold 1000 more (not likely) but movie pirates tend to not be the kind of folks who buy anyways. They don't care about lower quality and lack of extras. If they can see your movie for free they will and if not then they just won't see it.

The day Harvard figures that out, they start saving a lot of money on useless DRM research.

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