Ninjaman
08-07-2005, 01:58 PM
I knew those bastards had something up their sleeves. It's called HDMI and its a ruse to include copyprotection. Makes you wonder about buying one.
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,117346,00.asp
High-Def Recording Hassles
Instead of your VCR flashing 12:00, it ought to flash, "You can't record that."
Michael Desmond
From the October 2004 issue of Digital World magazine
« Previous Page 1 2 3 Next »
As long as there have been technologies to record and play back media, the companies that lay claim to content have done everything they can to stop you and me from enjoying it. Witness the panic from studios when the first VCRs emerged. Or consider the ill-fated DivX (pay-per-view DVDs) effort, thrown up by a greedy retailer hell-bent on cashing in on the early momentum of DVDs. It makes you wonder if Gutenberg had to fend off wild-eyed monks screaming about printing-rights management.
Those "threatening" technologies went on to become huge moneymakers for the companies that had so bitterly fought them. VHS decks launched the golden age of video rentals, where even the worst movies can turn a buck. My local video store has a Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen section. A whole section! And DVDs are an absolute gold mine for studios that have rereleased countless titles.
Advertisement
High-definition TV is now emerging as a viable technology, and products for recording HD content are emerging alongside. These hard disk-based digital video recorders (DVRs) and Digital-VHS (D-VHS) videocassette recorders can capture the full 1080 interlaced or 720 progressive video signal. Imagine recording, in full high definition, your favorite team's performance in the Super Bowl or an entire season of The Sopranos.
Port Problems
Alas, Hollywood is doing its level best to restrict the use of HD outputs on every type of consumer video gear, from set-top boxes to HD-capable DVRs. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has successfully blunted adoption of FireWire, the high-speed digital transport better known on camcorders and PCs, according to Fred von Lohmann, senior legal counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. FireWire is perfect for moving high-def content among electronics devices such as set-top boxes and DVRs. Unfortunately it does too good a job.
"It's the usual mess," says Avi Greengart, senior analyst for the Home Theater Research Service at Jupiter Research. "Hollywood would still like to live in a world where it could control how you watch any of its programming."
Click here to view full-size image. I found this truth out the hard way, when I tried recording HD with JVC's HM-DH40000U, a D-VHS VCR. The $1000 deck made prepackaged high-definition movies look stunning---Backdraft, with all its fire and action, made particular impact; you can really see a difference between DVD and HD-VHS. But I had also invested in Adelphia Cable's HD package and hoped to tape baseball games in high definition.
Fussing With FireWire
I spent nearly two days looking for a way to record HD with that VCR. But while my 36-inch Sony WEGA TV uses analog-component video ports to accept HD signals, the D-VHS VCR uses FireWire. Neither of the set-top boxes I tried--Scientific Atlanta's Explorer 3250HD or its Explorer 8000HD--would output high-definition video via FireWire.
So I called Todd McDuff, who manages the electronics department at The Superstore in Williston, Vermont. When I asked if I might borrow an HDTV tuner to connect to the D-VHS recorder, he said the store had not one piece of HD equipment with the requisite FireWire output.
And even when you do find FireWire ports, they may not work. The Scientific Atlanta 8000HD has them, but they're disabled. The PC World Test Center in San Francisco has a Comcast set-top box for TV testing; its FireWire ports work (for now), but Comcast may disable them.
Matt Stevens, an independent film producer from Connecticut, has waged a battle with media and consumer electronics companies to record HD content at full fidelity. In order to copy recorded shows to his D-VHS VCR, he purchased a Dish Network Player-DVR 921 digital video recorder, which had FireWire ports when it was introduced.
But when Stevens learned that Dish Network had quietly removed the FireWire ports from the DVR 921--preventing him from outputting to the VCR--he was livid. "I bought the DVR 921--one thousand bucks. I forced them to give me a refund," Stevens complains.
Yet another connector--the High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)--is emerging. HDMI piles copy protection onto the DVI digital connection familiar to owners of flat-panel PC monitors. HDMI does a lot of good things--like combining audio and video in a single cable and pushing enough bandwidth to support even progressive-scan 1080 resolution--but you won't find many HDMI-capable TVs or receivers for sale yet. Most important, HDMI enables studios to lock up content, meaning recording over it may be impossible--or greatly limited, depending on how the content is flagged by the broadcaster (see "Waving the Broadcast Flag").
Can't Copy That
The MPAA has pressed hard to restrict unfettered access to HD signals, fearing massive losses should content end up on the Internet. The group has even lobbied Congress to mandate that component-out ports--the only available HD connections on millions of HDTVs--be dumbed down to standard definition (SD) TV levels to prevent unauthorized copying.
In April the FCC began requiring that cable operators provide set-top boxes with FireWire outputs--a welcome development even if these ports will likely be encumbered with copy protection. However, the 8000HD set-top box likely won't receive a firmware update to enable its FireWire outputs until the end of this year or early next. Even then it will continue to bug me that I have to watch HD shows on someone else's schedule.
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,117346,00.asp
High-Def Recording Hassles
Instead of your VCR flashing 12:00, it ought to flash, "You can't record that."
Michael Desmond
From the October 2004 issue of Digital World magazine
« Previous Page 1 2 3 Next »
As long as there have been technologies to record and play back media, the companies that lay claim to content have done everything they can to stop you and me from enjoying it. Witness the panic from studios when the first VCRs emerged. Or consider the ill-fated DivX (pay-per-view DVDs) effort, thrown up by a greedy retailer hell-bent on cashing in on the early momentum of DVDs. It makes you wonder if Gutenberg had to fend off wild-eyed monks screaming about printing-rights management.
Those "threatening" technologies went on to become huge moneymakers for the companies that had so bitterly fought them. VHS decks launched the golden age of video rentals, where even the worst movies can turn a buck. My local video store has a Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen section. A whole section! And DVDs are an absolute gold mine for studios that have rereleased countless titles.
Advertisement
High-definition TV is now emerging as a viable technology, and products for recording HD content are emerging alongside. These hard disk-based digital video recorders (DVRs) and Digital-VHS (D-VHS) videocassette recorders can capture the full 1080 interlaced or 720 progressive video signal. Imagine recording, in full high definition, your favorite team's performance in the Super Bowl or an entire season of The Sopranos.
Port Problems
Alas, Hollywood is doing its level best to restrict the use of HD outputs on every type of consumer video gear, from set-top boxes to HD-capable DVRs. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has successfully blunted adoption of FireWire, the high-speed digital transport better known on camcorders and PCs, according to Fred von Lohmann, senior legal counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. FireWire is perfect for moving high-def content among electronics devices such as set-top boxes and DVRs. Unfortunately it does too good a job.
"It's the usual mess," says Avi Greengart, senior analyst for the Home Theater Research Service at Jupiter Research. "Hollywood would still like to live in a world where it could control how you watch any of its programming."
Click here to view full-size image. I found this truth out the hard way, when I tried recording HD with JVC's HM-DH40000U, a D-VHS VCR. The $1000 deck made prepackaged high-definition movies look stunning---Backdraft, with all its fire and action, made particular impact; you can really see a difference between DVD and HD-VHS. But I had also invested in Adelphia Cable's HD package and hoped to tape baseball games in high definition.
Fussing With FireWire
I spent nearly two days looking for a way to record HD with that VCR. But while my 36-inch Sony WEGA TV uses analog-component video ports to accept HD signals, the D-VHS VCR uses FireWire. Neither of the set-top boxes I tried--Scientific Atlanta's Explorer 3250HD or its Explorer 8000HD--would output high-definition video via FireWire.
So I called Todd McDuff, who manages the electronics department at The Superstore in Williston, Vermont. When I asked if I might borrow an HDTV tuner to connect to the D-VHS recorder, he said the store had not one piece of HD equipment with the requisite FireWire output.
And even when you do find FireWire ports, they may not work. The Scientific Atlanta 8000HD has them, but they're disabled. The PC World Test Center in San Francisco has a Comcast set-top box for TV testing; its FireWire ports work (for now), but Comcast may disable them.
Matt Stevens, an independent film producer from Connecticut, has waged a battle with media and consumer electronics companies to record HD content at full fidelity. In order to copy recorded shows to his D-VHS VCR, he purchased a Dish Network Player-DVR 921 digital video recorder, which had FireWire ports when it was introduced.
But when Stevens learned that Dish Network had quietly removed the FireWire ports from the DVR 921--preventing him from outputting to the VCR--he was livid. "I bought the DVR 921--one thousand bucks. I forced them to give me a refund," Stevens complains.
Yet another connector--the High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)--is emerging. HDMI piles copy protection onto the DVI digital connection familiar to owners of flat-panel PC monitors. HDMI does a lot of good things--like combining audio and video in a single cable and pushing enough bandwidth to support even progressive-scan 1080 resolution--but you won't find many HDMI-capable TVs or receivers for sale yet. Most important, HDMI enables studios to lock up content, meaning recording over it may be impossible--or greatly limited, depending on how the content is flagged by the broadcaster (see "Waving the Broadcast Flag").
Can't Copy That
The MPAA has pressed hard to restrict unfettered access to HD signals, fearing massive losses should content end up on the Internet. The group has even lobbied Congress to mandate that component-out ports--the only available HD connections on millions of HDTVs--be dumbed down to standard definition (SD) TV levels to prevent unauthorized copying.
In April the FCC began requiring that cable operators provide set-top boxes with FireWire outputs--a welcome development even if these ports will likely be encumbered with copy protection. However, the 8000HD set-top box likely won't receive a firmware update to enable its FireWire outputs until the end of this year or early next. Even then it will continue to bug me that I have to watch HD shows on someone else's schedule.