PC World: "Whose TV Is It, Anyway?"

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115057,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp

"If you're old like me, you remember the voice-over at the beginning of The Outer Limits: "There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission...." Well, it turns out they weren't kidding. The conversion to digital television (DTV) has led to a spitball fight between users and the movie industry. The issue: who controls how you receive and record digital TV.

The thought of Napster-like sharing of movies (which is already happening on a small scale) has Hollywood's collective boxers in a bunch. As a result, all new digital-cable-ready TVs and set-top devices must have copy-protected FireWire or Digital Video Interface ports. But older gear, including millions of early HDTVs, have analog connections that lack copy protection. Owners of such sets could take a digital TV feed, output it to a VCR, digitize it on their PCs, and then share it with 4 million of their closest friends. So Hollywood has come up with ways to close the "analog hole" and control DTV..."

Interesting article, and none of the proposed changes sound very appealing to me as a consumer. I wonder how things will shake out?

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115057,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp

"If you're old like me, you remember the voice-over at the beginning of The Outer Limits: "There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission...." Well, it turns out they weren't kidding. The conversion to digital television (DTV) has led to a spitball fight between users and the movie industry. The issue: who controls how you receive and record digital TV.

The thought of Napster-like sharing of movies (which is already happening on a small scale) has Hollywood's collective boxers in a bunch. As a result, all new digital-cable-ready TVs and set-top devices must have copy-protected FireWire or Digital Video Interface ports. But older gear, including millions of early HDTVs, have analog connections that lack copy protection. Owners of such sets could take a digital TV feed, output it to a VCR, digitize it on their PCs, and then share it with 4 million of their closest friends. So Hollywood has come up with ways to close the "analog hole" and control DTV..."

Interesting article, and none of the proposed changes sound very appealing to me as a consumer. I wonder how things will shake out?

[Suhit Gupta]

Wow, you aren't kidding, all of these proposals suck big time. I especially hate the Broadcast Flag thing. Argh! :evil:

Suhit

[Philip Colmer]

When will the beancounters realise that they will be better off if they embrace the customer instead of keep on pushing them away :evil:

Sad. Very, very sad. I don't believe for a minute that this will stay confined to the US either. We've already implemented our own version of DMCA :twisted:

--Philip

[David Horn]

We already have this in the UK - it's called Macrovision, and runs on all the Sky Pay-Per-View Movie channels, and on specific American programs (like 24 etc) if I remember correctly.

It's actually possible to get around it with a £60 box of tricks, or the alternative is to record on to a really old VCR with manual tracking. I think Macrovision disrupts the automatic tracking signal in newer VCRs.

[that_kid]

Originally Posted by David Horn

It's actually possible to get around it with a £60 box of tricks, or the alternative is to record on to a really old VCR with manual tracking. I think Macrovision disrupts the automatic tracking signal in newer VCRs.

Good thing I still have a beta deck no macrovision for me.