Will you boycott HD with Mike?
By Kevin C. Tofel 
posted Feb 24th 2006 2:08PM
posted Feb 24th 2006 2:08PM
Anyone who thought there would be a run on HDTVs,
HD-DVD or Blu-Ray players, set-top boxes or high-def DVRs can relax and take a deep breath.Whew! There will be plenty
of these devices available because Mike Evangelist is encouraging as many people as he can to boycott HD. Really! We'll
state up front that we're not overjoyed when we hear terms like DRM, HDCP and AACS, but we're not
running towards an analog cliff like mindless lemmings either.Let's see what Mike's buzz is all about here and determine if he's on the right path, shall we?
According to Mike, the entire industry is re-writing fair use and will have the ability to modify the rules going forward. Honestly, there's more to "fair use" concepts than just what the video industry has to say. The reality is, just like software, we purchase licenses to view or use content. It's basically an eternal rental agreement: you own the "fair use" of viewing or using something that you purchased the rights for. All you've really purchased that you can physically hold is perhaps a DVD disc.
Let's go a step farther with the software analogy: suppose you purchased the license to an application and you have that application on DVD. Can you run around and install that application on every PC you own, not to mention your neighbor's PC? In some cases, you can (not that we condone that), but it's becoming increasingly difficult due to registration codes and hardware configuration monitoring. The fact is: it shouldn't be easy to do this as you're basically screwing the creator, owner and distributor of that intellectual property. Doesn't that same argument hold true for the video industry?
Mike also mentions the "analog sunset" in the AACS agreement which adopters agree to limit output to standard definition on analog equipment after December 31, 2010. Additionally, the agreement calls for no AACS-licensed players to work over analog interfaces starting in 2014. Mike, this might sound evil, but let's use another analogy: the DTV transition. We're shutting down the analog TV spectrum on February 17, 2009. Why are we doing this? To provide a higher quality customer experience for television consumers, to reuse the spectrum for public service and to help put additional dollars in the Federal budget by auctioning off the then unused signals. Exactly how is that a bad thing, first of all, and better yet, isn't that fairly similar to the "analog sunset" in the AACS agreement? We're trying to move on to bigger and better things here, so the sunsetting of older technology isn't bad in our eyes. Besides, since a good portion of analog-capable sets will be rendered fairly useless by 2014, what's the concern?
Have we read the whole AACS agreement? No, and for Mike's efforts to read through some or all of it, we give him an HDBeat high-five. We'll even go on record to share our grumblings about all of the content protection issues in the digital video space as well; hell, we do that as often as anyone else.
Boycotting HD and trying to rally others because of FUD? No way. We're on the same side here, but we differ in our approach and our sense of the reality of the situation. By all means, the folks that want to boycott HD can be our guest; that just means more choices on the retail shelves at our local electronics store and more high-def viewing in our homes due to better technology. For that, we thank you.
But How do you know that the HDTV that you buy todasy will work tomorrow. You don't. And that is the big problem. This is just the internet equivalent of "BUYER BEWARE". Broadcast it loud. broadcast it everywhere.
What if your brand new SED HDTV (2007) did'nt work with that Sony Blue Ray machine you bought this summer. Someone's going to be pissed. Or would it be better if you waited because you were warned? Are you currently sure that any of the ACCS software/media that coming out will ork with your curretn set? Not 100%
I'm debating the idea. At the least it will be 2-3 years before I buy into it. Upgrades will be at my normal interval, not because of Fascist IP handcuffs.
I hold out hope for workarounds, or better yet, the next generation media distribution to follow after all this DRM nonsense.
No way in hell am I boycotting HD! That's one of the main highlight of this year for me, is to finally play HD movies on my HDTV!!! And I could care less what AACS does with component hookup since I'll be using digital hookup. :)
I think Mike just wants everyone to boycott the HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. The movie industry is looking to turn AACS players into something resembling Circuit City's old Divx platform, and they really shouldn't be allowed to do that.
I'm not down with boycotting HD all together -- I still want to get a Samsung LCD HDTV with a Dish Network ViP-622 and an ATSC antenna -- but I don't have a problem with boycotting HD DVD and Blu-ray. These two formats deserve to go the way of DVD-Audio and SuperAudioCD.
Anyone who bought a TV without a DVI or HDMI input should have researched better. I've personally known about this problem since 2000. 5 years is an acceptable life for a TV in the reality of it all for that matter.
People act like this is new news. It was formally announced recently, but we all knew when the first HD outputting players came out, that this was going to be a very real problem.
As for the rest, yeah, not crazy about it, and I still hate the MPAA and RIAA, but HD content over an analog cable = easy piracy.
So who is really getting screwed here with software?
As usual it is the consumer who has no rights and must agree to severely restrictive "user agreements" just to install software that often times is buggy, screws up your PC by making registry and system changes, and sometimes just stops working altogether. So I am suppose to pay $ for some locked down software that might be junk, and there is no real way to try most software out (the "free" or limited time versions are just that, a different version of the software). I am much less concerned with content creators rights than I am with being able to let the marketplace work it's magic. The software industry is so far from a free market it isn't even funny.
And as far as HD content, the more the studios try to lock down the content, the more pissed off I get. I just want some HD movies with minimal hassle and without having to spend a fortune on new gear. The way this HDCP crap is playing out, I am more and more inclined to see their DRM go down in flames, and more inclined to copy as much of their content as possible and distribute it far and wide just to spite them. Basically I feel as a consumer I am getting screwed because of the piracy paranoia. Frankly I don’t care if people are pirating the movie studios work. That is their problem, not mine. The only thing that all of these DRM schemes do is shift the problem of piracy from the studios to a headache for all consumers. In the end the real pirates (aka. What you find on the streets of HK) will break the DRM anyway. It’s BS plain and simple and it pisses me off.
I will wait until the DRM is broken, the Blue-ray vs HD-DVD match is decided, and I can watch HD on my terms, not the movie studios. If the studios got rid of the DRM crap and a player was available, I would go buy it right now and start buying all my movies in HD. I am a willing customer, but I will not pay for additional hassles in my life. I just can’t shake that feeling that the movie studios what to bend me over a barrel.
I won't be an early adopter. I'm hoping that HD content will be delivered on demand through the internet. Will the marketplace support two competing formats? Remember 8 track, Betamax, Laserdisc, Circuit City's DVIX, etc.
If anybody deserves to be boycotted, its Sony (root kits, etc). I'm not saying that I will never buy a blu-ray player, but I,m in no hurry and it definitely won't be a PS3 (I got burned by buying an early PS2 for the DVD function and it never worked right so I won't fall for that again). Right now I don't think I'll boycott HD-DVD because they have cheaper hardware, MS support and the launch titles are better (INMHO).
AACS doesn't concern me because it will never work. See Cory Doctorow's explanation of this in his speech to Microsoft:
http://www.craphound.com/msftdrm.txt
Sure AACS will work at launch, but that won't last long.
On the subject of those burned by DVI/HDMI/HDCP, I'm sure some crafty person will rig a linux box lie to the blu-ray/HD-DVD player and spit out a HD signal over component video to the an HD display.
I think the degree to which HDCP will cramp your style will greatly depend on your ability to find and copy some one else's solution.
If you're the type of consumer who doesn't want to get into the details of the systems and buy stuff that "just works" you're probably not all that bothered by the HDCP restrictions anyway.
I have to agree with #6 for the most part and to add that I'm tired as hell of the music and movie industry making me feel like a criminal! I love music - it is my life, my soul and movies are right behind it. And I'm willing to spend money for decent quality. Why are these two industries making it so damn hard for me and the millions of others of us to reasonably enjoy the things we love.
What exactly is the point of HDCP? I am confused.
OK, it doesn't let me take the digital output from my HD video source and plug it into a computer and record it? How are we gonna do that? There are no capture cards that allow component input much less DVI/HDMI.
Seriously, I don't get it. Am I missing something?
Mike has some valid complaints, but his chosen vehicle of protest is a clunker. A better bet would be to write your State and Federal representatives.
Yes I will definitelly NOT buy those new players. In fact I will never buy a sony product period. That company is only interested in eliminating any of the rights we have they do it with a propriatary format when they can and if they can't they try other ways. Die Sony Die.
I don't think I'll be boycotting, but you've got something wrong here. It's not correct to say that "fair use" is whatever the distributor allows. That's really not correct at all and your software analogy is a great example of why it's wrong. First of all, software operates under different rules than books, music and movies. But even then, you have the right to make backup copies, transfer licenses to other people, even generally install onto more than one machine providing that only a single copy is used at a time. But you're right, there is a license agreement (though most of it grants you the rights you already have), and that's the principle difference between movies (or music) and software: There is no license agreement with entertainment. There are actions you can take that are illegal, such as making copies and selling those, and actions you can take which, while not necessarily criminal, allow you to be sued for financial liability, such as posting copyrighted work on file-sharing services. These actions are not allowed because they violate the standard of "fair use", which has an actual legal meaning and is not open to reductive interpretation by Hollywood or anyone else. For instance, making an analog copy of a digital work (like making a copy of a DVD onto a VHS tape to watch on your bedroom's VCR) is an allowed, totally legal action that is now impossible under AACS. What's worse, circumventing AACS copy protection to perform a completely legal action (or even telling someone how to do so) is made criminal by the DMCA.
Let's be totally clear here: Fair-use is not a circumvention of the AACS. AACS is a circumvention of Fair-use, made possible by the DMCA. Purchasing a box to transform an HDMI signal into a component signal to watch on your older HD television is a completely legal and ethically acceptable action, however manufacturing such a box is (to my knowledge) currently illegal if the AACS doesn't license it, which it won't unless the box artificially downscales the video signal.
So while a boycott is probably not in my future, I think there is a sound basis for a class action suit against the involved industries for artificially making an entire generation of very expensive equipment now obsolete.
I first heard about HDCP from a game developer conference, where one of participants remarked that you might not be able to play Blu-Ray or HD DVD movies on your PC if your display is still analog or (I believe) non compliant HDCP digital device. Yikes, I really didn't want to hear that. You spend all this money on a nice display and it might not be compatible?
I dunno, I have mixed feelings about high definition movies. On one hand, I want them. But at the same time, I don't want it to be a big ordeal.
Long term, I can totally see digital distribution over-taking discs. It's already slowly begun in movie theaters. Imagine watching a new movie in your home the same day it's released in the theaters :)
AACS has the 10 year sunset date because japan has laws against downrezzing HD on analog for the next so many years, so it on applies overseas but could be enacted here too.
Why bother with HD-DVD and BluRay anyways?
In addition to the DRM mess, the image quality will not likely impress the average Joe.
And, even with the difference, you can still achieve respectable results using a decent DVD player that can properly deinterlace and upscale 480i video. And, on top of that, the AACS DRM malarkey is a non-issue with DVD-Video.
I think DVD was made too well in that it may end up like the CD; obsolesence and inferiority that is not readily noticeable on average, if at all. - Reinhart