AACS finalize, death to analog in 2013
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Jun 8th 2009 10:54AM
posted Jun 8th 2009 10:54AM
Not that any of this really matters since AACS has long since been made irrelevant, but this really pulls back the reigns on anyone who thought Hollywood was making progress in its perspective on DRM. What we mean is, at a time when music is sold DRM free, Hollywood demands that new Blu-ray players made after December 31st of 2013 will no longer support analog on any AACS protected content. Of course who even knows what we'll be watching in four years, or if HDTVs will even have analog inputs by then, but what's worse is that starting in 2011, new Blu-ray players will only output SD via component, which for all intents and purposes makes component useless. The only good news in the final version of the AACS is that Managed Copy is alive and well, but a lot of good that does if no studio ever decides to use it. [Via Blu-ray.com]
AACS is irrelevant? I think not. Maybe you and I can go buy some grey-market tool from Antigua that will let us back up our BR-Ds and HD-DVDs, but they have a massive effect on the commercial market. Managed copy, as you mentioned, is completely in their control, and you could make some really nice "virtual changers" with managed copy.
The lack of a free managed copy ala HD-DVD is a real disappointment, though.
Which type of piracy do you think harms Hollywood?
1. The type AACS is effective against: people making backups of their own discs, copying them to HTPCs, transcoding them to put on low power laptops, etc.
2. The type AACS is utterly ineffective against: people ripping discs for the purpose of sticking them on BitTorrent for world wide release.
For its intended purpose, which presumably isn't "making it impossible to make copies in ways that do not harm Hollywood in the slightest", AACS is dead. It's an irrelevance, and this news is more evidence that Hollywood is beyond incompetent, insisting on punishing legal users with things that do nothing whatsoever to hurt illegitimate users (and, indeed, encouraging illegal uses to get around the pointless restrictions.)
But I'm sure EHD will continue to promote this awful format.
This is VERY bad news for custom installers and do-it-yourselfers. By plugging the so-called "analog hole", the studios won't prevent any piracy, but will kill off dozens of companies that can build analog video products like matrix systems, switchers, and the like, but can't develop for HDMI.
Basically, this agreement forces HDMI into every household that wants distributed video...and we all know how well that works.
What the heck are you talking about? There are active HDMI matrix switches already out there, and they work just fine with HDCP.
HDMI isn't forced. If the companies wanted to rebel they could develop for DisplayLink.
DisplayLink is royalty free.
Find and replace
DisplayLink
DisplayPort
Erwos, you obviously have very limited experience with HDMI. How do you suggest that someone accomplish an 8x16 system for a sports bar, for example? How do you suggest that someone can listen to lossless audio in their Blu-ray enabled home theater room while someone watches elsewhere on a TV with TV speakers only? Do you have a solution for the re-authentication requirement of HDCP that makes all TVs drop the signal and re-sync whenever a new viewer connects to a source?
HDCP is as buggy as crap on a hot day, and you simply can't do with HDMI what you can with component video in a distributed video system.
Just because monoprice.com has something on their website doesn't mean it works for everybody, or even works at all.
To paraphrase: "The market considers censorship as damage, and routes around it." I would have thought that expanding blu-ray's appeal would be the better idea in the coming fight with download, but I guess not.
My receiver only does component switching, meaning I need a new receiver to do blueray. Thanks Hollywood.
Well then Hollywood has two years to convince me that it has anything to offer that will make me move to blu-ray. After that, there won't be a chance in Hell to make the switch to it.
Blu-ray is so irrelevant.
With tegra a bloody cellphone can play 1080p via HDMI to a TV.
In two years, the bandwidth will be high enough to stream (or at least do buffered playing) of downloaded 1080p 7.1 audio content.
I do sympathize with the people doing custom commercial video solutions (like for a sports bar)
1) Because they are commercial they are more scrutinized for DMCA violations.
2) Because they have custom needs they are generally not considered by studio execs making DRM decisions.
But maybe this issue will finally force congress to realize that the current DRM violates fair use and actually hurts the economy. (not bloody likely though)
"what's worse is that starting in 2011, new Blu-ray players will only output SD via component, which for all intents and purposes makes component useless."
Does this mean BDPs won't upscale DVD content or play CDs over HDMI (or it's replacement)?
And it's not just custom installers and do-it-yourselfers that are affected either, it's every retail outlet using analog switching as well. If I were Wallmart, Best Buy, FutureShop, etc I would be pissed if I was told that I had to replace or compliment every installed analog switch with an HDMI switch in order to sell their product. That's an expense that had better be covered by the manufacturers because it's not feasible with today's economic climate.
Do these tardmongers not realise that pirates RIP their Blu-Ray movies? Like with computers? You know, digitally? They're not hooking up VCRs to Blu-Ray players or something.
And for those saying that this doesn't matter because of streaming, I have to disagree. Maybe someday you could get TRULY EQUIVALENT quality from streaming, but not yet, and lots of people still want physical, replayable, portable, high-quality copies of their favourite movies.
I've got lossless analog with the HDAV 1.3 and you can't record off analog input(multichannel) with the latest receivers. This is just forced equipment upgrade/exchange.
It's a joke. Why should consumers entering the market after that year get screwed? If we're in a market where they're trying to convince consumers to buy more, it's best not to shove technology down their throat they don't understand.
They're going to waltz into a store and finally try to buy a blu-ray player, but whoops. That relatively cheap purchase just multiplied by a lot!!
By the way, AACS hasn't been permanently broken. It has to be re-cracked each time they update the 'Media Key Block' which they do on new releases. It's an endless cat-and-mouse game.
Obviously they're not doing a great job at the moment, given that we are at version 13 or so of the MKB already, but that doesn't mean they won't improve.
am a novice, have a great company doing a complete high end home A/V upgrade for us. We are nearing the end of the project and were just informed that we should consider upgrading our technology already (we haven't even used the old yet). The upgrade would consist of getting new switchers, room boxes, new wiring, labor, programing, etc. Company offered to swap old equipment out but the additional cost of upgrading is very significant. My question is "What will I not be able to do in 2-3 years if I do not upgrade??"
appreciate any feedback.