Sony Decides Against Blu-Ray Downsampling

Paul Slocum writes "According to Ars Technica, Sony is now saying they will not use the Image Constraint Token and so movies will play on analog HDTV sets at full resolution. If HD-DVD does implement the analog downsampling, it's going to give Blu-ray a nice market advantage." From the article: "Sony's decision to not use the Image Constraint Token for the time being is meant to encourage the adoption of Blu-ray players. Launching a new product that would leave the thousands of analog HDTV owners out in the standard-definition cold could have proven to be a nightmare for Sony and the Blu-ray spec in general. Reports that 'Blu-ray discs don't look right on my HDTV' could result in consumers' switching allegiances to the competing HD DVD standard or postponing purchases of next-generation optical players altogether."

and that's why I don't own a DVD player..

[Lord Bitman]

Why would I buy a player that's so broken it listens to a "output worse image quality lol kthx bi" bit? I already won't buy a player that listens to a "don't play me because I'm only for germany lol kthx bi" bit or a "don't skip me because I'm really important lol kthx bi" bit.

Sacred Bits are even worse than encrypted discs.

Re:Almost there....

[Midnight Thunder]

As long as the DRM is inconvenient rather than 'unbreakable by the terms of the DMCA', then I am kind of ok. What I mean by this is that if I can play it on my computer with an open source player then I am happy.

What matters most for is whether it will have a region flag on it. The region flag is fine if you speak English, but becomes a huge pain if you buy non-English language films, unless you have something that ignores the region encoding.

Re:Yeah right

[Anonymous Coward]

... And here's how !

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news2.php?ID=12115 [cdfreaks.com]

The Analog Hole

[Umuri]

here's the problem with this. The analog hole will always exist. Because humans have eyes and ears. Even if it's reduced to good recording equipment and a microphone, it can still be pirated. And that's running under the assumption that no one will ever crack the HD cables and make it jack into a recorder anyway. Locks keep an honest man honest, but a thief will break in anyway. They're shooting themselves in the foot with overcomplicating a simple thing. Old folks can barely use VCRs, what makes the corporations think that they will be more interested in getting a $2000 TV, and $4000 worth of connectors and additional equipment + liscencing fees to play a single movie.

Re:Yeah right

[SaturdayNight]

I saw this tidbit this morning, and was also greatly amused. It is of good quality, and a few minutes long, seemingly showing the entire segment in question...

Now does CBS get to sue Parents TV Council for freely distributing their copyrighted data?

Re:Almost there....

[networkBoy]

One thing to note (IMHO) is that while a large number of (c) infringers are willful and really Don'tGiveAShit(tm) there is a fairly large minority that pirate because they perceive the whole deal as a rip-off all the way around. If the content creators (writers and artists) got the lions share of the proceeds rather than the ??AA you would have less pirates.

I personally use AllOfMP3 because the artist sees just about the same ammount of money and I am *technically* legal. If someone were to open up shop and say: Our pricing model is the same (1c /meg) but we add 5c to each song of which 4.75c goes to the artist (aggragated however), I would buy from them, and the artist would see more money per track than they currently see from an entire CD! I know I am not alone in this way of thought.
-nB

Will Microsoft follow?

[yeremein]

This situtation is very similar to Microsoft's forced downsampling of HD content on non-HDCP-compliant monitors (read: basically every monitor on the market today). So will Microsoft relax the HDCP requirement for Vista? Will Hollywood even let them?

My guess is no, because DVI without HDCP is digital, and Hollywood is obsessed with the lack of generational loss when copying digital data. "Oh noes, the pirates will be able to get an unencumbered HD signal!" As if that's materially worsse than getting an unencumbered SD signal, what with all the camcorder jobs floating around the net...

Re:Almost there....

[ShimmyShimmy]

DRM really does prevent casual piracy, and studies have proven this.

What studies? Could you be a little more specific? Are these studies done by the **IA? Do they exist?

This is why my old TV is the last I will ever buy

[spagthorpe]

The future I'm being shown is not to my liking. I refuse to play this game anymore. Over the years, I bought LPs, tapes, CDs, VHS tapes, Beta tapes, and ultimately DVDs. I won't do it anymore. I will hopefully get years out of my existing hardware, but when it breaks, I'm done. When the cable providers no longer transmit analog TV signals, my set will likely go to the dumpster. I refuse to deal with media that requires me to play their game. There are too many other ways for me to spend my time. As it is, I'm down to two TV shows anyway. Giving it up for good won't be difficult.

I stopped going to the movie theater two years ago, and quit buying DVDs about the same time. I stopped buying CDs four. It's easy to quit. I wish more people would back up their feelings with actions. If more did, the media producers would have no choice but to listen. As it is, the sheep will continue to play the no-win game the media producers graciously allow you to spend money to play. Have fun.