High-Def, HDCP, And Legacy High-Def-Capable Projectors
Dear Gary: Thanks for Paul Sweeting’s very informative article “The Broadcast Flag Ruling” in Issue 81, January 2004. I always appreciate a “no-agenda” review of the facts that I can’t get access to—facts that are part of your world. That idea prompted me to write this e-mail to suggest a possible topic for coverage by Paul, or even others at WSR if you aren’t interested. I know that there are thousands of people like me who bought expensive, HDTV compatible (bandwidth, etc.) front projectors with analog component inputs in anticipation of the day when high-def. sources and software would become available. In my case, it was a big Sony unit (plus line doubler) that put quite a dent in the bank account—with expectations that it would last many years. It has been a constant source of great picture quality with the DVDs that I have fed it to date and I love it. Now that high-def movies via some form of disc media are getting closer to commercialization, I am getting very worried that when the playback devices finally make it to market, they will NOT be shipped with any form of HD analog outputs...rendering my system unable to access anything better than 480i signals. To say that this would be annoying is an understatement. I have no problem with buying an outboard box that accepts DVI/HDCP inputs from a player and puts out HD analog RGB or component YPbPr signals, but the movie industry lobbyists seem to be effectively killing any commercialization of this sort of device. At present, my only hope is that the fringe “hardware hacking” community will eventually start selling such devices via the Internet, (from offshore addresses if necessary) to satisfy what must be a fairly large market in their terms. I have never pirated a movie in my life, and have no intention of starting now. Why can’t the movie guys understand that plugging all the “leaks” forever is truly impossible. In my opinion, they should reap the cash they can from theatrical releases, then (at a later date) move on to collect more cash via maximizing user convenience (HW inter-operability), video quality, and worldwide geographic availability on single day release dates for disc/cable/satellite-based distribution—cutting off many of the incentives and opportunities for mass unit pirates. Piracy of movies does not have to be zero for the industry to flourish. It just needs to be low enough to keep the critical mass of the cash flow in the direction of the creative people and their investors. Early adopters of new entertainment technologies have always been willing to pay premium margin prices for their next installment of fun—and we did it big time when hi-rez projection systems came along. I know that I (and my peers) will remember it for a long, long time if the industry now punishes us for buying this high-def-capable, so called “legacy equipment” over the last few years. Our investments in many ways have enabled or fuelled the current growth in high-def sales. To abandon us now would be “biting the hand that fed you” as far as I am concerned. In any case, I would really appreciate it if Paul (or you, Gary) would devote a WSR article in the future to this topic (or even better, “take up the cause” via print-based lobbying), to share your uniquely available insider contacts, insights, and opinions. I am sure it would be a very popular topic and generate lots of follow-up mail and articles. Keep up the good work!
Paul Young
Editor-In-Chief Gary Reber Comments:
We share your concern in reference to Hollywood wanting to plug the so-called “analog hole,” thus restricting the resolution throughput of any analog interface to 480i. Widescreen Review will continue to report on such disastrous policies and be at the forefront of the attack to prevent such downrezing of the analog high-definition signal. Such a policy would be particularly damaging to high-end home theatre system, which employ state-of-the-art 9-inch CRT projectors capable of full 1080p resolution.
You can E-mail Widescreen Review @ mailto:editorgary@widescreenreview.com