It has been two-and-a-half years since next generation DVD was first announced
(actually CES of 2003) by Sony. To regain its position as the guides to the
future, the DVD Forum adopted a different blue ray technology approach AOD (now
known as HD DVD) and thus even before present DVD products had gained widespread
use, the warlords battle for royalties began anew.
While the two "standards" share blue laser technology - shorter wavelength and
a more precise ability to focus the laser - there are enough differences to make
it obvious to even the most casual Tech Watch reader to realize that a compromise
solution will be difficult.
More importantly it will be too complex and too expensive to simply take the
route Sony took in 2004 of throwing all of the technologies into a single burner
and let the consumer choose the write/read solution he or she wants to use.
Because the construction of the media and writing layer for BD and HD DVD are
completely different between the two the chance for a compromise solution - one
where both sides save face - appears to be slim to none!
Sony has Blu-ray all keyed up for the Playstation 3 (Microsoft just endorsed
HD DVD for the Xbox 360), and Blu-ray offers 25GB per layer. HD DVD offers 15GB
per layer but reads and writes data at the same depth as DVDs, enabling possibly
better backward compatibility. Recently, Toshiba demonstrated a 45GB triple-layer
HD DVD. TDK showed a 100GB quad-layer Blu-ray. JVC demonstrated a 33.5GB disc
with a 25GB Blu-ray layer combined with 8.5GB DL DVD layers. It's nothing but
a blue mess!
The industry appears to have learned nothing from the years of revenue lost in
the standards battles. As a result, IDC in their aggressive DVD forecasts show
good growth for DVD±R with burner prices now as low as $40 at retail and media
in the 30 - 50 cents range but virtually no sales for blue laser. In the war
of news releases from the two sides, the movie studies are fairly evenly split
on the support of either BD or HD DVD. All of the copy protection schemes they're
pushing to have built into the next-gen discs are almost maliciously attacking
consumer wishes. The concept of fair use is all but an anachronism.
Fortunately for software and content developers, both sides have agreed on the
same codecs which will simplify development for both approaches. Both will implement
MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 and Microsoft's VC-1. Both can support today's 480p
and 480i content presentation which is not a reason to buy a new digital TV set.
However if you have an HDTV set with 780p/i and 1080p/i video viewing you may
be persuaded to "need" blue laser recording.
While DVD was a significant improvement in viewing quality over VHS, the viewing
quality between DVD and HDTV only becomes apparent in side-by-side comparisons.
Until recently that quality improvement was not one that could be afforded by
the average consumer without a big dent in the family budget. Panasonic's commitment
to sub-$2,000 plasmas will help the firm maintain its price/volume leadership.
However, except for the die-hard sports enthusiast, $2,000 is still classified
as a major purchase since even retailer sales people can't tell you how or why
the displays are better than the one you other own other than they say HDTV on
the box!
A compromise specification is virtually impossible because of the read/write
approaches of HD and BD. There are significant differences as to the placement
of the write/read layer of the disc and this affects every aspect of the separate
technologies. We don't believe Hollywood, broadcasters and content developers
are concerned with which blue technology is implemented. But they are deadly
serious about not revisiting the mistakes of today's CD and DVD technology.
High Definition content has provided content owners the opportunity to start
with a fresh slate and get it right this time. They aren't going to miss the
chance to put the horse back in the barn. The next generation content protection
for video and audio content they are proposing behind the scenes is extremely
robust. These folks became quick studies of digital technologies over the past
five years as they've watched DVD and on-line services get stronger, better,
bigger, faster and more ubiquitous. This time around they are going to make
certain they don't leave any money on the table this time
The problem with the BD and HD DVD camps is that they are so smitten to win the
love of the fair Hollywood maiden, both have promised her anything she wants.
This focus is not on a cheap media or better write/read technology but super
rich digital rights management (DRM) technology. Their DRM proposals include
digital watermarking, programmable cryptography and self-destruct codes. Rather
than determine which is best for all parties- including the consumer - their
solution was to throw them all into the mix!
Digital watermarking is something they call a ROM Mark. It really only applies
to the pre-recorded media you buy - movies, music and games. Don't worry about
it because they say you'll never even know it is there. Watermarking is often
used with today's DVD technology but if you wanted to knock off a copy and not
have it appear it wasn't a big problem… just write over it with a permanent marker
and BAM!!! it was gone.
Both sides like (Hollywood loves!!) Advanced Access Control System (AACS) which
requires your player to maintain connections to the content provider thru the
Internet. If the disc doesn't pass their security check it isn't a big thing.
The provider will simply send the player a "self-destruct code" ROM update that
will blow up the player. Ok so it won't physically blow up. Instead the player
will simply become unusable until you meekly take the unit into a service center
and a repair technician reprograms the player. In addition, there's some concern
that your entire library of discs that were encoded with the broken security
may also be unplayable.
The fact that the old version of DivX failed because people didn't want to have
a connection to the content provider after they had made a purchase seems to
be totally irrelevant.
And with all of the software technology at our fingertips wouldn't it be easy
enough to write a little code that would swing into action when the player read
the errant disc? You know a message could flash on the screen - "You're a bad
person for using an illegally copied disc. Now send me $5!," or "You dirty
rotten rat…you just stole a movie from (insert name of studio)!!"
That would be enough to turn even the most callous thief to tears.
Just in case the consumer could get past these two hurdles, they've added a third.
This is a renewability method that lets content providers implement dynamic
updates of compromised code. This is advanced form or CSS (content scramble
system) they used before which was defeated in hours after it was released and
is called SPDC. Simply stated every time someone cracks the code the encryption
algorithm will "learn from its mistakes" and improve the code. That's a challenge
no DEFCON hacker can refuse !!!
If these fail Hollywood has a fallback plan when the 15-year-old kid cracks it
all…their lobbyists will put the squeeze on Congress to "protect us from ourselves."
That certainly won't stop tapes from being misplaced from the studio's postproduction
facilities and copies being sold in the bazaars of Taiwan or Hong Kong or on
Broadway before the release. But at least it is a move in the right direction...in
their opinion!
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