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A coworker brought to my attention the latest cross-company DRM consortium effort: Advanced Access Content System (AACS). When I hear about these efforts, I feel as apathetic as the AACS model pictured here (they put all this effort into making their movies and music secure but they still can not stop me from ripping the still images from their website): She just does not look too happy, does she? Almost as if she is getting burned out on multimedia technology. All of the usual promises are there: All multimedia hardware and software will eventually adopt this standard. This includes HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, recording from broadcast, and the capability to move the content around in a “managed” fashion, probably designed to optimize the amount of cash moving out of consumers’ wallets. |
 Green AACS Spokesmodel says: “Is Sony Blu-Ray going to clash with my outfit?” |
Category Archives: Multimedia PressWatch
Macrovision RipGuard
IMDb Studio Briefing sends us this lead today:
New Copy-Protection Software To Be Unveiled
Alleged to prevent 97% of all copying software available. Their website has a press release dated November 11, 2004. Details are, predictably, a little thin. The press release acknowledges that the ease of ripping raw sectors from a DVD, decrypting them, and re-burning or re-compressing them. This technology purports to frustrate that process somehow:
Extensive tests showed that RipGuard affects the success of the most commonly-used ripping software products in the market. It has been effective in either completely obstructing the software or slowing it down to the point of futility. RipGuard applies a Unique Digital Framework for each title to ensure that this effectiveness lasts over time.
…whatever that means. Watch for it, nonetheless.
Free Software From The MPAA
From the Internet Movie Database:
At the same time, [the MPAA] released free software that it said would help parents scan their computers to find file-swapping software and pirated films.
I am most curious about what this free software does. Unfortunately, I find no mention of such software over on mpaa.org.
Sony Announces Glorified Post-Processing Chip?
From the Internet Movie Database Studio Briefing, Sony is planning to unveil a chip that will perform image postprocessing on a normal television signal in order to make it look like a HDTV signal:
Sony Brings HDTV-Like Quality to Ordinary TV — At a Price
Sony has unveiled a new settop processor called the Qualia 001 Creation Box…is a microchip that sharpens the edges of objects within an image…priced at $5,080.
This is not the first time I have heard about such a product. I saw an ad in a home A/V magazine a few months ago for a set top box that could perform 6 types of post-processing on the input video signal. I think the price tag was in the neighborhood of $3,500. Just for some well-known mathematical filters probably implemented in a standard Texas Instruments DSP.