PC Industry Pushing Hard for a Hi-Def DVD Format Truce

By | October 4th, 2005 comments icon (4) Comments


intel don macdonald axe blu rayIt seems like things are getting out of control in the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD format war. Yesterday Paramount announced that they would support and sell discs in both formats, although they originally committed to HD-DVD, which has now left studios and CE manufactures scratching their heads wondering which way they should turn (Toshiba has already decided to release a dual-format Hi-Def DVD player). But wait… it gets more interesting. Intel’s VP of the Digital Home Group, Don MacDonald at a news conference at the Ceatec exhibition in Chiba, Japan, publicly made clear that Intel STRONGLY encourages a unified format or at the very least for Blu-ray to jump on board the “managed copy” train that will allow PC users to make legal copies of licensed content to recordable discs or hard drives, for streaming on a home network or transcoding to secure portable devices.

“We have not heard an unequivocal statement from the Blu-ray camp to say that you’ll be able to have mandatory managed copy without any kind of complications and any kind of issues. So we could be thrilled if they were able to deliver a similar commitment,” McDonald said (via Macworld, WSJ). “The opportunity is for Blu-ray to unequivocally commit to having exactly the same consumer friendly features.” (Feel the desperation in his words? If no truce is made for managed copies on Blu-ray, Intel and Microsoft will only have support for approximately half the Hi-Def DVD market, which is a slap in the face to their Digital Home vision. Moreover, it would undermine the companies’ strategy for the PC to become the home’s central media hub.)

Friendly features, huh? Josh Peterson, the director of strategic alliances for the Optical Storage Solutions group of HP – which supports Blu-ray – told Tom’s Hardware after the Paramount announcement that Blu-ray, since it uses AACS DRM like HD-DVD, has the same capabilities but requires at least two additional content protection safe-guard technologies to offer managed copies.

Excerpt from Tom’s Hardware article: (highly recommended reading)

As we’ve reported here previously, AACS will require the high-def player to be continually connected to the Internet. When code from a newly inserted disc fails a test performed by the content management site (which may be run by the studios themselves), a code can be sent by the site to the player, flashing its ROMs and, in effect, telling it to “self-destruct.” To this destructive sequence, Blu-ray adds a feature called BD+ that can potentially be used as a repair sequence. HP’s Peterson describes BD+ as “a renewability feature that allows the movie studios to actually go in and patch the content protection code, if it’s been hacked. They can’t go in and fix something that’s already been hacked. But they can fix the protection so that it can’t be hacked again in the same way on the next disc.

A third Blu-ray DRM technology called ROM Mark encodes discs with a certain watermark that can only be read by supporting players. Conceivably, even players without ROM Mark reading devices can be encoded in such a way that they cannot play movies without the watermark having been authorized. This could render some future low-end Blu-ray PC-based drives inoperable with some movies.

Peterson acknowledged this system is a bit more difficult to adopt for PC-based players than for set-top players, but also implied that the studios whose decisions appear to count most, don’t consider PCs a very important issue. “The studios are obviously wanting the most robust content protection they can get,” he said. “So by adopting BD+, they’ve got extra incentive now to support Blu-ray Disc, because it’s more robust than HD DVD as a content protection system.

These comments, coupled with Paramount’s announcement yesterday, point to the very real possibility that the HD DVD support announcement by the world’s leading PC proponents – and thus, by association, the parties linked to the devices that make content piracy possible in the first place – may have backfired on them.

With all three technologies in place concurrently, will consumers be able to make managed copies of their Blu-ray discs, despite what Microsoft and Intel are saying? Yes, said Josh Peterson. “BD+ and ROM Mark are going to be transparent to the end consumer. The only consumers that will be affected by BD+ will be the people that are trying to hack the code illegally.” Managed copy distribution features have been adopted in AACS, he stated, and none of their functionality will be reduced by the other two technologies. “So everything that HD DVD could do from a user flexibility perspective,” Peterson added, “is also going to be supported by Blu-ray Disc.

However, Peterson pointed out, whether a Blu-ray user will be able to make a managed copy of a movie will be directly dependent upon whether the studio responsible for that movie, approves the copy. This approval process will be part of the AACS communications scheme. “It’s really up to the studios whether they’re going to allow their content to be copied through managed copy,” said Peterson. He added he was worried that some consumers would come to believe they could make illegal and unlicensed copies of any movie they wanted to, simply because managed copy was present. Not so, he repeated, “it’s up to the movie studios to enable this.

There is misinformation coming from their announcements,” stated Peterson, frustrated, referring to Intel and Microsoft. “Whether that’s misinformation that they’ve been fed, or maybe the lack of participation in the working groups have set up incorrect perceptions of what reality is, I [don’t know]. HP’s been working on Blu-ray Disc technology for over two years now; Sony’s been working on it for close to ten years, Panasonic for over five years. This technology has been developed over years of time, and Microsoft and Intel have not participated at all.





Filed in: Industry Buzz

  • JDonahue

    Quite personally, good consumers should be allowed to make copies for personal use.

    But the content providers must be assured that they have the BD+ necessary, so that who abused the Managed Copy option, like these pirates who try and make 30,000 copies or casual pirates making 50 copies and giving them to classmates should be the ones who could be restricted. But those who are in good behavior and make copies for backup use only should be the ones who are rewarded. But I think that the three pronged copy protection system is not enough. There needs to be an electronic ID system so that they can identify exactly who is abusing the Managed Copy feature. Furthermore, an electronic ID watermark on the discs can be used so that it can only be compatible by only the consumer’s players, so that it won’t work with the friends. Also, the players need a chip that prevents from being shoplifted, so if a shoplifter steals a player from the store, it won’t work at home, and law inforcements get notified.

  • http://www.msmvps.com/chrisl/ ChrisL01

    This post has incorrect information in it.
    http://msmvps.com/chrisl/archive/2005/10/05/69055.aspx

  • http://www.alexandergrundner.com Alexander Grundner

    Welcome back! I see that you disagree with the Blu-ray requiring at least two additional content protection safe-guard technologies to offer managed copies.

    You’re entitled to your opinion. However, statements like the one below from Josh Peterson, the director of strategic alliances for the Optical Storage Solutions group of HP, lead readers to believe otherwise.

    In their joint statement, Microsoft and Intel claimed Blu-ray had no policy with regard to managed copy — the capability for users to make legal backup copies of licensed content to recordable discs or hard drives, for streaming elsewhere in their networked households. Disputing their claim, Peterson said the companies were taking advantage of a technicality. No, managed copy isn’t part of the Blu-ray format. It’s a part of the DRM system they chose to adopt, called Advanced Access Content System (AACS), which is also used in HD DVD, but which in Blu-ray is complemented by two other technologies, both of which are also independent of Blu-ray’s format specifications.

    Chris, can you expand on how Josh Peterson is incorrect?

  • http://www.msmvps.com/chrisl/ ChrisL01

    It’s not exactly my opinion, it’s a fact. :)

    AACS provides the ability to do Managed Copies. The statement “Blu-ray requiring at least two additional content protection safe-guard technologies to offer managed copies.” doesn’t fit along with that. The two additional “safe-guard technologies” have nothing to do with Managed Copies. They don’t offer the ability (or inability) to have a Managed Copy, they don’t. ***

    It’s true that Managed Copies are not a part of the BD or HD-DVD format, it’s a feature (part) of AACS which will be used for both BD and HD-DVD.

    BD adds “two other technologies”, but they have nothing to do with AACS and thus nothing to do with Managed Copies.

    BD+ adds encryption key renewability to AACS ability to do key revocation. Doesn’t apply to Managed Copies. Doesn’t add or take away AACS’s ability to provide the feature.

    Edit:***Actually, I’ll change that. BD+ could actually take away the ability to do a Managed Copy. BDA just hasn’t released enough information for the public to know. If BD+ is there on top of AACS, a Manged Copy would have to strip the BD+ protection in order to get a copy onto yur hard drive that would actually be playable. Anyway you put it, I don’t like the concept of BD+. Why do I want a movie studio writing code that is going to be executed on my player? I don’t! Now, it still doesn’t have a thing to do with offering the Managed Copy as you say.

    ROM Mark tricks mass duplication of pre-recorded media. It’s a digital signature embedded in the recording that tells the player if the disc was pressed from a glass master. Doesn’t apply to Managed Copies. Doesn’t add or take away AACS’s ability to provide the feature.

    You’re just not reading the statement correctly, Josh’s statement is correct.

    BD doesn’t have a “policy” for Managed Copies. That’s exactly the problem with it. The feature means nothing if it doesn’t apply to ALL BD releases. I can go buy a single movie that allows the feature, but pick up a different title and it doesn’t! What’s the point? Where’s the consumer friendliness in that?