Got the Viiv?

By Alexander Grundner | March 17th, 2006 (0) Comments

CNET News has posted a primer of what Intel’s new Viiv platform is all about. There seems to have been a cloud of mystery surrounding Viiv for some time, but it’s basically a PC system comprised Viiv-certified hardware components that are powered by Intel’s Pentium D/Pentium Extreme Editon/Core Duo processors, featuring a minimum 5.1 channel analog surround sound audio processor or SPDIF out, instant-on “Quick Resume” technology, a specialized media server application for transcoding/streaming multi-format content to Viiv-enabled media adapters, and is loaded with Windows Vista MCE exclusively for its operating system (more details).

However, CNET notes: “Curiously absent from Intel’s Viiv requirements are a TV tuner card and a decent video card, both of which are considered mandatory inclusions for any home entertainment PC. Thus, just because a machine has a Viiv sticker, don’t assume that it’s great for gaming or TV viewing.” This move by Intel actually makes sense, though, because a desktop PC, notebook, or UMPC can be Viiv-enabled but wouldn’t necessarily need to have a dedicated TV tuner card when, in most cases, they’ll be interfacing with their TV connected, main desktop or living room Viiv PC.

On the DRM front, Intel’s Don MacDonald had some interesting things to say on the topic – that’s been getting some buzz around the net today – to CNET’s reporters. Below is the excerpt:

Digital Rights Management
According to Don MacDonald, Intel’s stance surrounding Digital Rights Management (DRM) is that consumers should be able to do whatever they like with legally purchased content. That means backing it up to external drives and streaming it to other devices such as handhelds and networked machines.

As such, Intel is encouraging Viiv content providers to allow users to pass their media to other devices — a factor that’s critical to the success of the Viiv concept. We were unable to confirm whether or not the current selection of content could be streamed seamlessly to external devices, but as mentioned above, this feature won’t be widely available until the digital media adapters hit our shores later this year anyway.

Interestingly, MacDonald also told CNET.com.au that Viiv won’t be testing to see if the content being played is pirated from networks such as BitTorrent. He believes that it’s not Intel’s job to be policing downloads and that it’s wrong to assume that “all consumers are criminals”. As such, Viiv won’t test for “watermarks” or other red flags that reveal pirated content, allowing any type of media to be played.

Ultimately, though, MacDonald is confident that piracy won’t be a significant issue for Viiv, as Intel promises to “make content easier to buy than it is to pirate”.

All in all, nothing new was really revealed if you’ve been following our coverage, but it’s interesting to note that both Intel/Microsoft and Apple are pushing hard for downloadable on-demand premium content. In an age where people aren’t watching “live” TV as much as they used to, preferring to time-shift their programming, it will be interesting to see if consumers will move from paying for standard cable TV service to a pay-as-you-go IPTV service (because ultimately that’s what both groups would prefer).

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