t byfield on Thu, 9 Jan 2003 06:42:11 +0100 (CET) |
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<nettime> fwd: [IRR] US DTV: the battle is joined |
forwarded with permission; in granting permissions, doug noted that he glossed over lots of details and nuances, and that it wasn't his intent to give a complete picture. still, i thought his account was useful enough to forward to nettime. cheers, t ----- Forwarded From: Doug Pardee <dougpardee@yahoo.com> Subject: [IRR] US DTV: the battle is joined Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 23:42:08 -0500 The opposing forces have been eyeing each other warily for years. Maneuvering, posturing, posing, sabre-rattling. But everyone knew that it would come to war--there was no room for compromise. And last month, war did break out over American consumers' rights to record Digital TV. December 12, 2002: Viacom fires the first shot, telling the FCC that unless the FCC approves the "broadcast flag" which will allow networks to signal that their content should not be recorded, Viacom will halt all High-Definition programming on CBS.[1] CBS has, to date, been the leading network in High-Definition programming. December 19, 2002: The TV set manufacturers and the Cable TV industry announce a sudden resolution to their two-years-overdue project to hammer out standards for digital-cable-ready TV sets (note: sets able to connect to digital cable without needing a set-top box, not necessarily digital sets).[2] The agreement is contingent, however, on the FCC putting forth rules which *prohibit* any attempt to limit the full-resolution recordability of commercial broadcasts (ibid, p.36). Non-commercial broadcasts would still be able to be copy-limited, as would non-broadcast cable programming (shock!). War also breaks out on a second front: December, 2002: The TV set manufacturers begin the first ever advertising blitz for digital TVs. The sets being pushed are expensive LCD and plasma flat displays. I saw a large flat-panel for sale at Best Buy, with a price tag of $11,000 on it. Yes, that is the correct number of zeroes, and that is USD. What they don't tell you is that few of the sets currently available have HDCP copy protection built-in. If you buy one of those sets, you will not be able to watch any HDCP-protected high-definition programming.[3] December 28, 2002: DirecTV begins testing the HDCP copy protection that it has built into every DirecTV set-top box. They block full-resolution output for Channel 201 except to HDCP-compliant equipment.[4] January 4, 2003: Amy Harmon reports in the NY Times that the cable companies are about to start using the HDCP copy protection built into every digital-cable set-top box.[5] Yes, the very same digital set-top boxes that the Cable people and the TV manufacturers have agreed to render obsolete. Personal conjecture: on the HDCP front, I suspect that the TV set manufacturers are not just trying to frantically unload their old non-HDCP products before the customers get wise. I suspect that they're actually trying to achieve a large installed base of non-HDCP products, and in particular to get them installed in the homes of the wealthy and influential. How many outraged campaign contributors would it take to convince a congressman that rendering all current HDTVs obsolete is a bad idea? It's not a cold war any longer. I'm afraid that things are going to get nasty. But there's no room for compromise, and someone's going to lose. [1] http://www.tvtechnology.com/dailynews/one.php?id=715 [2] http://www.ncta.com/pdf_files/CE-NCTAagreement.pdf (big file: 7MB) [3] http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=199439 [4] http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=205970 [5] http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/05/business/05CONT.html?ex=1042434000&en=6953d4501034b740&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE -- Doug Pardee ----- Backwarded # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net