Monday, May 15. 2006
DTV + HDTV + HDMI + HDCP + DVI = BAD DRM
Do you own a high-definition television? Are you going to be buying a high-definition television soon? How do you know if the image you are seeing on your television is actually high-definition? What do all of those acronyms mean? And how might your picture quality be affected with a new DRM additive?
DTV + HDTV
High-definition television (HDTV) is a standard to which all new televisions in the United States will be required to adhere. The standard features two primary changes from the system currently in use. The first change is from analog to digital and the second is a change in the picture and sound quality. Televisions will be phased into this new standard over time; however, the FCC has set a deadline of March 1, 2007 for when all new televisions will be required to have a digital tuner. A digital tuner means that the television will be able to receive digital broadcasts. This is very important since all analog broadcasts will be turned off no later than April 7, 2009. This is the date set by Congress when all television stations must relinquish their analog broadcast licenses. If you do not have a digital tuner by this date then you will not be able to receive television with an antennae. The digital transmission part of HDTV is very clear and agreed upon.
The second part of HDTV, the better picture and sound, is not quite so clear. The easiest way to understand the quality difference is to examine pixel densities. Every image you see on a television screen is created using a series of small colored dots (pixels). The more pixels you can squeeze into a smaller box, the better the picture will look. In general, if you compare two analog televisions of equal quality side by side using the same video the smaller television will appear to have the better picture. This is because both televisions have the same number of pixels but the smaller television has them closer together. There is one other issue that affects the picture quality and that is how quickly the image is refreshed on the screen.
The current analog standard calls for the picture to be updated completely 30 times every second. This is accomplished by drawing one half of the image 60 times every second. This process is called interlacing and has been the standard in the US for fifty years; however, some televisions are capable of redrawing the entire picture 60 times every second, which is known as progressive scanning. So with this in mind, here are the resolutions that both analog and digital systems are capable of using.
HDMI + HDCP + DVI
So you have a television that has a digital tuner and is listed as being 1080i compatible. Congratulations! Are you watching HDTV? The answer is "maybe". As it turns out, the companies that make television programs and movies do not trust you and me. In fact, they think that given the chance you will steal from them and that they must protect themselves in any way they can. To this end the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) specifaction from Intel is a DRM scheme used to ensure that content traveling between HD devices is secure from copying. To connect these HD device you must use digital interconnect cables. Currently there are only two interconnects that can be used: Digital Visual Interface (DVI) or high-definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). DVI is primarily used to connect digital monitors to computers and HDMI is the standard used for home theater equipment.
In an earlier DRM article we talked about the two new competing DRM standards that are coming out this year. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray DVD are both advertised as being capable of playing movies back in full 1080p resolution. This is the best possible resolution available in the HDTV standard.
To get a license to use HDCP, the licensee must agree to not only keep their HDCP keys secret but they must also agree to limit the capability of their products. When a studio creates a movie, there is an option to activate a protection flag. This flag is in place to prevent the full HD quality from being transmitted to any device that is not connected using HDCP; and, as it turns out, very few HD televisions have HDMI or DVI connections. Also, if this flag is activated, then the player must downgrade any signal that is leaving the device on an analog connection. Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players honor this flag and will only output video at 540p - and as we know 540p is not really high-definition. Broadcast high-definition would not be immune to this either; in fact, the FCC had planned to use HDCP in conjunction with the Broadcast Flag to force a 480p restriction.
What's The Problem?
The problem is that for nearly a decade now electronics manufacturers have been selling televisions that have been advertised as being HD-Ready, HD-Capable, HD-Compatible, etc. Very few of those televisions have either DVI or HDMI and the Federal Communications Commission approved HDCP as a "Digital Output Protection Technology" on August 4th, 2004. To make matters worse the electronics manufacturers are still making non-HDCP compliant devices and are not warning people about this issue. In fact if you look at the computer graphics industry the two leaders are ATI and NVIDIA. As of this writing there was no card from either of these companies that was HDCP ready.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was held last week and a couple of announcments spurred the creation of this post. E3 is "the world's premiere trade event exclusively dedicated to showcasing interactive entertainment". Primarily this show is for video game hardware manufacturers, software makers, and the industry press. The last two years at E3 have been dominated by talk from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft about their new console gaming devices. Both Sony and Microsoft have boasted about their ability to play games in HD. Playing games in HD is very true on these machines and games on bath machines look great; however, both Microsoft and Sony are releasing products to playback high-definition movie discs as well. Microsoft is releasing an HD-DVD add-on player for the XBox 360 while Sony's PS3 is coming standard with a Blu-Ray player.
There is a problem for both companies. Sony is releasing two versions of the PS3. The lower priced version does not have HDMI outputs but the higher priced version does. The XBox 360 does not have any HDMI outputs on either of the two models that are currently available. Furthermore, neither the XBox nor the PlayStation have DVI outputs. So according to the HDCP standard, neither the lower priced PS3 nor the XBox can display true HD movie content when the protection flag is set.
Both the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray organizations are quick to point out that none of the first movies that are being released actually implement the protection flag and assure us there is nothing to worry about. The fact remains that all HDCP devices must comply with the protection flag, and the protection flag is turned on by the content makers and not the hardware makers. There is nothing illegal about what these electronics manufacturers are doing but it is certainly unethical that they are not educating their customers.
If you think this is not a problem or that the buyer should beware then please consider some recent research from Scientific-Atlanta and Forrester Research. By the end of 2006 there will be 16 million U.S. households with HDTV sets and at that time only 7 million of them will actually be getting HDTV reception. Of the people that have HDTV sets now only 51% were actually using any of their HD capability. Twenty-Five percent of the people with HDTV were hooked up to standard cable but thought they were watching HDTV because at the beginning of television shows they saw a message that said "Broadcast in HDTV where available". Finally, nearly 20% of all the people with HDTV sets had no idea that they needed additional equipment to see high-definition video. It is unethical to not educate your customers. In my opinion, there is no difference between what these electronics companies are doing and the shady salespeople who prey on senior citizen's retirement accounts.
Jimmy Palmer
DTV + HDTV
High-definition television (HDTV) is a standard to which all new televisions in the United States will be required to adhere. The standard features two primary changes from the system currently in use. The first change is from analog to digital and the second is a change in the picture and sound quality. Televisions will be phased into this new standard over time; however, the FCC has set a deadline of March 1, 2007 for when all new televisions will be required to have a digital tuner. A digital tuner means that the television will be able to receive digital broadcasts. This is very important since all analog broadcasts will be turned off no later than April 7, 2009. This is the date set by Congress when all television stations must relinquish their analog broadcast licenses. If you do not have a digital tuner by this date then you will not be able to receive television with an antennae. The digital transmission part of HDTV is very clear and agreed upon.
The second part of HDTV, the better picture and sound, is not quite so clear. The easiest way to understand the quality difference is to examine pixel densities. Every image you see on a television screen is created using a series of small colored dots (pixels). The more pixels you can squeeze into a smaller box, the better the picture will look. In general, if you compare two analog televisions of equal quality side by side using the same video the smaller television will appear to have the better picture. This is because both televisions have the same number of pixels but the smaller television has them closer together. There is one other issue that affects the picture quality and that is how quickly the image is refreshed on the screen.
The current analog standard calls for the picture to be updated completely 30 times every second. This is accomplished by drawing one half of the image 60 times every second. This process is called interlacing and has been the standard in the US for fifty years; however, some televisions are capable of redrawing the entire picture 60 times every second, which is known as progressive scanning. So with this in mind, here are the resolutions that both analog and digital systems are capable of using.
- 300 pixels x 360 pixels - VHS quality - standard VCRs record and play at this level
- 460 pixels x 360 pixels - Broadcast television - your local television station transmits this
- 560 pixels x 360 pixels - Laserdisc quality - if you do not know what an LD is, don't worry
- 720 pixels x 360 pixels - DVD quality - this is why DVDs look so much better than tape
- 640 pixels x 480 pixels - 480i or 480p - DTV either interlaced (i) or progressive (p)
- 1280 pixels x 720 pixels - 720i or 720p - DTV either interlaced (i) or progressive (p)
- 1920 pixels x 1080 pixels - 1080i or 1080p - DTV either interlaced (i) or progressive (p)
HDMI + HDCP + DVI
So you have a television that has a digital tuner and is listed as being 1080i compatible. Congratulations! Are you watching HDTV? The answer is "maybe". As it turns out, the companies that make television programs and movies do not trust you and me. In fact, they think that given the chance you will steal from them and that they must protect themselves in any way they can. To this end the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) specifaction from Intel is a DRM scheme used to ensure that content traveling between HD devices is secure from copying. To connect these HD device you must use digital interconnect cables. Currently there are only two interconnects that can be used: Digital Visual Interface (DVI) or high-definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). DVI is primarily used to connect digital monitors to computers and HDMI is the standard used for home theater equipment.
In an earlier DRM article we talked about the two new competing DRM standards that are coming out this year. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray DVD are both advertised as being capable of playing movies back in full 1080p resolution. This is the best possible resolution available in the HDTV standard.
To get a license to use HDCP, the licensee must agree to not only keep their HDCP keys secret but they must also agree to limit the capability of their products. When a studio creates a movie, there is an option to activate a protection flag. This flag is in place to prevent the full HD quality from being transmitted to any device that is not connected using HDCP; and, as it turns out, very few HD televisions have HDMI or DVI connections. Also, if this flag is activated, then the player must downgrade any signal that is leaving the device on an analog connection. Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players honor this flag and will only output video at 540p - and as we know 540p is not really high-definition. Broadcast high-definition would not be immune to this either; in fact, the FCC had planned to use HDCP in conjunction with the Broadcast Flag to force a 480p restriction.
What's The Problem?
The problem is that for nearly a decade now electronics manufacturers have been selling televisions that have been advertised as being HD-Ready, HD-Capable, HD-Compatible, etc. Very few of those televisions have either DVI or HDMI and the Federal Communications Commission approved HDCP as a "Digital Output Protection Technology" on August 4th, 2004. To make matters worse the electronics manufacturers are still making non-HDCP compliant devices and are not warning people about this issue. In fact if you look at the computer graphics industry the two leaders are ATI and NVIDIA. As of this writing there was no card from either of these companies that was HDCP ready.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was held last week and a couple of announcments spurred the creation of this post. E3 is "the world's premiere trade event exclusively dedicated to showcasing interactive entertainment". Primarily this show is for video game hardware manufacturers, software makers, and the industry press. The last two years at E3 have been dominated by talk from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft about their new console gaming devices. Both Sony and Microsoft have boasted about their ability to play games in HD. Playing games in HD is very true on these machines and games on bath machines look great; however, both Microsoft and Sony are releasing products to playback high-definition movie discs as well. Microsoft is releasing an HD-DVD add-on player for the XBox 360 while Sony's PS3 is coming standard with a Blu-Ray player.
There is a problem for both companies. Sony is releasing two versions of the PS3. The lower priced version does not have HDMI outputs but the higher priced version does. The XBox 360 does not have any HDMI outputs on either of the two models that are currently available. Furthermore, neither the XBox nor the PlayStation have DVI outputs. So according to the HDCP standard, neither the lower priced PS3 nor the XBox can display true HD movie content when the protection flag is set.
Both the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray organizations are quick to point out that none of the first movies that are being released actually implement the protection flag and assure us there is nothing to worry about. The fact remains that all HDCP devices must comply with the protection flag, and the protection flag is turned on by the content makers and not the hardware makers. There is nothing illegal about what these electronics manufacturers are doing but it is certainly unethical that they are not educating their customers.
If you think this is not a problem or that the buyer should beware then please consider some recent research from Scientific-Atlanta and Forrester Research. By the end of 2006 there will be 16 million U.S. households with HDTV sets and at that time only 7 million of them will actually be getting HDTV reception. Of the people that have HDTV sets now only 51% were actually using any of their HD capability. Twenty-Five percent of the people with HDTV were hooked up to standard cable but thought they were watching HDTV because at the beginning of television shows they saw a message that said "Broadcast in HDTV where available". Finally, nearly 20% of all the people with HDTV sets had no idea that they needed additional equipment to see high-definition video. It is unethical to not educate your customers. In my opinion, there is no difference between what these electronics companies are doing and the shady salespeople who prey on senior citizen's retirement accounts.
Jimmy Palmer
Comments
My solution is simple. I do not recognize HDCP as legal or ethical and will not purchase it. I will not buy an HDTV that supports HDCP and I will not buy a player that supports HDCP. if this means I will never own an HDTV or HD Player. Find so be it. Iv'e got better things to spend $2500 on anyway.
Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/
Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/
Wow! I feel less ignorant, a lot more mad, and a little deceived! I have a 50" HD Plasma, and the Digital HD Receiver from Comcast, and I still don't know if I'm receiving "real" HD broadcasts, since the connection is through component cables! This was a real eyeopener of an article - now I have more research to do.
I wonder how far this deception will go before open rebellion occurs. Our gov't can deceive us about WMD's, but don't mess with our TV reception, man - them's fightin' words!
I wonder how far this deception will go before open rebellion occurs. Our gov't can deceive us about WMD's, but don't mess with our TV reception, man - them's fightin' words!
#3
Steve on May 18 2006, 23:23
So if i buy the higher price ps3 and have a hdmi connection then i will have a true hd picture even although my tv is not hdcp enabled?
Question: I have an HDTV. It is a Pioneer PDP-1530, purchased in May 2004. It has HDMI inputs. Will it play an HDCP protected movie or not? What I'm reading makes it sound like it has to have HDMI AND also have a chip or some programming that allows it to read the HDCP stuff.
Am I going to have to replace a 4000 dollar television if I want to watch movies with the flag turned on, even though I have HDMI, and I buy an HDCP compliant HD-DVD or Blu-Ray device and an HDCP compliant stereo?
Am I going to have to replace a 4000 dollar television if I want to watch movies with the flag turned on, even though I have HDMI, and I buy an HDCP compliant HD-DVD or Blu-Ray device and an HDCP compliant stereo?
In a word ? YES your TV is worthless now (for HD movies) in reality not yet. the studios have "realized" how bad an idea instant implimentation of HDCP is. so "for now" they all claim they will not turn on the HDCP trigger so you will be able to see FULL HD from these players (dont ever connect it to the internet if you don't want to be sorry)
Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/
Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/
Steve: Comcast HD STBs will output true 1080i or 720p thru the component output as long as you don't use the DVI or HDMI output. In fact, Comcast installers use only component because it's more universal, the cables are cheaper (if you've never heard of Monoprice.com, that is), and it avoids HDCP issues on both ends. Most of their DVI-HDCP outputs (including my first box) are buggy; if you have HDMI, I suggest asking Comcast if you can swap out for a box with HDMI output, as I did. That should assure your set will still work even if Comcast is forced to become 100% HDCP-compliant (which may or may not happen since Comcast now owns a piece of MGM).
Matt: HDCP is part of the HDMI standard, so your HDMI inputs are almost certainly HDCP-compliant.
Matt: HDCP is part of the HDMI standard, so your HDMI inputs are almost certainly HDCP-compliant.
#7
RBBrittain on May 25 2006, 21:27
Same problem. I have an 8300HD cable box from Oceanic Time Warner Cable with an HDMI output, but I have to use the component inputs. I was hoping to capitalize on the newer/better method of delivering digital signals and since the NEC 50MP1 plasma I bought two years ago does not have an HDMI connection, I purchased an HDMI to DVI-D adapter to allow the signal to input to the TV. Once hooked up, the TV tells me it is an "illegal signal" and will not accept. Is there something I can do to fix this? I have discussed with the cable company and they say it is an issue with the TV. NEC verified that it's "older" (two years and thousands of $$$) are not HDCP compatible and offered to sell me a "New" TV. Is there something you know of I could hook up to allow the TV to process the better signals like an external in-between connections/processor/adapter? If not, no biggie, the component inputs are good, I was just hopeing to get the best I could for all the money I've spent.
THANKS!
THANKS!
It might not be the best path for you but my solution would be to return the box and demand a non HDCP box (does not exist but make it known you want one and don't like it)
Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/
Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/
help..
i haven problem recieving HDTV from telewest HD Box.. From HDMI to dvi.. My sony plasma support HDTV with 1080i resolution have a DVI single digital connection.. can someone help me..
my email
nhantran69@gmail.com
i haven problem recieving HDTV from telewest HD Box.. From HDMI to dvi.. My sony plasma support HDTV with 1080i resolution have a DVI single digital connection.. can someone help me..
my email
nhantran69@gmail.com
The author has not allowed comments to this entry
