OT: Blu-ray players to eliminate HD analog video

John_Cline wrote on 6/11/2009, 2:37 PM

Apparently, on December 31, 2010, all Blu-ray players will be limited to SD only analog output on AACS encrypted commercial discs. On December 31, 2013, no analog output whatsoever on AACS discs.

By the time this take effect it probably isn't going to affect many people, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/06/hollywood-drives-us-

Comments

richard-courtney wrote on 6/11/2009, 4:28 PM

I thought it was interesting that camcording was mentioned in the article
you linked.

see this:
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/2164

A new sticker may be needed on all HD camcorders:
"It is unlawful to point your camera at a HD television or monitor"

I think they are going too far with limits on players.

Jay Gladwell wrote on 6/12/2009, 4:14 AM

Evidently, I don't fully understand what's going on here.

Why are they pushing this? What are they afriad of?

blink3times wrote on 6/12/2009, 4:59 AM

"Why are they pushing this? What are they afriad of?"

It's pretty easy to copy a movie through analogue outs. It's just another of many leaky back doors that they're trying to eliminate.

I don't really see this as too much of an issue. We're slowly moving away from analogue anyway

John_Cline wrote on 6/12/2009, 5:05 AM

"We're slowly moving away from analogue anyway"

We made a giant leap away from analog in the U.S. today, except for a few low-power TV stations and rural translators, analog TV broadcasting has ended. Yippee! It's about time.

farss wrote on 6/12/2009, 6:06 AM

Probably by 2013 Blu-ray will be dead anyway. Our goverment is planning to provide a national FTN network to 90% of the population. Moving 50GB of data per day to a torrent box will be practical so why go buy a shiny disk.

Bob.

RalphM wrote on 6/12/2009, 6:09 AM

John,

While 80% of the US is on cable, I'm feeling sorry for those in remote areas that depend on over the air reception of digital signals. With analog transmission, you could watch a degraded picture. With digital you get unwatchable breakups.

I'm less than 30 miles from full power transmitters, with one TV on a large antenna in my attic. Digital reception ain't pretty.

Former user wrote on 6/12/2009, 6:59 AM

RalphM.

That has been my experience too. I am on digital cable, but I bought a converter box to play with. Picture is great as long as you are line of sight and the weater is good. But bad weather or when the trees start greening up affects the picture. At least with analog, you could always get some image. With digital, you either get it all or not.

And right now, there aren't many portable digital TVs. Our power goes out a lot during storms and I could always pull out the little 5" portable and get at least one or two stations for news and weather info. I know they will have digital portable TVs available, but they aren't around much yet.

And of course, digital will not improve the TV content. :)

Dave T2

Laurence wrote on 6/12/2009, 7:53 AM

I have an old HD TV with only component in: no DVI or HDMI. I have my Philips Bluray player connected via component. Does this mean that new Bluray discs won't play on my setup? If so, hell yeah this affects me.

Terry Esslinger wrote on 6/12/2009, 11:29 AM

I too have an 'old HD TV'. A Mitz 65" CRT rear projection that yields amazing pictures. But it only has component inputs (actually it has a firewire input also but its very hit and miss and is usually unusable). I have connected my PS3 HDMI to an HDMI router and using an HDMI to component cord connected it to the TV. Seems to work great. I hope I can do the same thing when they try this new way to get me to buy something else.

wjsd wrote on 6/12/2009, 5:09 PM

Does this mean that new Bluray discs won't play on my setup? If so, hell yeah this affects me.

If you'll notice, it said this affects only new players after December 31, 2010. So you can still go out and buy a new player on December 30 that will not have this 'feature'. And this will affect new discs after 2013. So you have three more years of life left in your current setup. And we all know that three years is forever in today's world of technology.

So yes, if you still have your current setup three years from now, no new discs for you. You might have to spend $69 for a new player.

SuperG wrote on 6/13/2009, 8:53 AM

"It's pretty easy to copy a movie through analogue outs. It's just another of many leaky back doors that they're trying to eliminate.

I don't really see this as too much of an issue. We're slowly moving away from analogue anyway "

Except if you have a pre HDMI monitor with component inputs....

But your right, it's not all that much after all, since, as the original news article implied, it's even easier to make a digital copy, AACS protection be damned.

It's just knee-jerking from the Hollywood studios.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 6/13/2009, 10:27 AM

so... in effect, the BD standard won't be a standard until 2013. Isn't that a little long from first selling to consumers to standard? That gives a WIDE possibly combination of systems out there for people to have.