Audio Video News

Are you using a Blu-ray player to feed high-def images to a first-generation HDTV via component video? Guard that player well. In a few years, new players will be required to down-res high-def images fed via component video, effectively turning older high-definition TVs into standard-definition TVs.

The trigger is a long-expected move by the agency that licenses Blu-ray's digital rights management. AACS LA will require any Blu-ray player manufactured after December 31, 2013 to feed only SDTV (480i or 576i) via its analog outputs. The aim is to plug the "analog hole" by making copy-protected HDMI the sole carrier of high-def signals. With S-video or composite video, which are not HD-capable, this is not much of a loss. But the move will also affect HD-capable analog component video.

The problem is that all first-generation HDTVs, and some other early-generation sets made before the advent of DVI and HDMI, accept HD signals only through the component video interface. Being early HDTV adopters dooms owners of these sets to down-res gruel. Owners of later HDTV models with the HDMI interface, used on all current sets, would not be affected by down-res.

Users of front-projection systems may also encounter the down-res problem. Many installers favor component video for long cable runs to projectors because the analog interface is relatively impervious to signal loss. HDMI does not stand up to long cable runs unless heroic measures are applied, like the use of signal boosters. Owners of projectors connected via component video will need to buy a large, expensive HDMI cable and probably a signal booster as well. As an alternative to boosters, there are also devices that translate HDMI output to component video for long cable runs, then back to HDMI at the input.

While guaranteed to cause pain for early adopters of HDTV and front-projector users, plugging the analog hole may not, in the end, achieve its desired aim. AACS is legendary for the ease with which it can be hacked--all it takes is seven lines of code. Its restrictions have also been relaxed, with contested degrees of legality, by Kaleidescape media servers and the RealDVD copying application.

See ArsTechnica.

Incidentally, for trivia fans, the biggest hole in the world is at a diamond mine in Siberia. Picture courtesy of the Popular Pics.