CEDIA 2009

Here are some of the major features anticipated for Pioneer's ETAP system. It's the BD Managed Copy that intrigues us most, and Pioneer conducted the first US public demo of this feature here at CEDIA. Managed copy allows suitably flagged BDs to be downloaded to a hard drive for storage and play back in full high definition. It is expected to begin showing up on some BD discs within the next year, though it will require a special BD player/recorder to make use of it. Studios can also charge for the privilege if they like. Since no current BDs are so encoded, none of your current collection can be copied.

Almost as interesting is Pioneer's claim that the ETAP player will be using a new processing chip that will offerBlu-ray operation that's eight times faster than a PS3.

ETAP is still a work very much in progress, and not a product that will show up in stores by Christmas. Features and capabilities may be changed, added, or modified before it sees the light of day.