It's now clear that AACS, the copy protection system both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD are going to use, will support a function called ICT (Image Constraint Token). This is bad news if you have an HDTV without an HDMI input (or a DVI input with HDCP support) because if the ICT flag is set on a disc the player needs
to down-convert the high definition video to max 960x540p when sending the
signal to the analog outputs. That means that you will only get a quarter of the
original resolution if it's 1920x1080p.
It will however be up to the movie studios to decide if they want to use the ICT function or not. Fox, which was the major force behind Blu-ray Disc's extra BD+ protection, is somewhat surprisingly reported to be one of the few studios against the use of ICT:
No studio would comment on whether it plans to take advantage of the Image Constraint option.
Within the AACS consortium, however, Warner Home Video was consistently the strongest proponent of the idea, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is not a member of AACS, but has argued against the idea in other forums.
AACS-member Disney, as well as non-member NBC Universal are likely to take advantage of the option, according to sources.
Although Sony is a member of AACS, where it sometimes clashed with Warner on the issue, sources said it is still unclear whether Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will take advantage of the ICT option now that it is in place.
Non-memberParamount also has not indicated which way it will go, according to AACS sources. |
You can read the complete article at videobusiness.com here.
Source: videobusiness.com
