While the mandatory requirement for equipment to support the broadcast flag has been long thrown out, it is still making its way into more and more broadcasts and set-top boxes. Now, Ricoh Japan has released an announcement that they have begun shipping VCPS capable DVD+R samples to manufacturers sice the 26th of June, which will take advantage of the upcoming broadcast flag, going by this WesleyTech report.
VCPS, the abbreviation of Video Content Protection System for DVD+R/RW (DL) media will allow the secure recording of digital TV programming with restrictions based on the flag embedded in the broadcast. For example, a flag with a broadcast may allow a recording, but not allow this recording to be copied.
While the DVD+RW alliance does not mandate the implementation of VCPS in DVD+RW recorders, recorders that lack VCPS support will not be allowed to record broadcasts with the new broadcast flag embedded. Up until now, DVD-R/RW and DVD-RAM have been using a similar copy protection technology CPRM, such as in many Panasonic DVD recorders, which support the secure recording of digital broadcasts flagged as "Record once".
