High-Def Format Drama

It's an interesting time to follow Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD, the next-gen high-def formats: Lately, every week brings something new. In the last month we've seen the first sub-$500 1080p high-definition player ship, a virtual public riot over copy protection, and the release of a highly anticipated drive that can handle playback in both formats. And soon, new marquee titles are expected to ship in each format, promising to establish new standards in interactivity.

Low-Cost 1080p HD DVD Player

Calling the Toshiba HD-A20 inexpensive may seem odd: After all, most people wouldn't pay $499 for an ordinary DVD player today. But the Toshiba HD-A20 is the least-expensive HD DVD player out now that's capable of 1080p output, and its price beats that of the Sony PlayStation 3 game console ($599 with a 60GB hard drive, the only iteration widely available here in the United States).

I'm a believer in 1080p. In our comparative tests of nine high-def players, including two Toshiba models introduced late last year and the Sony PS3, we could see a difference in image quality between the players that output at 1080i (Toshiba's HD-A2 and Microsoft's Xbox 360) and those that output at 1080p (as all Blu-ray Disc players do). One sequence that repeatedly showcased these differences was Chapter 7 of Mission: Impossible III, in which the wall that Tom Cruise's character scales exhibited a moiré pattern and shimmering bricks on the 1080i players and had a natural-looking appearance on the 1080p players.

Like all HD DVD players, the Toshiba HD-A20 has an ethernet port for firmware updates and future content downloads; via firmware upgrades it will eventually support interactive features such as on-demand picture-in-picture.

AACS: The Digg.com Revolt

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd wonder if the apparent grassroots protest by Digg.com users over the site management's decision to kill stories and links containing a decode key to bypass HD DVD copy protection was simply a May Day prank.

If I were a cynic (oh wait, I am a cynic), I'd suspect that the mayhem on Digg.com was not a grassroots response at all. For those readers who aren't familiar with the incident, Digg users protested the disappearance of all references to the HD DVD decryption key code by flooding the site with Diggs (recommendations) for not-so-new stories containing said key. Ultimately Digg.com's managers decided to stop removing the stories.

I couldn't help noticing that the protest was mostly limited to Digg.com. Other media sites and blogs, including our own, covered and commented on the brouhaha, but only on Digg.com did the actual code keep popping up ad nauseam. To me, this means the supposed riot by Digg's users was a reaction to Digg's self-censorship, and less about what most pundits seemed to focus on--spreading the key in question.

Mind you, the code has also circulated in a number of creative ways--for example, in short stories and Web site wallpapers, and on t-shirts. People who distribute the key are at risk of being found in violation of the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which makes disclosure of a copy-protection circumvention device illegal.

Old News

Ironically, the code that prompted the revolt wasn't even new. Michael Ayers, a spokesperson with the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Authority (AACS-LA), says the organization began sending cease-and-desist letters to people who published the key, back in February--shortly after the HD DVD decryption key first appeared. "These letters focused on the removal of the circumvention tools, including encryption keys that have been exposed, and focused only on that."

Ayers adds that comments in the blogosphere suggesting that AACS-LA is stomping on First Amendment rights are inaccurate. "We have focused on the tools and the keys; there is no impact on discussion or commentary. We are firm supporters of the First Amendment and free speech, and we recognize the value of the discussion of these issues. We're not interfering with that in any way whatsoever," he says. "However, you don't need to post the key to have the discussions."

The Digg revolt, Ayers adds, is "clearly a modern-day Web phenomenon. Somebody called it the first Web riot. Organized or spontaneous, it's an indication of how the online community is evolving, or devolving as the case may be.

"The key itself had been discussed a couple of months ago. The cease-and-desist letters had been discussed on the Doom 9 forum weeks ago. It's not like it was a secret. It does seem somewhat out of proportion with what one might expect."

Technical, Legal Countermeasures

Although Ayers couldn't comment on what specific actions AACS-LA might take in response (beyond the cease-and-desist letters already sent), he says: "We're not declaring war on anybody. We will take all action that is reasonable and appropriate. We've sent cease-and-desist letters that invoke the DMCA, and we've taken technical measures for the revocation of the device key."

In fact, the key in question has already been revoked and rendered useless, by Corel and CyberLink, the two vendors that make Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD movie-playback software for PCs.

This particular key, notes Ayers, "is a processing key, one of several keys used in the AACS process. It's certainly a key we would not want exposed, but it's one of several. It's derived from a device key, and it's part of a unique set of keys derived from a specific player or class of players. There's one set of keys per version of software player. That's what makes it possible to have an easy software distribution process."

If those keys are revoked, the latest versions of the software players won't work, rendering the key in question useless in the long term. Over time all software players will, eventually, be required to refresh their playback keys (see my last column for more on this subject).

High-Def on the Horizon

In product news, the combo Blu-ray Disc writer/HD DVD reader PC drive that LG announced earlier this year is now a reality. Hewlett-Packard was the first to announce its plans for incorporating the drive into its PC systems; LG says next month it will ship the drives to retail stores. We got our hands on one of the first shipping units--stay tuned for our review.

Meanwhile, for those film fans waiting for big-name titles to hit in high-def, two monster-size movie packages are heading to store shelves near you. On May 22, Warner Brothers will unleash a boxed set of The Matrix Trilogy on HD DVD; that same day, Disney will ship the first two installments of the Pirates of the Caribbean series on Blu-ray Disc. Each studio says its package delivers substantial interactivity features. We'll have more details when they launch.