New DVD technology from Hollywood

[jlewis2k1]

I came accross this article over at iExbeta and i thought this would be something to share.... http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8247

as quoted from the site:

Hollywood has unveiled a powerful new technology which it hopes will help kill the pirating of movies. The system relies on sound – not vision – and was unveiled at a conference held by the international DVD Forum in Paris, France last week.

The opportunity for a novel copyright protection system arose because the Forum is now finalising the standards for the new High Definition DVD system that goes on sale early in 2006. The details of the system were explained by Alan Bell, executive vice-president of advanced technology with Warner Brothers in California, US.

All HD-DVD players will have a sensor that looks for inaudible watermarks in the soundtrack of movies. The watermarks will be included in the soundtracks of all major movies released to cinemas.

If a DVD player detects the telltale code, the disc must be an illegal copy made by copying a film print to video, or pointing a camcorder and microphone at a cinema screen. So the player refuses to play the disc.

Subtle variations

The mark is made by slightly varying the waveform of speech and music in a regular pattern to convey a digital code. The variations are too subtle to be noticeable to the human ear, but are easily recognised by the decoder in the player.

A variation of the system can also prevent the playback of discs made by pointing a camcorder at a home screen while it is playing a legitimate disc sold to individual consumers.

The consumer discs will also have an audio watermark, which differs from the cinema mark. If an HD-DVD player senses the consumer watermark it will check whether the disc is a legal, factory-pressed version and, if not, shut down.

 

[Lacero]

New DVD technology from Hollywood

And here I thought the technology was to benefit the consumer and not treat us like criminals. I should have figured as much.

Novel idea for a DRM scheme. Watch as it gets circumvented in under 24 hours.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

And here I thought the technology was to benefit the consumer and not treat us like criminals. I should have figured as much.

Novel idea for a DRM scheme. Watch as it gets circumvented in under 24 hours.

Yep, for better or worse the pirates will always be a step ahead. New DRM schemes just delay the inevitable.

 

[cpjakes]

I really don't see how this could work for the bootlegs that point cameras at the screen. How is the DVD player not going to play those DVDs? How is that really different from a home movie and what gives the player the authority to just shut off?

cpjakes

 

[jlewis2k1]

see from what i understood if you tried to record the dvd by using a camcorder it would prevent that with some special sound and visual. i could be wrong.