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In July 2006, a German CT magazine declared it found a security hole in the copy
protection built into HD-DVD and Blu-ray player software by just pressing the “print
screen” button on the computer keyboard which made possible to copy every frame
of an HD movie, a manual process that can be automated to repeat it for all the
video frames of a movie.
Please check the HD Content Protection section for more coverage of AACS, and its
situation of security breach with HD DVD and Blu-ray.
AACS Down-Res
In January, 06, the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) consortium, the
organization responsible for content protection on the new Hi-def DVD formats,
reached an agreement to require manufacturers of the two High Definition DVD
player formats (Blu-ray and HD DVD) to enable their players with the ability to
reduce the resolution over component analog connections from 1920x1080 to
960x540, one fourth the quality of the image stored in the disc, when responding to
a digital flag (Image Constraint Token) stored within the disc movie.
The player’s digital outputs (HDMI or DVI) will still carry the full resolution of the disc
because the outputs are protected by HDCP. Component analog connections cannot
carry that protection, reason by which the resolution would be downgraded. The
agreement would affect approximately 11 million HDTVs sold since 1998 suited only
with component analog inputs, and many Home Theater PC (HTPC) systems not
suited with HDCP compliant connections to the PC monitor.
According to the plan, the recording studio supplies the digital flag in the disc, if the
studio sets the flag “on” the player would not feed a full resolution signal to the
analog outputs.
To make a disc buyer aware, if a disc for a movie uses the flag, the disc package
must disclose that the flag was used.
Manufacturers of players and software (movies) would have to comply with the AACS
ruling in order to obtain their license, but it was left to the discretion of each
individual movie studio to decide which movies to down-res HD content over
component analog connections to 540p quality (DVD is 480p, HD is 1080p) by using
the Token.
In March 2006, Sony announced their decision of not applying the “Image Constraint
Token” on their Sony Pictures Blu-Ray titles, this decision was apparently temporary,
Sony preferred to postpone the use of the Token until analog piracy proves to be a
problem.
After this announcement, other Studios decided to follow the same approach, such
as Disney, Fox, Paramount, MGM, and Universal. They all stated that they have no
intention of using this feature, which certainly provides some hope to about 11
million HDTV owners that only have analog connections on their TVs and were
looking forward to enjoy high definition pre-recorded movies on them.
Please consult the analysis of the potential of this agreement later in this section.
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