Philips VTrack Introduced to Fight PayTV Piracy

[BJ_M]

Philips Launches New Forensic Watermarking Tool to Help PayTV Providers and Content Owners Combat Piracy

Philips introduces VTrack, a state of the art forensic watermarking solution for set-top box integration, supported by major chipset vendors including Broadcom, ST and Texas Instruments

Complementing its extensive portfolio of content identification products, Philips introduces VTrack, an advanced watermarking technology that offers PayTV providers a new tool to get a grip on illegal content duplication and distribution.

VTrack embeds an imperceptible and indelible unique identifier into the video signal in a consumer friendly manner, as it does not restrict personal use and enjoyment of entertainment content, but pirated content can be traced back to a specific PayTV subscriber. By utilizing watermarking technology in set-top boxes, content pirates will expose themselves to greater legal risk if they attempt large-scale redistribution of improperly obtained content. Philips VTrack will enable content providers to confidently broadcast more high definition and early release material that is typically at higher risk for piracy.



"We are thrilled that Philips has entered the market with a session based, forensic watermark system. Forensic watermarks have already shown their merit in PayTV applications and help protect our premium content from unauthorized redistribution by counterfeiters and others," says Andrew G. Setos, President of Engineering, Fox Group. "We look forward in the coming weeks to working with Philips to validate the performance of their system in our lab."

The VTrack forensic watermarking product, designed especially for digital consumer devices such as set-top boxes and integrated digital TVs, provides the industry with an ideal solution to protect premium, copyrighted content spanning across PayTV, Video on Demand, and hotel TV. VTrack supports HD and SD content, is format independent and is therefore transparent for current and next generation codecs, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264/AVC and VC-1.

"This additional layer of content protection is crucial to identify the source of pirated PayTV content," says Nicholas Dunn, Marketing Director of Broadcom, DBS Products. "The integration of Philips watermarking with our chipsets allows for a short time to market and is a perfect match for our video processor technology."

VTrack digital watermarks are extremely robust and cannot be separated from the content or altered. Even after severe quality degradation of the video such as scaling, cropping, compression and even camcorder copying, the pirated content can still be traced to a specific PayTV subscriber.

"Philips' VTrack watermarking solution fits perfectly with our multi-media co-processor architecture," says Christos Lagomichos, Corporate VP, ST Home Entertainment. "It brings valued protection to content while maintaining system performance."

VTrack is the result of many years of Philips experience in high quality watermarking products. Philips has successfully protected pre-release movie screeners and has the only widely accepted and deployed Digital Cinema product. Philips watermarking has been commercially available for more than six years, protecting premium content.

"The main piracy threat in PayTV so far has been theft of service, which has been addressed by Conditional Access and Digital Rights Management. Now with the increased availability of HD devices and content, the capture and distribution of high quality content copies is a new threat requiring a different approach," says Alex Terpstra, CEO of Philips Content Identification.

"There is now a solution in the shape of VTrack, which is robust and easy to integrate. The VTrack watermark survives camcorder copying and therefore plugs the analog hole. We are pleased to add leading chip vendors like Broadcom, ST and TI to our growing list of chip manufacturers that integrate this exiting technology."

[gll99]

If this means that we can still time shift and convert to another medium for personal use and it gives the industry a method of identifying those who illegally distribute copyrighted content then I applaud the technology. Consumers don't mind paying for a service but want the transportability and time shifting capability to satisfy personal viewing habits and schedules.

If I got it wrong then I take my applause back

[BJ_M]

Philips has successfully protected pre-release movie screeners

didn't seem to help slow them down much if you ask me ....

[jagabo]

Philips has successfully protected pre-release movie screeners

didn't seem to help slow them down much if you ask me .... :shock:

It will when they track down enough of them:

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/021806/osc_E0451.shtml

LOS ANGELES - A man accused of uploading a copy of the film "Walk the Line" that was intended for an Academy Award voter has been charged with copyright infringement.

Luis Ochoa, 25, of Corona, faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine if convicted.

[BJ_M]

ok --- one down

[nwo]

If this means that we can still time shift and convert to another medium for personal use and it gives the industry a method of identifying those who illegally distribute copyrighted content then I applaud the technology. Consumers don't mind paying for a service but want the transportability and time shifting capability to satisfy personal viewing habits and schedules.

If I got it wrong then I take my applause back

1984

[gll99]

In the context of PayTV brought up here.
In my city and perhaps everywhere, PayTV cannot be recorded with cable company provided recorders. I don't know if that's true with dishes too. That fact already is here and it discourages some people from using the service. Invariably even the most well planned evening of rest and relaxation watching a paid program turns into a night of unexpected interruptions. There is no mechanism to say I was disturbed 20 times please give me my money back, I'll watch this another day.

If confidence in this technology grows to the point where recording limitations imposed by distributors are lifted then it would be good for the consumer and the industry. They would feel secure that no mass distribution of their movies and shows will take place and paying customers will be able to view the video at their leisure.

Of course there are ways to get around this stuff by recording the av signal with something else and then re-encoding blah blah.... and now they would catch that too but that's not the point. The existing cable hardware is already designed to record and the option to transfer that video via some interface like firewire to an ipod or other personal device should be available also. Unauthorised distribution of that video to others would be traceable but why would we take issue with that?

There is a reasonable common sense area where individual use and enjoyment of a product can co-exist with a companies right to profit from their work. While it is not universally accepted as a general principle of law, it is a balanced concept that many people refer to as fair use.

I am quite willing to concede their right to have a track-able product if they in turn concede to my right to enjoy it as I see fit. This does not extend to Microsoft's "Call Home" operating system style of tracking. That would be intrusive on my privacy and right to enjoy the product as I see fit in a non-Internet environment if I so choose.

OT: My apologies.

1984
My opinion:
The right to privacy has already been compromised by one sided agreements thrust upon us by isp, cable / satellite providers, telephone companies,software companies etc.. and we would be denied service if we declined to accept those agreements. Try clicking no on a software you purchased when it comes to accepting the agreement. You can't simply cross out or add a clause like I've done on purchase agreements in the past. It's all or nothing. You don't agree you cant have the service or install the software. That's it no other recourse.

If anyone thinks that your tv watching patterns are not already being monitored and recorded, you are dreaming. Those statistics are invaluable to broadcasters and show producers. They are worth money to cable and satellite providers. Forget those artificial Neilson ratings families, those boxes provide a much more accurate viewer statistical sample. They contain exactly how many minutes of which show you have been watching and your provider has all that information by box id as it's uploaded from your converter/decoder every day.

One day I was using a free online mortgage calculator. Why did my hotmail account start receiving a steady stream of mortgage related emails? I never provided my email. Where did they get it. Coincidence? Using Google, I was searching projectors and guess what projector info in that same mail account. Cleaned all cookies killed all spy-ware. Google toolbar? Maybe that's the culprit. MS Hotmail cookies themselves? Likely also. Who knows it's not critically important to me but interesting? I could go on but enough OT.

Pleasant dreams we will watch over you while you sleep