NEW WIndows to Require Monitor-Based DRM

[BJ_M]

(from this could really suck department)


"Engadget has an interesting article regarding a new feature in Longhorn entitled PVP-OPM (Protected Video Path - Output Protection Management) which detects the capabilities of the display devices you are using and manages how (and if at all) content is sent to it. In short, this means that if Longhorn detects that your monitor is not "secure" enough, then your premium video content won't play on it until you buy one that is. Who gets to decide? The content providers of course." From the article: "So what will happen when you try to play premium content on your incompatible monitor? If you're "lucky", the content will go through a resolution constrictor. The purpose of this constrictor is to down-sample high-resolution content to below a certain number of pixels. The newly down-sampled content is then blown back up to match the resolution of your monitor. This is much like when you shrink a JPEG and then zoom into it. Much of the clarity is lost. The result is a picture far fuzzier than it need be."


This is course to prevent people from capturing HDTV content by just playing it from one system into another ...


read more HERE

[BJ_M]

What I like to know is how this is going to effect people creating content on such OS's ?

[waheed]

Theres one reason not to upgrade to Longhorn. This is complete bullshit. Why should companies get to choose how we view the content in our own homes.

[yoda313]

Hi,

????????

So know you'll have to buy a "certified monitor" as well as an hdtv just to watch movies???? Man what a jip.

But of course they'll be a hack sooner or later

Kevin

[RottenFoxBreath]

haha good ol BJ_M,always one for a good funny story.
man if this is a truth,then thats another reason not to update to any microshaft os.

[mcnabb311]

Another reason why Apple+Intel and OSX may replace windows.

[junkmalle]

We're all gonna need one of these:

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000230050640/

http://www.spatz-tech.de/spatz/dvi_magic.htm

Better get one before the company is shut down!

[BJ_M]

Another reason why Apple+Intel and OSX may replace windows.

they will have exactly the same thing -- it was already prev. announced

[BJ_M]

We're all gonna need one of these:

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000230050640/

http://www.spatz-tech.de/spatz/dvi_magic.htm

Better get one before the company is shut down!

yea - those seem to do the trick -- i wonder how long the boys will let that puppy be sold ?

[TheFamilyMan]

Man, talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face! Of course, this only affects you if you're attempting to view "protected" content with your computer. Anyone have any idea what percentage of computer users use their computer for viewing movies or broadcast programming? Obviously Longhorn will go over like a lead balloon (led zep, anyone?) with these folks, since they probably already spent big $$$ on their monitors!

[waheed]

We're all gonna need one of these:

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000230050640/

http://www.spatz-tech.de/spatz/dvi_magic.htm

Better get one before the company is shut down!

400 euros. Too expensive.

[spiderman2k1]

More junk from Mickeysoft LOL.

This is crazy Microsft wants to have complete control over you. I really wish Linux would get better like OSX or windows just make it easy to use and Windows might die a slow death.

[edDV]

More junk from Mickeysoft LOL.

This is crazy Microsft wants to have complete control over you. I really wish Linux would get better like OSX or windows just make it easy to use and Windows might die a slow death.

Lets keep in mind who the real draconian driver is and that is "Hollywood" and their political buddies. Microsoft, Apple, Comcast, DirectTV, Dish all have to convince "Hollywood" their platform technology is secure before they can play at all. I'm sure these companies would be happy to run HD DVD without DRM if they could.

[SilverBlade]

2 words:

Cash Grab

[thecoalman]

So know you'll have to buy a "certified monitor" as well as an hdtv just to watch movies???? Man what a jip.

Simple, don't buy it. If no one bought the damn things.... course that's not going to happen.

[painkiller]

Ok, let's see now -

List1 - things not to buy (ever).
MS products beyond Win2K SP2;
MS certified monitors

Maybe if there's enough that I don't ever want to buy - then I can finally afford an HDTV widescreen flat screen.

Too bad there won't be any decent content for me to watch - let alone even be interested enough to save any of it for later.

Heck, no more theater; no more DVDs.

Guess I can finally afford to fill my truck's gas tank!

[whitejremiah]

hmmm..........all this stuff i keep hearing about longhorn...im not sure that ANYONE will WANT the dang thing....i keep hearing just REDICULOUS minimum OS requirements (which doesnt surprise me...just look at how insanely high the minimum requirements jumped from win2k to winxp) and now lately all i hear about longhorn is DRM this and DRM that......remind me when i buy a new pc NOT to put any form of windows...or mac's OS'es on it....
im gonna go straight linux...i KNOW that THEY wont do the end users wrong...thing that the big companies dont realize is by the time that they start using a technology like this widely its normally already defeated, or at least shortly thereafter......look at just about everything out there that CAN be actually pirated/modified to work with backup/pirate copies.....everything from a sega saturn video game system all the way up to the new stuff...ps2, xbox systems...dvd players (a good number of them can be region hacked with a few button presses or otherwise modified) and more recently, sony's new attempt on copy protection that was SHATTERED within 3 days by the guy who made dvd decryptor....when will they stop trying and give up?

[thecoalman]

sony's new attempt on copy protection that was SHATTERED within 3 days by the guy who made dvd decryptor....when will they stop trying and give up?

That's the limitation of the DVD format not the limitation of technology. It's also one of the reasons DVD is so popular is because it's consumer friendly, you can plug any DVD player into any TV and what do you know you have a video. You can even make your own DVD's, not sure if you were aware of that. Because it's so popular it's also quite cheap.....

If these manufacturers continue along the same path of making the technology less and less consumer friendly at some point they are going to hit a wall. No ones going to buy it, their sales are going to suffer and the consumer is going to be stuck with expensive out of reach hardware/software.

Too bad there won't be any decent content for me to watch - let alone even be interested enough to save any of it for later.

I agree with that 100%. It's probably been a year since I've been to the theatre, I haven't rented a movie in a year or two, I own 0 DVD titles because they cost too much,..... and no I have no pirated movies either.

If everyone jumped in the same boat with me you would see a drastic change in the movie industry.

[NiteLite]

Simple, don't buy it. If no one bought the damn things.... course that's not going to happen.

Sure it can. I didnt buy XP. Found no use for it .

[junkmalle]

Intel is in on it too:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24638

The problem is something called the Secure Premium Content Module (SPCM), and its reason for being is to decrypt MS DRM fast and 'securely'. It is an open question as to how this security benefits the user though. Anything other than Microsoft DRM is listed as 'possible' for SPCM, but as now, the list of additional supported DRM providers is zero. The transcoding will basically add DRM to anything that touches the box, preventing you from using any fair use rights, and preventing legal sharing.

[mecg]

This doesn't seem to be just video that they're "helping" us with...

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/stream/output_protect.mspx

[VideoTechMan]

Well this isnt good. Something like this will eventually at some point start a media rebellion when people get pissed to the point to where they can't do what they like with their legally purchased content, whatever that may be.

After reading this, I for sure wont be buying Longhorn....XP is enough for me. Besides I dont listen to any online music or movies anyway. All of this DRM and protection stuff is really going to anger alot of people. And these greedy companies wonder why there are so many people out there that break the protections these companies tries to shove down our throats.

No wonder analog was so popular.....and I feel that analog is still going to be here for awhile yet.

VTM

[Xylob the Destroyer]

wait a minute now...
I just dropped $1700.00 on a TV, how do I know if it supports HDCP?
I'm gonna be REALLY fuckin' pissed if my supposedly bad-ass new TV won't display Blu-Ray or HD-DVD!

[whitejremiah]

There will be quite literally NO reason at all for me to "upgrade" (IF you can call it that!!!) to longhorn...so now DRM'ed audio through the soundcards too (did i read that right off the M$ webpage?!?!?!) windows xp can already support the type of hardware that most people will be running in around five years, so i'd say im good...windows xp all the way........i also heard a while back (dunno if this is true or not still) but i HEARD that you will have to buy a new copy of windows every few years or so..basically that the copy of longhorn will expire after a certain amount of time and will cease to work. I was running windows 2000 for like five years off an on (heck i still got this computer set to dual boot if i ever find a need for windows 98!) I'm gonna be TICKED if that is the case......all this DRM will honestly cause a revolt over time.....people will only take so much before they decide to do something about the stuff thats just plain WRONG. I say that ALL forms of DRM should be outlawed....i know thats probably not gonna happen anytime REALLY soon but who knows after all this junk that M$ and all the other big companies are pulling it may be sooner than i think........

[AlecWest]

Sigh. This is almost like buying a car with a pre-sales agreement to never drive it ... that you have to allow someone else to drive you around, and only to the locations they want to take you.

It won't take too many more innovations like this to drive me back to reading books ... and selling off all my video/audio/computer equipment to anyone stupid enough (or sheepish enough) to buy it.

Yup, content providers only want to hear one sound coming from their future customers:

"Baaaaaaa..."

[stiltman]

Get over it....One way or another you'll be forced to upgrade to new hardware and OSs. That's a fact, or everyone would still be DOS based with new GUIs.

All you can hope for is mod chips and software hacks to come along shortly.


Look at all the new DRM stuff added since Win3.11 and were still be happy. Look at the mod chips for PS2 and XBox2, gamers are still happy


My point?
Don't worry, be happy

[Xylob the Destroyer]

easy for you to say, did you just spend $1700.00 on a TV?
maybe that's just pocket change to some folks, but it was a lot of money to me.

[edDV]

easy for you to say, did you just spend $1700.00 on a TV?
maybe that's just pocket change to some folks, but it was a lot of money to me.

If it didn't have a HDMI port you bought a 18mo or more old model.

...how do I know if it supports HDCP?

all HDMI supports HDCP
some DVI include HDCP (read the specs)

If you only have component analog HD inputs or VGA-HD like me, you are screwed.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

it has 1 coax, 1 composite, 2 S-Video (or maybe 3?), 2 component, and 1 HDMI.
does that mean it supports HDCP?

[edDV]

yep, on the HDMI only.