The comment about degraded picture quality is probably a reference to a video publisher's option to set a flag that forces players to "down res" their video output to quarter HD resolution over unprotected outputs, such as YPbPr and VGA and DVI. =20 DVDs are always decrypted and decoded in the player so image correction/conversion can be applied before output encryption is applied. Most DVD-V players output 480P30 theses days thanks to deinterlacer chips, and in some cases output scaled 720P and 1080i. People are aware that HDMI encryption can be broken, but recording/encoding the > 1Gbps video stream, or viewing on a legacy display aren't high priority threat models. Realtime HD capture/encode of analog signals is a somewhat bigger risk and may not have circumvention barriers. =20 First generation unprotected compressed video is the top threat, because of internet and recordable media redistribution. Theatrical piracy is damaging because of early availability at whatever quality, and production piracy is the worst combination of early availability and potentially high quality. Kilroy Hughes Sr. Media Architect Digital Media Interoperability Team Microsoft Corporation -----Original Message----- From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Perry Mevissen Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 00:22 To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [opendtv] Re: New DVDs already sparking copy-protection confusion Hi, If you pay a short visit to the internet and search for HDCP, which is the=20 global standard for High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection over HDMI or DVI, you will soon find out it is a joke and fairly easy to get around. Plenty of pages (linked from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDCP) will give you numerous methods to get around it. Root cause is that the=20 encryption key is just a dot product of the private and public key. With a little brute force one even claimed it possible to completely break=20 it. On the subject of "automatically degrade the DVDs' picture quality" I feel=20 the urge to comment that this is not entirely true. But in consumers eyes it may=20 seem so. The matter is that receivers (TV/monitors) process the incoming imagery to=20 improve the picture quality with algorithms like noise reduction, MPEG artifact removal, sharpness,=20 contrast etc etc. Those improvements are of course performed before the image goes to the=20 display. But if the image is encrypted to be only decrypted in the display driver then the improvement algorithms can not access the video data to improve it. So if this is the=20 case then protected content looks of less quality then unprotected content, which did get=20 improved by the receiver. Of course this it an extra drive for consumers to find a way to decrypt=20 and make an unprotected copy again of their content, applying/buying the technology mentioned in section above. It seems as if those copy protection people never learn. Perry opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 2006-02-17 04:26:45 AM: >=20 > New DVDs already sparking copy-protection confusion >=20 > By John Borland > Story last modified Thu Feb 16 08:18:19 PST 2006 >=20 > When the first high-definition DVDs finally hit shelves this spring,=20 > a mad scramble may ensue--not for the discs themselves, but to figure=20 > out what computers and devices are actually able to play them in=20 > their full glory. >=20 > Unraveling the mystery won't be easy. Many, if not most, of today's=20 > top-of-the-line computers and monitors won't make the cut, even if=20 > next-generation Blu-ray or HD DVD drives are installed. >=20 > That's because strict content protection technologies may=20 > automatically degrade the DVDs' picture quality, or even block them=20 > from playing at all, if the right connections and digital protections=20 > aren't in place. Even the most expensive computers sold today mostly=20 > lack those features. >=20 > Indeed, the consumer backlash has already begun. Graphics-chip makers=20 > such as ATI and Nvidia are drawing criticism online for marketing=20 > products that are "ready" for these new copy-protection tools but=20 > that nevertheless lack critical features needed to let the discs play=20 > at top quality. >=20 > ... >=20 > http://news.com.com/2100-1025-6040261.html >=20 >=20 >=20 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: >=20 > - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings=20 > at FreeLists.org=20 >=20 > - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the=20 > word unsubscribe in the subject line. >=20 =20 =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org=20 - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.