The Guardian Unlimited tech blog reports that soon Apple computer screens will have digital restriction management (DRM) built in. Apple will launch a new range of “cinema display” screens using High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connectors. The main advantage of HDMI over the competing standard is that it includes High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, or HDCP. Sorry about all the acronyms. Anyway, this means you won’t be able to show copyrighted video on your new Apple screen unless the computer thinks you own it legally. Says the Guardian blog, “HDCP requires that every device with access to the reproduction chain supports HDCP.” In other words, the whole machine will have DRM in its DNA. Not only will this prevent you from making legal backup copies of your legally purchased media and playing them on your new Apple computer, but who knows what the DRM will do to the functionality of your hardware. My own experience with DRM is that it tends to crash your machine and get in the way of using your computer for even the most legitimate ends. Oh well, so much for “rip mix burn,” eh?
Simple solution, eh… don’t buy Apple.
So much for my plan of switching to a mac sometime in the future. I guess I’ll stick with the frankenstein pc’s that can be cobbled together from various parts.
If you go to the actual story, it says: “MacOSXRumors expects Apple to launch…” Don’t jump to conclusions on the accuracy of the story, or the implications of what it might mean. This opinion is not well thought out. It doesn’t say the displays (if they even exist) will be HDMI-only. And you don’t have to use an Apple display with an Apple computer. It’s no issue with an iMac, and you can use any monitor with the Mac Mini or the Mac Pro.
This story is a crock. HDMI will be used for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD by all companies. Non high-def video will go through other connections.
Hey Joanne,
You could well be right, and I should have made it clearer this was a rumor. I hope you’re wrong that HDMI will be used by all companies for HD-DVD. The thing that worried me about this report was that “HDCP requires that every device with access to the reproduction chain supports HDCP.” That sounded as though the whole machine — any machine that might have a HDMI display — would have to support HDMI. I could be wrong, but that sounds as though all the hardware would have DRM built in…
Don’t Panic.
HDCP is there to protect HD content only. i.e. Bluray, HD-DVD and, presumably, yet to be implemented online HD movie distribution. Upgrading to a machine with HDMI and HDCP support will not prevent you from doing anything you’re already doing. You’ll still be able to rip standard definition DVD’s to your hard-drive as much as you like. Not having a HDCP compliant machine is what *might* prevent you from playing *some* HD content at full resolution in the future.
Bluray and HD-DVD both support a HDCP flag that, if enabled, will cause those disks to be played only in standard DVD resolution if the system isn’t fully HDCP compliant. That flag has to be enabled or, otherwise, it’ll play fine. Since HDCP support has, so far, been a royal mess no Bluray or HD-DVD released to date has shipped with that flag turned on. It’s questionable if that flag will ever be used at all, since it will add more confusion to an already very confused HD market when some disks wind up looking like crap on certain systems when most look great. (It’s already bad enough that many set-top players do this with all media, flagged or unflagged, often depending on the type of connection used.)
Will you be able to rip HD-DVD’s and Bluray discs to your hard-drive like DVD’s? Not at first. People have found hacks to rip off keys to decode some titles, but a universal hack to defeat the encryption on HD media has not yet been developed. At present, they successfully prevent users from ripping them the same way CSS on DVD’s was meant to. That will probably change. However, this is completely unrelated to HDCP other than that once people fine a way to rip HD media they’ll probably also be able to disable the HDCP flag, if the studios are ever idiotic enough to tempt fate by shipping media with that flag enabled. (If people find their early generation HDCP “compliant” uber-expensive display actually isn’t HDCP compliant, they might well be motivated to do some hacking.)
That being said, why is Apple moving to HDMI and HDCP complaint hardware? Part of the reason is that they’re essentially using PC hardware now. It’s cheaper not to make their manufacturers supply apple hardware with these features removed. Also, if they did so, apple users might someday be prevented from playing HD content at full resolution. Essentially, they’ve been forced to adopt Microsoft’s DRM for video content much like how they foisted their own crappy DRM on the music comunity with iTunes. If anything, it’s poetic justice. Microsoft probably got the idea by looking at iTunes and deciding they could own online media distribution of HD video the same way apple owns almost all of the online music market.
So, yes, DRM could potentially suck. If you plan to play HD-DVD or Bluray media on your mac you will most likely need hardware that supports this DRM however. (You’re going to need new hardware anyways since your current hardware is probably too slow.) Avoiding it like some cavewoman technophobe isn’t going to solve anything. Just pray AACS (The Bluray and HD-DVD equivalent of CSS) gets it’s equivalent of DeCSS pronto so the industry gives up on enforcing their idiotic DRM instead of trying to lock it down so tight that half their users can’t even play their content.
The Guardian is one of the few newspapers I trust, but when it comes to covering Apple they seem to be completely biased.
They always manage to put a negative spin on any Apple story:
Whatever crappy MP3 player hits the market they always cover it as the imminent death of the iPod.
Apple stock goes through the roof, they manage to find an analyst saying it didn’t do as well as expected.
This (non) story is really stretching it – covering a rumour from MacOSXRumors, a site that went to live in fantasy land years ago, has been going down the drain ever since, and is now trying to get itself bought out.
(psst… DRM stands for digital rights management…)