Q  So how visible is that?
 
A  We conducted a number of tests here on different displays, and what we quickly realized was that nearly all of the legacy HDTV displays with analog-only inputs are CRT-based—that’s what I have—and most of them don’t resolve all 1920 by 1080 pixels. We did some demos where we took full resolution 1920 by 1080 content, we image constrained that content, then we up-rezzed that content using standard spatial interpolation, and we then created a 26 megabit per second MPEG2 file recorded on a D-VHS cassette. Then we played a demo where we A/B’d constrained versus unconstrained, and we couldn’t see a difference.
 
There’s a lot of misinformation about how the early adopters with analog-only inputs are going to be disadvantaged if—if—content owners use an image- constrained signal, but we never were able to demonstrate any disadvantage.

Clearly, the new generation of HD sets, like DLP and LCD displays that have a full 1920 by 1080 progressive-scan image, they would certainly see a difference in those, with regard to image constraint. It would be very subtle. But the idea is that those sets have the protected digital interconnects.
 
Q  But let’s get back on track and talk about next-gen DVD. This image constraint is what we will potentially be seeing on HD-DVD and Blu-ray, correct?
 
A  That’s correct. But it is a competitive marketplace of content owners selling high-def content. They recognize that many of the people they want to sell this content to are early adopters with display devices that don’t have digital connections. They don’t want to disenfranchise those people because they will be the first buyers of this content. But over time, they want to give the marketplace an incentive to embrace the protected digital outputs, and hopefully watch the marketplace walk away from analog connections, which really don’t have any benefits.