I realized at some point earlier this year that I might be in trouble. Big
trouble. As an early adopter of HDTV, I’m stuck with a device that doesn’t
support the protected digital connections: DVI and HDMI. No big deal, though.
Component video has served me well up to this point. But then I began to hear
rumblings that the next-generation high-definition DVD formats, HD-DVD and
Blu-ray, might not support component video outputs—at least not fully.
Needless to say, I was distraught. Calls to the major hardware manufacturers
behind the new formats offered no solace, nor any definite answers. The only
thing that anyone could tell me for certain is that Hollywood and the MPAA are
on a quest to “plug the analog hole,” a catchy way of saying that when digital
media is output through an analog connection, any form of digital copy
protection becomes moot—hence their purported desire to remove or cripple analog
outputs on future high-definition devices.
My next call was to Brad Hunt,
senior vice president and chief technology officer for the MPAA, in an effort to
find out why I, an honest consumer, might be punished as a result of Hollywood’s
never-ending and seemingly overblown obsession with piracy. What follows is a
transcript of my discussion with Hunt, excerpts of which appeared in
“Conjunction Dysfunction” in the September/ October issue of Robb Report Home
Entertainment. It is presented as a counterpoint to Greg Wood’s interview with
Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, “Hollywood = 2;
Consumers = 0,” published in the Fall issue of Digital TV & Sound.
Q Brad,
let’s talk about the MPAA’s desire to close the analog hole and how it will
affect connectivity and copy protection on next-generation DVD. There are untold
millions of people who have spent billions of dollars on high-definition display
devices that don’t have digital connectivity—DVI or HDMI.
A And let me
interject: I’m one of those individuals. I am a high-end home theater
enthusiast—I have a legacy, analog, early-adopter HDTV, and full 5.1 surround
sound with a Denon receiver—so I’m that guy. I know how that guy feels.
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