Comments on HDTV Not Ready Yet

By: Chris Lawrence

2006-03-31T01:34:54Z

No, it’s not about the promises from all the studios except Warner.

AACS is essentially “CSS on crack.” It is implemented on the disc and player (consumer player, HTPC, etc.) only, and applies to both BD (Bluray) and HD DVD. The AACS downscaling bit tells the player that it must not send out the full resolution signal on analog or non-HDCP protected digital outputs; if the bit is set, the player can still send full-res video to the monitor, but only if it supports HDCP handshaking. If it isn’t set, the signal can go out unscaled.

So, AACS equipment doesn’t really exist yet, but that’s because there are essentially no HD DVD or BD players available. But it’s a non-issue for monitors and HDTVs, since all they need to be compatible is HDCP support (much more common on consumer HDTVs and HD monitors than on computer monitors).

Of course, the other issue is that at normal viewing distances, I’d be surprised if you could tell the difference between downscaled to 960×540 1080p video and real 1080p video except when looking at things like small print in the credits, particularly since 960×540 is just a 50% downscale (which will show few, if any, obvious artifacts). And it’s still over 3 times the on-disc 480×480 resolution of DVD.

By: Jeff Licquia

2006-03-29T23:50:08Z

That seems to contradict the sources above, who seem to think that the monitor does have to support AACS directly to avoid downsampling, at least for movies with the “DRM bit” set.

Now, it sounds like you know your way around this stuff better than I, so I’m thinking I must be confused.

(I’ve also posted about the studios’ promises not to set the bit. Is that what you’re talking about?)

By: Chris Lawrence

2006-03-29T01:30:05Z

HDTV monitors don’t need to support AACS directly for full-rez digital playback of protected content; instead, all they need to support is the existing HDCP protocol over DVI or HDMI (and I think HDCP is required as part of the latter). Pretty much any HDTV made today with either port supports HDCP (including my $700 27-inch Westinghouse), although a few cheapie off-brand ones may not, and there are some really cheap HDTVs still with only analog (component) inputs.

Computer monitors, however, may be another issue, and TVs with multiple HDCP-capable inputs aren’t that common, since most low-end equipment didn’t have digital outputs until recently, which is a limitation if you (say) want to use a HTPC and an upconverting DVD or Bluray/HD-DVD at the same time.