Dell to Add Security Chip to PCs

[Dave Emery]

On Sat, Feb 05, 2005 at 11:23:14AM +0100, Eugen Leitl wrote:
> > The point is that HDTV is a popular consumer technology, and the MPAA
> > and TV networks alone managed to hijack it.
> 
> I have yet to see a single HDTV movie/broadcast, and I understand most TV
> sets can't display anything beyond 800x600.

	Not widespread in Europe yet, but all the big networks in the US
now support it for most or nearly all their prime time schedule and most
big events (sports and otherwise) are now in HDTV in the USA.   Also
more and more cable networks in HDTV and some movie channels. Bandwidth
is the big limitation on satellite and cable, otherwise there would be
even more.

	And HDTV sets are selling well now in the USA.   Most do not yet
have the full 1920 by 1080 resolution, but many are around 1280 by 720
native resolution which works well with the 720p progressive version used
primarily for sports (looks better with fast motion).

> 
> DVD started with a copy protection, too.

	However the really strange thing about the FCC broadcast flag is
that the actual over the air ATSC transport stream on broadcast channels
is mandated by law to be sent *IN THE CLEAR*, no encryption allowed - so
the FCC decision basicly requires any receiver sold to the public
*ENCRYPT* an ITC signal before providing it to the user.    Naturally
this bit of nonsense will go far to make the broadcast flag very
effective indeed at preventing anyone with very modest  sophistication
from capturing the over the air in the clear transport stream and
passing it around on P2P networks or whatever - there is already plenty
of PCI hardware out there to receive ATSC transmissions (MyHD and many
others) and supply the transport stream to software running on the PC.

-- 
   Dave Emery N1PRE,  die at dieconsulting.com  DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493