HD DVD requires Digital Imprimatur to authorise playback
A while back there was a mention that the next generation DVD format, HD DVD will use the sophisticated content protection system AACS. According to the AACS Pre-recorded Video Book Specification, in order for media and players to be AACS compliant, a disc can only be published if it contains a digital imprimatur and players for the media must reject any work that lacks a digital imprimatur. An imprimatur is the latin for "let it be printed", which means that a work cannot be published without first being approved by some central authority.
Every disc that is published must contain an up-to-date list of revoked works and when ever a disc is loaded, the player must update its revocation list and prevent the playback of any disc that contains a revoked digital imprimatur.
If the HD DVD format becomes the main format for movies, the AACS organisation will likely decide on who handles the digital imprimaturs. The AACS organisation is founded by several members from both the HD DVD and Blu-ray sides such as Sony, Toshiba, Microsoft, Disney, Intel and so on. Unfortunately, as there will likely only be one single central organisation reponsible for issuing digital imprimaturs, they may be subject to anticompetitive abuses as this organisation would be reponsible for the authorising of every single HD DVD disc for publishing.
|  HD-DVD, one of the two candidates for the next-gen DVD format, uses a 'content protection" technology called AACS. And AACS, it turns out, requires a digital imprimatur on any content before it can be published.
(The imprimatur '” the term is Latin for 'let it be printed" '” was an early technology of censorship. The original imprimatur was a stamp of approval granted by a Catholic bishop to certify that a work was free from doctrinal or moral error. In some times and places, it was illegal to print a work that didn't have an imprimatur. Today, the term refers to any system in which a central entity must approve works before they can be published.)  The technical details are in the AACS Pre-recorded Video Book Specification. The digital imprimatur is called a 'content certificate" (see p. 5 for overview), and is created 'at a secure facility operated by [the AACS organization]" (p. 8 ). It is forbidden to publish any work without an imprimatur, and player devices are forbidden to play any work that lacks an imprimatur.
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From what I can see, if a HD DVD player is forced to reject HD DVD media that lacks a digital imprimatur, this means that blank media must also contain a digital imprimatur in order for a HD DVD player to allow playback. This likely means that should someone succeed in copying HD DVD movies and illegally resells them, then it is possible revoke all (or at least the majority) of media that the pirate has used. If this is true, this is likely one method the movie industry will use to tackle piracy in the future.
Feel free to discuss about HD DVD, Blu-ray and other
next generation DVD formats on our Satellite,
HD-TV, Blu-ray and HD-DVD Forum.
Source: P2PNET.net
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By
willb3d,
Monday 25 July 2005 00:52
"[This might mean that] blank media must also contain a digital imprimatur in order for a HD DVD player to allow playback."
Or, it may be that DVD authoring programs will add that data. And the DVD authoring program would have to be connected to the internet so it would always have a current list of blacklisted movies.
The creepy thing is that in thr wrong hands, such a blacklist could render a controversial movie unplayable. Say, if Bush really didn't like Farenheit 9/11, he could add that film to the blacklist and suddenly no one could watch it. Or, say they decide to ban porno. Wham, and suddenly no one's porno plays back anymore. This kind of power is unacceptable.
Don't forget this has to be paid for and that will mean the end of cheap DVD players from china .Do they think consumers are so stupid they will go along with anything hmmm ? They might be right
By
swifty7,
Monday 25 July 2005 01:27
you know what!! with that many restrictions and protections, I'll be sticking with good old dvd's. Both Hd-dvd and Blu ray can go to hell!!!!
By
jef195,
Monday 25 July 2005 02:38
Blu-Ray and HD-DVD were created for two reasons 1)to make money reselling the same titles 2)TO LOCK DOWN PLAYERS IN A WAY CIRCUIT CITY DIVX COULD NEVER DREAM OF.(Bold letters intended) Regardless some of you are so 'Dedicated' you watering at the mouth to pay handsomly for one or the other.
[edited by jef195 on 25.07.2005 02:39]
Cant people just take the movie off of the hd-dvd and make the quality a little bit lower and just put them on a dl dvd so the quality isnt that bad. because blank hd-dvd are going to definitly be more the dl disk and they wouldnt be able to anything about it
By
jef195,
Monday 25 July 2005 02:46
My recommendation is -Wait till someone "Breaks" encyption then see if everything works properly after that and if ok-Buy.
[edited by jef195 on 25.07.2005 02:47]
Well, that just killled the future market for consumer grade hi-def camcorders.
By
FidelC,
Monday 25 July 2005 04:06
No, thanks. If i buy something that means i should own it. If somebody can revoke a licence on a certain movie so it wont play, then it feels more like leasing, not owning. I wont buy a single title on such condition. thanks again, hollywood, i will wait for some chinese fair use HD players plus the content from them.
Fck you very much, morons.
Cheers.
FidelC
This will also prevent blank HD discs from being produced/sold. Which can, in effect, make the technology useless. Look at MD and Hi-MD discs. Its a great idea, but they don't use it to the full extend. Which is why they arn't sold as much. This restriction on HD technology will be the death of it.
Not only does hollywood kill another product, but they've also pissed a lot of people off.
Good going hollywood. What other crap will ya do to technology?
I don't know if I understand this right... the next gen HD-DVD & Blue-Ray players have to be connected to a broadband network like everyone who has them must have internet access whether it be modem, DSL, Lan, Wireless or Cable?
How else will the AACS organization be able to tell your player to revoke a license? I don't think anyone is going to pay shit for these future players, for starters I know a lot of people who collect DVDs and they don't have internet access.
No one wants these new players except enthusiasts, who are willing to pay out there ass for something that will turn into what High-Def Audio has turned to.... SACD, DVD-Audio anyone? Nope everyone said fuck those two formats its just music and mp3 was digital enough for everyone so they went on there marry way to buy i-Pods.
When it comes to the future of High Def it won't be optical media, DVD will be around for a long time and maybe the next DVD replacement is a HD downloading base video player like the i-Pod but who knows. DVD is more than enough for me the only reason I would buy any of the new formats would be for storing Divx movies on and playback lol just imagine 70 movies on one disc. Brovo Hollywood you have already popped your digital cherry with DVD-Video, good luck convincing people that the HD-Cherry is worth a fuck...
[edited by Zeroi786 on 25.07.2005 09:46]
By
techman,
Monday 25 July 2005 10:05
I will not be buying into this new media with the ever increasing draconian restrictions being imposed on it. It will leave the end user with limited options and flexibility for such drives. So I will stay with DVD for the foreseeable future!!!.
No one will buy it, believe me !
I will buy it!
Just kidding 
Zeroi786, the media will update the a HD DVD player and if someone uses your DVD player to crack a movie, everyone owning that model HD DVD player will be unable to use the player and SOL. Seems like a lawsuit to me.
By
JamesL,
Monday 25 July 2005 15:24
>>>> How else will the AACS organization be able to tell your player to revoke a license? <<<<
Every single HD DVD will carry a list of banned titles and their codes. Everytime you put a HD DVD in your HD DVD player it will check the list to see if it's newer than the one it has stored. If required it will then update itself - no internet access is required for this.
By
jef195,
Monday 25 July 2005 17:36
Okay....We all agree DVD FOR.....EVER!!!!!
Dvd forever until all the dvd players are overrun with hd-dvd players with backwards compatability. Then you are forced to have the box connected to the internet just to boot no matter the media. You can keep saying dvd will last forever but we will all fall to the ever loving quality of hd-dvd and it's ability to store extra content every ad campaign that these companies throw at us. We strong will only fall because the weak is the masses and the masses buy crappy product because someone tells them it's not crappy.
By
agomes,
Monday 25 July 2005 18:47
Just fine: They want DRM in blank HDDs and now this sys in HD DVD.
If it works what will DRM in HDDs be used for?
And the real pirates, the ones with the industrial structure, will "print" the discs with all the "requirements". The occasional duplicator will pay the original and wait for a possible crack...but will disc prices compensate for the trouble?
If they sell the films at decent price, the ones that prefer to own the discs (files or whatsoever) will prefer to go by the rules.
The problem may also be for the ones that record from TV (and I mean legal stuff), if it is subject to someone looking "inside" his computer to check whats in the HDD or a databse check is necessary to play a disc at home (leaving room for this check to be one about legal aspects or even to control what you can watch or not).
Are we coming closer to 1984 or just facing gridy guys?
By
A_MEN,
Monday 25 July 2005 20:08
uhm...couldn't you, in theory, create a HD-DVD disc with a "fake" list of banned titles, with a date set far in the future and force the player to upgrade it's banlist to this fake on... this fake list would ofcourse have no banned titles, and if the date was set far enough in the future, the player wouldn't update it's list from retail dvds, because they would appear to be older than the current fake one in the players memory ?-)
[edited by A_MEN on 25.07.2005 20:09]
By
techman,
Monday 25 July 2005 20:30
@ A_MEN
that sounds like a good idea but don't forget that information will be encrypted in some extreme form and it will be self updating when one form of encryption is broken it will be replaced by a new one from the internet or the media inserted to the drive (this method of dynamic updating was outlined in the HD-DVD format specs)
for the love of god, some company release a drive that WILL NOT play Hollywood crapola at all I'm serious. Just let me store my OWN data on the discs cheaply and unrestricted and untethered from the mothership.
Thank u, come again.
I am sure the disc wont play without the drm so it's useless to make a drmless hd-dvd player
By
swifty7,
Tuesday 26 July 2005 05:09
as much as I would've loved to own a hd-dvd/blu ray palyer, I hope both formats blow up into their fucking faces!!!!
they just had to ruin it.
the only thing left for them to do is to send a government official to your house every time you watch a movie!!!
My wish list:
1. A company that wants to please it's customer's with a quality product they can actually use how they want without ANY restrictions and at a fair and reasonable price.
2. Corrupt Greedy Executives and Politicians going to jail for their crimes against humanity/taxpayers/consumers.
3. Quality comsumer devices which are not nobbled by greedy dickheads which makes normal operation a nightmare, and thus not being nobbled/crippled they will be a lot cheaper.
4. And most of all consumers/customers being treated like a person rather than a dollar sign and a criminal/nuisance.
Just remember people what goes around comes around, and it's only a matter of time for those greedy dickheads.
I can't wait for the tables to turn, I am going to enjoy every minute of it.
By
debro,
Wednesday 27 July 2005 03:56
Unless they hand out that like digital imprimatur like candy, there will be no use for HD-DVDR for the general public!
People cannot master their own home movies, as they don't have that digital imprimatur to allow playback in their own players!
An idea as well thought out as Windscreen wipers for a submarine.
By
Zeroi786,
Wednesday 27 July 2005 09:52
Well my big Question is, Will it be possible to mod a HD-DVD player with some sort of a mod chip, like many of the consols that are out today, That would allow playback and ignore the imprimatur? who knows maybe even a Swap disc?
By
Rimmer66,
Wednesday 27 July 2005 23:05
A_MEN, setting a list into the future would not work - those dvd players are ahead of you - they will include an internal clock/date that is always running even when powered off - it will automatically disregard a list that is set past the REAL date/time.
Don't worry there will be ways around it.
If they can crack XP activation and Genuine Advantage Validation they can crack that in no time up until the day we will be forced to use microchip implants
By
swifty7,
Thursday 28 July 2005 06:18
nothing is going to work, cuz the hd players are required to be connected to the internet all the time in order for us to watch the HD movies!!!
I won't spend a cent, I'll keep enjoying dvd's!!!
let's see... people are currently ripping dvd movies to divx/xvid format and putting them on cd's or multiple movies on one dvd and playing them in their modded xboxes or dvd/divx players (like philips dvp-642)...
who's to say that we wont have players (or modded xbox 360's) capable of playing back HD-Divx movies from DVD-R media?
Dvd-r's are cheaper than CDr's in some cases nowadays!
I have to admit, I'm not sure how much space a 1.5-2hr HD-Divx movie would take up...
3.15 GB for 1.5hr and 4.2 GB for 2hrs if you go by the 1280x720px "HD" cable rip of Imax Chronos I downloaded... seems to be a perfect fit if you ask me. 
By
loboloco,
Tuesday 16 August 2005 16:23
Hello Blank Reg, and welcome to the future of Max Headroom.
Watch out for those blipverts...
Happy Birthday to you Psychotic Foetus 
johnzap thank you for your reaction in the news section. 
DrageMester just logged in, Good to see you back!