Sonic Solutions today announced that PLDS (Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions Corp.) is adopting Qflix™ technology for integration into a range of optical disc drives. The new drives will facilitate the recording of movies and video programs to DVD with Content Scramble System (CSS) encryption. As the industry-approved content protection mechanism used on mass-produced discs and incorporated into all DVD players, CSS has been deemed essential by major content providers for the on-demand digital distribution of premium entertainment. The optical disc drives from PLDS form a critical piece of the electronic sell through ecosystem, and will include Qflix branding as a symbol to consumers looking for legitimate and reliable "purchase, download, and burn" home solutions.

The Qflix licensing and certification program enables content owners, service providers, and manufacturers of media, PC DVD writers, network-connected DVD recorders, set-top boxes, and software to create reliable, compatible, and interoperable solutions to facilitate the electronic sell through of entertainment that can be recorded to secure DVDs. The program involves a broad set of services that includes detailed technical information, certification testing, and an intellectual property license pool formed by Sonic and its technology partners. These services will enable media and drive manufacturers to create optical discs and drives for recording CSS-encrypted video.

Qflix implementation is made possible through Sonic's comprehensive DVD On Demand technology platform. The Sonic DVD On Demand platform provides an end-to-end solution for digital distribution, including a DRM gateway for secure export of content from approved download systems, precision video codecs that simultaneously convert Internet-delivered video into MPEG-2 video for DVD during the download process, automated DVD formatting tools for converting video into interactive DVDs, and an Extensible Media Protection Architecture (XMPA) that allows a wide variety of studio-approved copy protection mechanisms to be applied to DVDs as they are being burned.

In addition to supporting CSS encryption through Qflix technologies, the Sonic DVD On Demand platform also integrates Macrovision's RipGuard and ACP technologies, which provide a proven and comprehensive content protection solution that prevents the digital ripping and analog copying of DVDs.

Source: Sonic.