So... whats apple announcing on Tuesday?

[gerbick]

HDCP, DADVSI, the Blu-Ray DRM, Microsoft's digital content certification for devices in Vista, and the Broadcast Flags all bother me to no end.

The MPAA, RIAA, Clear Channel, and those types are ****ing winning the battle for how we view our content. As long as Cartoon Network remains untouched, I could care less though.

[PAlexC]

Well, here's what's I could dig up. Link. It doesn't outright say HDCP compliant, but with everything listed it seems to imply it would be. The other marketing literature has "high-definition TV" all over it. Remember that ATI and NVidia just got busted for advertising HDCP compliant cards, only they weren't compliant because while the GPU was, it wasn't implemented on the board so the card couldn't do it. So even any media center you build or buy now outside of a couple that Sony makes aren't HDCP compliant.

Maybe that's why they stopped short of calling it a media center Mac, they either don't want to get involved or are going to release something later. Still, if you're not using it as a tuner or PVR, it's a good music/video jukebox.

Either of you guys want to work on setting up an HDCP awareness site?

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Advanced Display Technology

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[gerbick]

it stops at 1080i, most of the protection centers around 1080p.

[indivision]

Either of you guys want to work on setting up an HDCP awareness site?

It needs to be done. But, I'm not the one. With a newborn, lots of client-work and 3 other personal projects Im trying to finish in off-time, I cant afford that battle.

[indivision]

it stops at 1080i, most of the protection centers around 1080p.

true. so, it might not apply to the mac mini at all. but, they will still have the potential to protect lower resolution content if they want to.

i think the big question is how will the license holders choose to implement the protection. i mean, is it going to be everything they own? premiere/new release content only? entire cable channels or just certain movies/shows? if theres a backlash, they can always just stop implementing it.

[also, will it even be a practical possibility to switch from protected content to non at broadcast time? the HD channels that I have stay in the high resolution at all times. commercials and the like that arent HD just get cropped at the sides and apparently filtered to be displayed at the same HD resolution. when the tv switches between resolutions it kind of hiccups. so, either they want to avoid that hiccup between switches or its not even possible to do during broadcast time. i assume that the protected content process in the hardware would produce a similar switching dilema.]

[gerbick]

And I'm currently still replacing contracts and gearing up for a trip next month for a while.

Besides, I know just enough about this to sound intelligent. There's quite a few places where "what's next" escapes me, and a lot of it seems prohibitive in regards to enjoying it on the expensive equipment that people have recently bought. I'm waiting on all of this to shake out because it seems like a new layer of bullcrap has been added on top of HDTV in the last year or so.

[PAlexC]

Excuses excuses.

Seriously, I'd like to do it and could use some help if anyone here is interested.

[indivision]

Excuses excuses.

Seriously, I'd like to do it and could use some help if anyone here is interested.

i would definitely pitch in where i could. just cant really define how much i can do. what would you need help with?

[gerbick]

Excuses excuses.

Seriously, I'd like to do it and could use some help if anyone here is interested.

hey, I need the money! looks like Blu-ray disks are coming out at 40 bucks a pop!

[PAlexC]

What I need help with depends on who helps and what they feel they can contribute best at. Just managing the site would probably be the biggest hurdle for me. I'm not too familiar with some of the CMS systems out there or PHP. Should I use a blog app? Rails? Build it from scratch? What's cheapest? Secure? Etc.

Doing research/writing is probably what I'd be best at. I want it to be a clearly anti-HDCP site, but appealing to reason. Not just piss and vinegar, or full of angry rants. If it's CSS with a template, I could handle modifying the design as well.

[indivision]

What I need help with depends on who helps and what they feel they can contribute best at. Just managing the site would probably be the biggest hurdle for me. I'm not too familiar with some of the CMS systems out there or PHP. Should I use a blog app? Rails? Build it from scratch? What's cheapest? Secure? Etc.

Doing research/writing is probably what I'd be best at. I want it to be a clearly anti-HDCP site, but appealing to reason. Not just piss and vinegar, or full of angry rants. If it's CSS with a template, I could handle modifying the design as well.

if someone provides a location to host, i can install some freeware setup (lots of that type of thing available) for the information.

i agree about the angle. i think it should be about "What HDCP means to me in lay-mens terms."

the bottom line is that the media industry wants to protect their content at the consumers expense.

[PAlexC]

That would be awesome. PM me when you're ready. I'm tied up until after the weekend, but I should have an outline done before then.

[indivision]

pm'd

[Markp.com]

Excuses excuses.

Seriously, I'd like to do it and could use some help if anyone here is interested.

I'm interested chaps... fire a pm this way if you need a hand

[robbmcaulay]

What was the damage to your wallet young man? (You know its cheaper to use the irish store, if you have someone over there who can post it to you!)

Well the machine I got w/512 ram costs 599 but I got it with a gig for 602 off the student site

[stevietat]

Something I've always wondered about these ipod speakers things...

Considering that most people have their music stored in compressed formats on their ipods, what is the point of buying a high quality speaker set to play it?? I could only see it worthwhile if you store all your songs in a lossless format, but I'd guess most people don't bother doing that. It seems like an oxymoron to be have a "crystal-clear, audiophile-quality" system to play your mp3 songs...

Having never actually tried mp3s on such a system, can anyone say if you really hear the difference?

[PAlexC]

I'll e-mail/PM everyone interested in the HDCP thing later.

Apple has that lossess codec, I haven't tried it, but it's supposedly full quality at half the size.

I have a pretty decent home theater with an iPod dock hooked up to it, and a decent pair of headphones. Of course, you'll hear even the slightest flaw with a good pair, but I rip my classical at 192kbps/AAC and it sounds as good as the CD. There has to be some loss going on, but none that I notice and few if any artifacts I can pick up on. On a stereo/home theater, you definitely won't notice any.

Still, that speaker better be mind-blowingly amazing for it to be worth $350. Even then, it has zero features and only 1 input. I've heard the Bose one that sells for about $300, it's nothing special.

[robbmcaulay]

Even then, it has zero features and only 1 input.

Is that the iPod input? Or is there a mini-jack/phono input for your mac/pc?

[PAlexC]

There's a mini/optical input in the back. Just one.