More HD DVD Shenanigans

by Bob Seidel

Ah, the rites of spring! The warm, sunny days (well, sunny anyhow), the yellow pine pollen, and the start of the yearly influx of visitors. Which of course means traffic gridlock at our favorite intersection (211 and Long Beach Road). As Shelby Sebens so well put it in the Friday Star-News "The chaos of cars and stalled traffic increases as the tourist season begins to boom". I am please to see that I am not the only journalist covering this mess. Accidents at that intersection happen often. Once again, in my computer consulting journeys around the area, I have to plan to avoid that intersection as much as possible. The other day it took me half an hour to drive from St. James (admittedly the hinterlands of St. James) to Southport.

A band aid fix, as has been done twice before, is not going to solve the problem. We need a way to get traffic to Southport, 211 west and 87 from Oak Island without going through that intersection at all. Will the new Oak Island Bridge help - sure - but it's not here now. Oh, and a left turn light at the intersection of 87 and 211 (River Road and Howe Street) going into Southport wouldn't be a bad idea either. Come on DOT - help us out!

You all probably know how upset I am over the movie industry's failure to bring High Definition DVDs to the masses. I was watching "Planet Earth" on Discovery HD last night - if you can, take a look some time. Some gorgeous nature video, and in full HD. At the end of each episode the Discovery Channel advertises that you can buy DVDs of the series - but, of course, the DVDs are not HD whereas the TV version is! Terribly frustrating…

There is another wrinkle in the HD DVD problem that I haven't discussed yet, this time involving Microsoft and Intel in addition to the studios and player manufacturers. I don't know how many of you watch DVDs on your PC, but I do often. When I want to watch something that my wife doesn't like (such as Star Trek reruns) I head for my PC. I also like to watch movies in a small window while doing something else, such as writing columns!

High Definition DVDs have a copy protection scheme called AACS - Advanced Access Control System. AACS prevents you from copying an HD DVD using the DVD drives in your PC. But they realized that there was a loophole in the system: Since PCs now have digital output connectors to the display (or monitor, the terms in this usage are synonymous) the signal can be captured there and potentially, hypothetically used to create a full quality, non-copy protected duplicate of the movie being played.

The answer was something from Intel called HDCP - High Definition Content Protection. Microsoft got on-board and Vista now requires and polices your new PC hardware so that HDCP is required to play a HD DVD. If you are not fully HDCP compliant, the DVD will play but at only standard resolution.

But to be capable, all your hardware must be HDCP compliant and certified. This means the OS (requires Vista), your HD drive, your PC's display card, AND your monitor need to support HDCP. This adds up to a new PC and the better part of an extra $1,000 worth of hardware to play HD on your PC. HDCP compliant hardware is just beginning to show up on store shelves, at a premium price.

It's no wonder High Definition DVD sales are floundering?

(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport - Oak Island area. You can visit his Website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail questions or column ideas to him at bsc@bobseidel.com. For specific inquiries, please call Bob Seidel Consulting, LLC at 278-1007.)