Copy protection is something both developers behind Blu-ray and HD DVD has spent loads and loads of time and money with. We have at several occasions reported about these technologies, at least some of them, and it is far from all that’ve seemed decent from the consumer’s point of view. One of the worst was that the support for analog signals from Blu-ray and HD DVD players would be crippled severly so that no full resolution copies of the movie could be made using these outputs. Words were of a maximal resolution at 960x540px through these, which is far from the theoretic max at 1920x1080px. This would’ve been a killer blow for all of those with a HDTV with only analog inputs, which is quite common.
Now it seems that Sony has realized this and announced that it will not use the technology known as Image Constraint Token. The reason is simply that it does not want to hinder potential buyers from getting a HDTV to be able to use the format to the fullest, while it does not consider the analog signals as the biggest threat towards piracy.
“Sony’s decision to not use the Image Constraint Token for the time being is meant to encourage the adoption of Blu-ray players. Launching a new product that would leave the thousands of analog HDTV owners out in the standard-definition cold could have proven to be a nightmare for Sony and the Blu-ray spec in general. Reports that “Blu-ray discs don’t look right on my HDTV” could result in consumers’ switching allegiances to the competing HD DVD standard or postponing purchases of next-generation optical players altogether.”
Whether HD DVD will do the same remains to be seen, but it is at least nice to see that the people at Sony managed to come to their senses.
Source: Ars Technica
