Whose TV Is It, Anyway?

Contributing Editor Dan Tynan watches too much science fiction.

If you're old like me, you remember the voice-over at the beginning of The Outer Limits: "There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission...." Well, it turns out they weren't kidding.

The conversion to digital television (DTV) has led to a spitball fight between users and the movie industry. The issue: who controls how you receive and record digital TV.

The Hole Problem

The thought of Napster-like sharing of movies (which is already happening on a small scale) has Hollywood's collective boxers in a bunch. As a result, all new digital-cable-ready TVs and set-top devices must have copy-protected FireWire or Digital Video Interface ports. But older gear, including millions of early HDTVs, have analog connections that lack copy protection. Owners of such sets could take a digital TV feed, output it to a VCR, digitize it on their PCs, and then share it with 4 million of their closest friends.

So Hollywood has come up with ways to close the "analog hole" and control DTV:

Broadcast flag: This bit of data, sent along with the digital stream, tells your tuner the restrictions on copying a show. By July 2005 all new DTV devices must be able to read the flags. The rules for each device vary, but copies are encrypted, and probably won't work on older DVD players.

Selectable output control: If content providers believe your set-top box can be hacked to allow unfettered copying, they can turn off the picture for that particular show. ("We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical.") So far the FCC has nixed this idea, but it will consider approving SOC for "facilitating new business models."

Down-resolution: In this scenario, content providers lower the resolution of HDTV programs for high-definition sets that have analog inputs. In other words, you could still watch Unforgiven, but because you would be watching it at DVD, not HDTV, quality, you wouldn't be able to gaze as deeply into Clint Eastwood's pores. The FCC has scotched this practice for broadcast TV, but has yet to decide about cable, premium stations like HBO, or pay-per-view movies.

That's not exactly welcome news to the 5 million owners of HDTV sets, most of which have analog ports. The Home Recording Rights Coalition advocates a ban on down-resolution and SOC, and supports federal laws that give users the same copy privileges for digital content as they have for analog.

Interestingly, the Motion Picture Association of America makes no pretense that the use of down-resolution will halt piracy. Instead, according to Fritz Attaway, MPAA executive vice president, Hollywood hopes to give consumers an incentive to move to all-digital boxes that provide more protection against copying.

But this is an old and silly game. Fifty years ago TV's growing appeal made it the bogeyman. Hollywood reacted by changing the aspect ratio of films so they'd look less attractive on TV. And the film studios that fought the VCR all the way to the Supreme Court now make billions licensing movies to video stores and broadcasters. Maybe this time the content kings will realize that trying to strong-arm consumers into following their rules could end up stifling DTV instead of stimulating it.

Then again, maybe I watch too much science fiction.

Really Cheap HDTV

HDTV for $100? What's the catch? You have to watch it on your PC using the HDTV Wonder, an expansion card that ATI Technologies will begin bundling with some of its All-In-Wonder graphics cards; the bundle costs about $100 more than one of the graphics card alone. The company says that it will sell the PCI card separately later on for use with other cards. You can use it to view only over-the-air HDTV broadcasts via an HDTV antenna; the card will not decrypt signals coming from your cable or satellite provider.