“Hollywood studios have approved a new technology and licensing arrangement that should remove a major obstacle consumers now face with burning movies they buy digitally over the Internet onto a DVD that will play everywhere,” The Associated Press reports.
AP reports, “Sonic Solutions Inc. is introducing on Thursday the Qflix system for adding a standard digital lock to DVDs burned in a computer or a retail kiosk.”
AP reports, “The lock, known as ‘content scrambling system,’ or CSS, is backed by the studios, TV networks and other content creators and comes standard on prerecorded DVDs today. All DVD players come equipped with a key that fits the lock and allows for playback.”
“With Qflix — and its studio-backed copy-protection system — consumers should have more options. But they’ll need new blank DVDs and compatible DVD burners to use it,” AP reports. “Consumers still would be subject to restrictions placed by the movie service and studios. For instance, using the copy-protection technology in Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media system, a service could specify that a given title can be burned no more than two times.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Winston” for the heads up.]
No mention of Apple in the story, but the importance is that the studios have agreed on the concept. Stay tuned.
Related article:
Apple’s ITunes Movie Store to offer feature film downloads that can be burned to DVD? – July 19, 2006
I seriously never thought this day would come.
I thought CSS meant cascading style sheets. TMA – Too Many Acronyms.
Wow, actual news from CNN. That is almost more interesting that the article itself.
Let’s see…it’s about 4PM EST on 1/4/2007…
I predict this encryption method will be cracked by 4:01PM EST 1/4/2007
CSS is already cracked.
With iTunes delivering 720p HD movies (20th Century and the Star Wars franchise exclusive BTW… expect to see Lucas on stage during the keynote), expect Blue-Ray burners to make their enterance as options on a few Mac models.
– Mac Pro
– iMac (all excluding the 17″ version)
Movies will be burn-able twice as this article eludes to, standard movie def, or 720p, either way, whichever burner you have twice is the limit. Of course, HD movies cannot be burned onto a stnd Superdrive unless Apple delivers a downsample ability, which is already there in QT, but whether it’s put to use for this purpose is another question….
BIG UNKNOWN:
720p is a great start, but how will Apple get these movies down to users in any reasonable time-frame?
1. User must have 5 mpbs pipe or larger – DSL or slower need not apply.
2. H.264 may not be the codec Apple runs with… Remember that no forgotten Pixlett technology Apple and Pixar created for real-time HD playback? Yeah, it dissappeared with Tiger, and QT 7, and just may be what Apple has on the back burner to encode and compress HD resolution stuff to get it to our homes…
I don’t see the standard sauce on the market being what Apple needs to get HD moving down these “small” pipes we currently have…
Thoughts anyone?
1) Have dry cleaners put extra starch in black turtleneck for MacWorld appearance.
2) Go to Best Buy – switch brown Zune that Bill Gates sent for Christmas for black Zune.
3) Buy Sonic Solutions.
4) Give black Zune to family dog as chew toy.
shawnpetriw,
CSS stands for Complete Sh*ty Software.
Once you’ve burned the downloaded movie t a DVD, you use Mac The Knife of Handbrake to strip out the CSS. Once that is done, burn as many DVDs as you want or convert it to a .mp4 file for use on your video iPod.
The analysis that’s missing here is that the studios no longer need Apple at all.
Now how about legal DVD rips into iTunes (or Front Row) just like ripping CD’s. That would be good.
macromancer: Now how about legal DVD rips into iTunes (or Front Row) just like ripping CD’s. That would be good.
Not gonna happen. That will break the law called <a >DMCA</a>, thanks to your <strike>public</strike> corporate friendly Congress.
You still need a simple, user friendly, delivery, organizational and playback software that doesn’t crash your computer and the whole thing better have a reasonable price without some hideous copy limitations.
Yes, the studios still need Apple.
Brad,
This is true except for the fact that Apple has
1. The number one site for movie trailers on the internet
2. The only REAL solution for linking computers and television playback…the soon to be release “itv”
3. An elegant, existing, and heavily used download site/tool with a clear lead in the sale of digital files.
The studios COULD put up their own trailers download site, promote it, spend a lot of money to drive traffic to it…Could partner with an electronics firm to build some kind of interface between the computer and TV… and could build a download tool like iTunes.
How likely do you think these things are?
Fixed DMCA link
Kiosks, baby. No one wants to download a 1 of 2 Gigabyte file over “broadband” to watch a movie that then only plays on (up to only five) FairPlay authorized devices. Burn a disc from a kiosk and you can watch it anywhere with a DVD player (den, computer, minivan, etc.).
The trailers site will remain whether the studios cut deals with Apple or not. It’s too important to Apple as a showpiece for QuickTime. It was there before movie downloads, and it will be there after them, regardless of whether studios use the ITS to sell their wares or not.
ChrissyOne, it could easily happen legally if a) they decided not to CSS encrypt the media, or b) they CSS encrypt the media and give express permission (aka a license) to the purchaser to copy the media.
By the way, fair use rights do still exist, and legal precedent means that it’s perfectly legal to rip copies of movies you own for personal use until a new court says otherrwise.
Some good reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decss
http://www.nyfairuse.org/
Kiosks?!?
What’s the point? The whole purpose for downloading movies was to aviod going to Blockbuster et. al. Driving to the “kiosk” is no better.
And for those who say “don’t need Apple” … the big three TV stations now have the ability to watch their shows on their website the next day. Yet, Apple still sells them for download. Apple can be involved in this if they choose to.
“Not gonna happen. That will break the law called <a >DMCA</a>, thanks to your public corporate friendly Congress.”
Um yeah, that’s why I said they need to change the policy. Is what I said that hard to underdtand?
@Steven –“2. H.264 may not be the codec Apple runs with… Remember that not forgotten Pixlett technology Apple and Pixar created for real-time HD playback? Yeah, it dissappeared with Tiger, and QT 7, and just may be what Apple has on the back burner to encode and compress HD resolution stuff to get it to our homes…”
I too have been wondering whether Pixlet would be involved in iTV. We may find out next week.
It’s important to remember that legitimate sites were selling movie downloads on the internet LONG before Apple entered the picture. If a download is preferable to a kiosk then the studios STILL don’t need Apple. This is exacerbated by the fact that obviously don’t WANT to work with Apple.
Additionally, there have been WiFi-based computer to TV video display systems available for purchase for some time to the Windows world. Just because we can’t use them in the Mac world doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. If a studio exec can use a service that works on 90% of target computers WITHOUT having to get joined at the hip with Apple, what do you think he’d do? =) Extra credit question: How many music execs do you think would continue working with Apple if they had a choice? =)
The points about pixlet are well taken here. H.264 may well not be the codec used…but as Steve himself pointed out movies will STREAM into the ITV (or whatever it will be called) and then through 80211.N will go anywhere you like in your home or office. 322 is a LOT faster than 54.
It’s not about individual studios selling downloads. It’s about CHOICE. If Paramount has 10 films I don’t want to see I’m not going there. I’ll go to the site that has 200 films to choose from. Other movie download sites have been hampered by lack of choice, DRM, low profile (certainly not something Apple suffers from), and linkage to the home entertainment. You don’t seriously believe that a $2500 Windows Media Center PC with a 64 button remote is a solution for linking computers to the living room? It is also about INTEGRATION which is really what Apple does better than anyone. They don’t always get it right…but they are leagues beyond any competitor.
With the Selection, Ease of use, Awareness, and Tools they have an outstanding chance to turn the industry on it’s ear… just as many financial analysts have concluded. Did the music industry (basically six companies) need Apple? As it turned out…yes they did. Apple LEGITIMIZED downloading music by making it easy and LEGAL (which still matters to a large segment of the population). They are clearly attempting to make the “iTv” the living room ipod.
Brad…please remember our discussion here…and comment again after the keynote address at Macworld and see if your opinion has changed. I’d be interested to see what you think then.
We need a DVD retail kiosk mounted onto the side of the neighborhood ice cream truck.