Options: Dispersions and Volatility Spreads

[Chris McConnel]

The truth behind HDCP and video card support

The sad, pathetic tale of how the content industry is trying to make the PC as unfriendly as possible to high definition content has another chapter. In August I told you about the unfortunate decisions by the HD DVD and Blu-ray groups that would ultimately spell disaster for owners of existing LCD displays; without support for HDCP, you probably will not be able to view HD content from the studios on your PC (or TV, for that matter). The take-away was simple: don't buy a new display unless it supports HDCP.

Users worried about "future-proof" purchasing options also started to think about other components in their PC arsenal. Video cards, for example, would also need to support HDCP, and so many conscientious buyers thought that buying cards with support for HDCP would mean that their cards could carry them into the future. Unfortunately, they were wrong. For while many video cards—including offerings powered by ATI and NIVIDIA GPUs—advertise themselves as having support for HDCP, they don't actually support HDCP. How can this be?

FiringSquad caused quite a ruckus when earlier this week they reported that existing retail cards do not and will not support HDCP. The good news is that this report is only half true. With regards to shipping cards, they are correct: no matter what a box's feature list may say, no video card supports HDCP fully at this time. The reason is simple: there's nothing to support. Until the specifications for HDCP are completely finished, implementing HDCP in the video card is impossible. For those of you who have been following the technological follies of the content owners that want to usher in this new era of HD content, then you know this is nothing new: AACS, the next-gen access control scheme that will be used by both HD DVD and Blu-ray, is still not finalized. That's right: with players and products being hyped as "just around the corner," the cornerstone of the roll-out still isn't finished. Still.

Video cards that support HDCP will have to be programmed with HDCP keys while they are still in manufacturing. ATI confirmed to me that it will not be possible to patch or otherwise update cards without keys through software. Thus, any card already in the marketplace will never support HDCP, no matter what it says on the box.

The future will not be so bleak, however. ATI's PR manager, John Swinimer, told me that that retail cards will eventually be available once the technological specifications are finalized. Thus, reports that HDCP per se will kill the DIY market are exaggerations: within a year it should be possible to buy HDCP cards at the retailer of your choice.

Nevertheless, there is still plenty of ire reserved for the like of ATI and NVIDIA, both of which have done little to inform consumers that "HDCP support" means something other than, well, HDCP support at this time. Talking to anonymous sources close to the scene, the fiasco has resulted primarily from communications problems between the licensing authority, the access control spec people, and everyone else. In short, it sounds as though the next-gen security spec is a moving target. I must say that I find my source credible, if only because we've seen the exact same ambiguity from the Blu-ray camp when talking about mandatory managed copy.

A future so bright, you'll have to wear HDCP-complaint shades

We're in the midst of a a top-down, all-points-covered attempt to lock down every part of the HD viewing experience. In a nutshell, the content industry wants to see video encrypted end-to-end and passed only among approved devices that obey content access rules defined by the industry. This is not limited to the PC. Our in-depth primer on CableCARD revealed that the lock-down will also come to include the video streams from cable providers, too. In both cases, we see a disturbing trend: not only is the technology all about locking down the content, but the implementation is becoming locked down as well. For example, while CableCARD has been heralded as the great breakthrough that will allow for Home Theatre PC nirvana, the fact that CableLabs has to certify entire machine designs means that the do-it-yourself market is likely out of luck.

I suspect that the content industry may be in for a big, nasty surprise when all of this truly hits the public in the face. Never before has the rollout of the "next big thing" been so encumbered with built-in obsolescence, user-unfriendliness, and hypocrisy. Groans the world over will be heard when early adopters learn that their TVs won't play Blu-ray movies. Folks who bought computers recently will be disappointed when they learn that their hard-earned money couldn't buy them end-to-end support for HD content playback.

When you tell so many people that their electronics won't do what they should do—what they paid for them to do—many of them are not going to like it. The content industry is going to walk away from this with a certain amount of egg on their face and a fat stamp of "greed" burned into their foreheads. And a few will will realize the ultimate inanity of it all: that while the studio's HD content won't play on their TV or their computers, the HD content put out by the pirates will.

And that, my good friends, will be a fine example of irony.


http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060214-6177.htm