eLifespaces

As December 31st approaches, so does the unleashing of the Trojan Horse we allowed into our homes. Our mass acceptance of content in high-definition format was the seduction. But as quickly as “HD” came to the forefront of the electronic age (and into our lives), so too will be the void as content providers start restricting our access to it. In “great conspiracy” deduction, there were a few events this year that led us to believe that the Illuminati, Bilderberg Group, Bohemian Club, Club of Rome, Council on Foreign Relations, Rhodes Trust, Skull and Bones, Trilateral Commission, Freemasons, Elders of Zion, (however you wish to identify the conspirators) were hard at work.

This year multitudes of Avatar fans rushed out to purchase James Cameron’s blockbuster movie, only to be disappointed when their BluRay players would not play the movie. By loading the movie, the owners had inadvertently released a virus that impacted the function of the player. Keep in mind, this is all legal, using such terms as “digital token only” or “image constraint token”, to which the owners have agreed by purchasing the player (and “using” not owning the software that drives the device).

Even more interesting were anomalies that required ALL the devices [i.e. HDTV and AV Surround receivers], if connected with HDMI, to have firmware updates.

Technicians also documented cases where the players were totally disabled, unable to properly function, regardless of disc, until the updates had been performed. Welcome your Trojan Horse!

The next event which gives rise to the conspiracy is “sunset analog,” the first in a series of HD signal limitations being enacted at the end of 2010. Analog sunset refers to the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) licensing restrictions placed on the analog video outputs (anything other than HDMI) from BluRay players. Licensed BluRay players produced after 2010 and playing protected content must limit analog video output to standard definitions (480i/576i), and licensed BluRay players produced after 2013 will no longer have analog outputs at all.

Presently, the actions under analog sunset only pertain to BluRay. In fact, the US, FCC regulation 47 CFR 76.1903 prohibits the disabling of analog outputs on cable and satellite set-top boxes. That is until conspiracy event #3 when in May of 2010 the FCC granted approval of an MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) petition to modify this regulation so that analog outputs may be selectively controlled by the program content.

The final conspiracy event (or at least as of the time of this article) is the entertainment industry’s movement away from the physical media content [i.e. DVDs] to streaming and other cloud based access. What better way to excerpt control over the viewing of the content.

With the use of so many acronyms, it is no wonder that we all remain confused: AACS; NTSC; ATSC; HDMI; DVI; DisplayPort; ICT; DOT; 480i; 1080p; and more! What is certain is that the conspiracy will continue as the distribution of entertainment further evolves.

For more interesting articles, read eLifespaces' quarterly newletter, InFocus.