BetaNews has a couple of related articles of interest. Jacqueline Emigh's article begins with old news that DRM for music is dying, if not dead. More interesting is the discussing of the Chinese DVD standard, CH-DVD:
For high-def video to really start reaching greater numbers of people, high-def vendors need to give up their current grip on DRM and other manifestations of Blu-ray and HD DVD proprietary formats, and start selling discs that will work interchangeably on any vendor's HD equipment. But what will happen if these two warring camps continue to stay locked in their current stalemate?
Ultimately, the doors look likely to swing open to a new high-definition TV standard, now under development in China, envisioned as supporting high-def video products that will interoperate with HD DVD.
It's easy to call for an end to the format
wars and point a finger at DRM as the problem. However, the situation
is more complex given differences in the optical disc formats. Also,
the various warring keiretsus
(yes, the term is out of favor these days but accurate
nonetheless in this context) have patent pools that each is trying to
leverage.
A September BetaNews article by Scott M. Fulton, who says this:
The same country that has literally upset the LCD TV industry on its ear in just the last year alone, now has the specifications it needs to do the same with high-def video discs. While it makes so-called CH-DVD players for the home market (the name is subject to change, the new consortium says), China can also produce HD DVD players for the rest of the world, at prices that can best be described as Chinese.
All of a sudden, the incentive for studios such as Warner Bros. to call a halt to exploiting new disc technologies its own engineers had patented, and for Paramount to jump ship and abort its Blu-ray support, may be becoming clear.
I expect to report on CH-DVD from CES next week.
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