Toshiba HD-DVD Player Planned to Enforce HDMI 277
CCat writes "Digital Spy reports that at a recent Toshiba road show in the U.S., Toshiba demonstrated their upcoming HD-DVD specification. The most interesting thing for people buying TVs at the moment is that Toshiba has stated that their HD-DVD Player will ONLY output high Def on the player's HDMI output (plus other digital connections) with the analog output downrezed to 480 lines. Prior slashdot disussion talks about the copy prevention angle and HDCP guidelines."
Toshiba is wasting it's money (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd never by it... (Score:2, Interesting)
Three capacitors on my DVD player are all that stand between me and a working DVD player - but they'd be charging for it instead of fixing what is obviously them using shit to make it.
So I just refuse to give them another cent.
I already had a preview of what's to come (Score:5, Interesting)
Outside of that the DVR/TV connect is wont to have other head glitches once in while. During one of those the TV displayed a blue box over 2/3 of the screen with the message along the lines of "DEVICE NOT AUTHORIZED for digital connection. Please switch to analog inputs." Power cycles all around cleared that nonsense.
This what we have to look forward to - TVs that will decide if your other devices are authorized to be seen. Support the EFF [eff.org] to stop this madness...or vote with your wallet. Are you ready to pass on watching movies or other HQ content when the day comes soon that all devices work like this?
I'm willing to bet that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD (Score:5, Interesting)
What does HD-DVD offer the average user? Most people like DVDs not only because they have better image quality than VHS, even if you connect to your TV with an RF cable or RCA composite jack and also because they're smaller than VHS tapes, more durable and easier to fast forward and frame by frame. Exactly what does HD-DVD add to this? Well, you get more data storage, so if you wanted to have a bunch of movies on one disc you could, but I don't think Hollywood is going to go for that. Or you can have super duper high definition movies, which most users don't have the equipment to take advantage of anyways. Cripple it with idiot DRM schemes and you make it even less attractive.
Re:I'd never by it... (Score:3, Interesting)
Physical no, but definately what the Toshiba repairman on the phone said.
When my audio and frontal display both stopped working at the same time when it was around 4 years of age I phoned a local certified Toshiba shop, which were pleased to tell me my problem was a common one with DVD players. They said that they would have to have it brought in before they would be willing to tell me how much it would cost and that just looking at it would cost 25 dollars.
I thought to myself, if it's a common problem, then there must be people on the Internet who have had the same issue.
So I googled around and found quite a bit about it, mostly information supplied by Toshiba repairmen that are nice guys. The sites for the most part detailed how a fair number, though the SD-1700 especially, have this trouble and how a set of capacitors on the motherboard being replaced would fix the problem.
That my DVD player lasted longer than most doesn't really comfort me. I don't replace my TV every 4 years, it's gotta be going on 8 and my VCR is still going strong at almost 14 years old, so I really don't feel pleased in needing to repair something like this this soon in the player's lifespan.
I don't care if Toshiba made shoddy capacitors or bought them, they're the screw-ups asking me to pay for it.
Re:Format war (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't even have one, and I have an HDTV!
I have a CRT Philips set, which uses component input.
So, basically, Toshiba expects me to buy a third piece of hardware (a video processor) in order to use their product? Dream on.
This should dramatically hurt their sales. This hyperparanoia with regard to copy protection has gotten out of hand.
Well, I can strike Toshiba off my list of hardware (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: DVDs getting multiple releases (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No Toshiba standard for me then. (Score:2, Interesting)
As far as composite goes; the max it carries is 480p, and that's rare. It usually only carries 480i signal. If you want HDTV, you'll need component (Y, Pb, Pr + R&L audio) connectors. Component easily carries the 1080i standard. If you have any other questions, feel free to email me at cybercifrado[atsymbolhere]gmail[dot]com.
Re:Format war (Score:3, Interesting)
This system has not been broken as of today (2005), and the possibilities that a "box in the middle" attack can even be applied to this protection scheme are unlikely, because of how key exchange is implemented and because compromised hardware can be blacklisted easily.
Re:I'd never by it... (Score:3, Interesting)
i wonder what the typical lifespan of a computer is, setting aside the fact that most people dispose of them faster just because they're outdated. if they do die faster than other electronics, i wonder which is the part that dies fastest on average (my guess would be hard drive?)
I beg to differ (Score:2, Interesting)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/20/02512
Re:You misunderstand consumers (Score:3, Interesting)
Can't even "backup" to video tape due to Macrovision without resorting to DMCA violations.
Furthermore, I hate messing with DVD's and the crappy cases that require the disc to flex nearly in half before giving up their death-grip. I really want them all online "tivo" like on my 2T drive array. (Whether I use Windows or Linux is irrelevant - CSS and the DMCA prevent either OS from doing this.)
You don't understand the problem because you are not thinking like an audiophile / videophile, savvy consumer, or even the simple parent..