RSSMicrosoft looks to support premium channels with PC television tuners
By Ed Oswald | Published September 12, 2008, 4:15 PM
Microsoft's introduction of a new platform will allow media center PC manufacturers to support premium channels, which the television industry mandates must be covered by copy protection.
Known as Protected Broadcast Driver Architecture (PBDA), the technology builds on the company's work on Broadcast Driver Architecture (BDA). BDA is the standard for digital video capture on Windows systems that Microsoft has used since Windows 98.
While BDA was good enough back in the late 1990's and early part of this decade when digital cable was in its infancy, it is now outdated. Cable and content providers now require DRM to protect some of their channels, which has shut out PC TV tuner card users.
To appease the industry, Microsoft began work on PBDA. In 2005, it first detailed its progress in a whitepaper, saying it hoped to limit "the impact on cost to the tuner as much as possible, while still allowing the tuner to address a wide range of industry requirements for protected content."
Friday's announcements seemed to make those goals a reality. The company has also assembled some heavyweights in the PC TV tuner industry behind it to drive adoption of the new platform.
PBDA was part of the Windows Media Center TV Pack, which Microsoft delivered in July. That update also included enhancements to natively support digital terrestrial television in Japan and DVB-Satellite TV services in Europe.
At least two companies -- Happauge and AverMedia -- have already released products overseas that include PBDA support. Microsoft says it will continue to advance the platform, aiming to make pay TV reception over-the-air possible by next year.
Microsoft hopes that the platform will help manufacturers build cards that are compatible with just about any digital standard for any location, which is crucial since there is no single standard for digital TV.
"The tremendous response we're already seeing for the platform means PC OEMs, broadcast service providers and tuner-makers can now collaborate and embrace the PC as a first-class citizen for delivering more high-quality free or pay content to consumers in their local markets," Media Center chief Geoff Robertson said in a statement.
Microsoft's platform announcement came as part of a wider IPTV services rollout at IBC2008 in Amsterdam this week. The company also announced details of an advertising platform for its IPTV software known as Mediaroom, and migration services for television providers who may want to switch to Mediaroom from other IPTV solutions. Mediaroom has seen only very limited adoption in the United States, making slightly more headway in Europe.
ok One: better hope your not on Comcast cause your F-ed as the legal TV feeds are always larger then they need to be when they stream them to you, or worse if you download them. your cap will be reached very quickly with a IP TV service...
And two the old TV cap cards still work perfectly as long as you use windows 2000 or winodws XP Pro.
If you use XP MCE or Vista ANYTHING it does not, and you have no choice but to upgrade to DRM Bullcrap that limits how you can use YOUR equipment. What you do with Your equipment IS YOUR business NOT ANYONE ELSES.
Its like buying a car that sets artificial limits so it can not go over 55 MPH. No one in their right mind would EVER do that. You could never pass you could never get on the freeway. its just nonsense.
Buying a PC with a tv tuner card in it that doesn't do what its designed to do (RECORD TV) is just as asinine. Broadcast flags have been ever growing in so called Testing phases to block out VCRs DVD recorders DVRs and PC recording... Which is Pure garbage... So the open source communities have been the best place to go for these needs as you can simpily remove the code for it. So what is this doing to keep coping from happening? NOTHING. NEVER WILL. all it does is inconvenience legitimate end users. The so called profiteers in Asian and other place that sell pirated goods for $2 a pop will be Unaffected by ANYTHING these idiots do.
Claiming people that record tv shows for their use as pirates is just a wrong as it was back when they tried the same BULL Garbage back when VCRs came about. Consumers have Fair use rights to do what they want with what they paid for. And yes they paid for the content as well via Taxes AND Cable fees. And the content on the public airwaves is paid for by ADVERTISING as well. Further rights for Higher content quality on DVD is legitimate and expected. so if your a fan and have low quality recordings on VCR or DVD then you go get a DVD Box set for the season and all is good with teh world. but teh industry wants you the consumer to pay even more for every viewing... Its going to stop one way or the other... IMHO it will come out of congress eventually from PUBLIC demand. Instead of the overbearing lobbists squashing it with money and threats.
If the end user records a TV show to a VCR tape or a DVD disc or a hard drive it is NO LESS Legitimate. allowing these people to put restrictions on your rights is just another step at the naivety of the public to just accept what our previous generation would have torn the capital down to the brick and mortar for trampling the rights of the people. We have become complacent sheep, that prefer no rights and illusion of safety to patriotism and civil rights for all no matter what!
Score: 0
|One: better hope your not on Comcast cause your F-ed as the legal TV feeds are always larger then they need to be when they stream them to you, or worse if you download them. your cap will be reached very quickly with a IP TV service...
If all you do all day is watch TV...sure.
Most folks will be just fine. I use comcast. I've never come *close* to 250GB. Never. (Hell, I don't thin I've ever hit 100GB, as reported by my router using DD-WRT)
And two the old TV cap cards still work perfectly as long as you use windows 2000 or winodws XP Pro.
...and if you don't?
If you use XP MCE or Vista ANYTHING it does not, and you have no choice but to upgrade to DRM Bullcrap that limits how you can use YOUR equipment. What you do with Your equipment IS YOUR business NOT ANYONE ELSES.
...until that equipment begins accessing the services or content of others. Then they have a say in it. Kind of like personal freedom that way, you're only free to do whatever you please until it interferes with someone else's personal freedoms.
Its like buying a car that sets artificial limits so it can not go over 55 MPH
Uh...no, it's nothing like that. car analogies suck.
And yes they paid for the content as well via Taxes AND Cable fees.
ROFLMFAO!!
Uh, no. You paid for the license to view it when aired, and for certain other limited uses. That is it.
Example:
DRM rights:
Them: "Hey, want to buy a movie?"
You: "Sure, how much?"
Them: "$100,000,000.00."
You: "F*** off."
Them: "Sorry, that was the price to purchase all rights to the movie, including redistribution and royalties. Would you like to buy a subset of those rights instead?"
You: "Sure, like what?"
Them: "How about, the right to public exhibition, and reproduction of media for sale, but no royalties? That'll be just $5,000,000.00."
You: "No thanks, too much."
Them: "How about, the right to public exhibition? Just $500,000.00."
You: "Do I look like I'm made of money?"
Them: "Sorry. How about, the right to private exhibition? Only $5."
You: "Now you're talkin'!"
Them: "So we have a deal?"
You: "Yep." [you hand them a fiver, and they hand you a DVD.]
Them: "Have a nice day."
You: "Hey, wait, this DVD is copy-protected! I want to copy it!"
Them: "Yes, sorry, we didn't sell you the right to do that. If you have more money -- equal to the amount we'll lose on average for each copy-producing customer -- you can buy that right too."
You: "But I paid for this!" [you shake the DVD at them]
Them: "Do you understand that you paid for limited ownership, and that you consented to the limits stated and known to you at the time of sale?"
You: "No, I'm too dumb-stupid to grasp that. I can only handle concrete meanings of the idea of ownership."
Them: "Yeah, we figured. You probably also think HOAs are usurping your god-given right to paint your house pink, eh?"
Think about it.
Score: 0
|I have NEVER gone over 10gb a month Myself. and that's with my Archiving of many many TV shows. If I retain an archive of it and it at some point comes out on DVD I purchase it.
The point is MS has it in their mind that they want IP TV to replace dvds. With all their added rights management to make it pay per viewing and lock it to a machine. That's bull.
Using that mentality (with their consistent agenda to go mass market DTV over IP) Even if it was 100% legitimate usages in the so called industries Eyes, the bandwidth requirements for many users would skyrocket. All of it with DRM in it restricting usage.
Hell a good 1 half of my collection is not aired ANYWHERE and has NEVER been offered for sale on DVD. indeed I doubt it ever will. For all i know MY archive is all there is. And I for one will retain it forever for MY personal use.
The point is and its been proven time and time again, throughout EVERY digital medium in existence. DRM does NOTHING to stop anything. Not one thing. All it does is punish a legitimate user and makes it easier and more convenient to go to sources WITHOUT DRM in them.
Look at what happened with Sony with their notorious rootkit fiasco, and TurboTax and their little Tiff with DRM that resulting the largest ever s*** to Taxcut for the first time EVER. indeed turbotax reverted after their experience with DRM back to a more traditional non-activated system, but to this day has not been able to regain their previous sales numbers because of their ill advised use of DRM to lock an installation to and activation on installation and one machine. And Again with EA and Spore. My god People NEVER NEVER learn... indeed Spore has gone from the most anticipated game of the year, to the poorest rated game ever on amazon. just from the existence of their DRM. So what are consumers doing now? They are TAKING it. And gee its works without DRM with illegal downloads. OMG. So who was punished here? The guy that bought the game? Yep that's right! Indeed if they want the game to retain usage rights they end up buying it and then going to download an unDRMed illegal version to install instead.
DRM will NEVER stop what the industry calls piracy, it will not even stop REAL piracy which is the little crack head hoes on the street corner selling first run movies on DVD for $2 to $3, right outside the movie theater it is playing it. THAT is piracy!!! That is illegal, THAT should be a FEDERAL offense and punishable with JAIL TIME. as ALL piracy should be by that Stupid little FBI warning notice on every music tape, CD, VHS and DVD sold in the past what 30 years?
Point is the MPAA RIAA is too afraid to take these so called internet cases against private individuals to Federal court as they have NOTHING to hold as evidence. REAL piracy has REAL profits to seize, REAL evidence to confiscate, and REAL trials (not BS settlements that are tantamount to extortion and racketeering) too represent progress in countering the problem.
DRM, and these civil extortion trials do NOTHING to prevent anything. And NEVER will. The only ones EVER punished with DRM is the ones that actually are STUPID enough to buy it and find that they need an illegal version to do what they wish with their purchased product. its what pisses me off Every time I go and buy another DVD box set that forces me to go and get another new DVD player cause of the DRM BS in it making it skip and freeze on a preexisting machine that is incompatible with a new DRM scheme. has that stopped anyone from renting it from netflix and burning a copy if they are so arrogant to do so? NOPE.
The point is the entire Copyright law is flawed when it comes to anything digital, thanks to Clinton and the Notorious DMCA which threw every aspect of fair use out the door for anything that happened to be digital in nature. in turn the industry quickly made moves and applied pressure on the government to be rid of analog so as to exploit this Digital Dictatorship to its fullest ability. Then conveniently stay away from Federal court so the Supreme Court can not ever make another Betamax type ruling on a case making the DMCA fall under preexisting copyright aspects towards fair use as it should have to begin with. THAT is why people like myself say BRING IT ON to the MPAA and the RIAA. if they start coming after me I can produce thousands of purchased DVD and CD and Records and VHS tapes of my content. What is not purchased is archived TV footage both on VHS and Digitally. And that I will fight as being 100% equal in all aspects to Betamax fair use rights as the archives in that aspect are no longer aired and not available for sale legally anywhere.
Call me a social deviant, Fine.
Call me a fascist, More power to you.
Call me a communist, so be it.
Take me out and shoot me in the head for your licensing BS. I don't give a dam.
Call me a pirate, I say ARG!! your god dam right. And I will be one till that day they put that bullet in my head. and there is NOTHING they can do about it. I do my duty in buying a product in good faith. when that product does not work because they go screwing around with DRM making it so. I will retain my rights as a consumer, legally or illegally, to ensure my product I purchased remains in working order without having to repurchase that product over again as the industry feels they are justified in forcing you to do. the same will be true of the PC gaming industry and any such programing that restricts your usage of a said purchase to a point that it is unworthy of purchase as it is actually a consumers disservice in doing so.
The sooner the industry wakes up to the fact that consumers will not stand for being treated like criminals when buying their product, when the the criminals have no such consequence at all. they will be the better for it and remove DRM from things and making it so products WORK as advertised always and forever.
Now Queue the Trant of pro DRM people saying well we don't get any money anymore why is that? For that you can blame your precious RIAA MPAA wasting it all on this kind of BS instead of properly compensating directors and artists, and so forth as they should be. Cause trust me. very soon it will nto be a matter of what little you get, it will be the consumers are GONE! Cause we are all fed up with your content representatives and how they treat YOUR customer base when we try to do the right thing and purchase a product in good faith.
One has to ask why it really is there is near nothing worth watching anymore on TV? Could it be that the people have finally woke up and moved on from the industry? I think thats a large part of it. yes. THE MPAA and the RIAA has yet to evolve. the consumers have long since done so and been the happier for it. Now its falls to the artists to drop the old and move on to self representation. For only then will they see just compensation.
Score: 0
|With all their added rights management to make it pay per viewing and lock it to a machine.
Still? MSFT doesn't make DRM, they support it. Whine at the studios about DRM. Railing against MSFT isn't going to accomplish anything.
Hell a good 1 half of my collection is not aired ANYWHERE and has NEVER been offered for sale on DVD. indeed I doubt it ever will. For all i know MY archive is all there is. And I for one will retain it forever for MY personal use.
You feel entitled to it, even though it was never offered.
See? This is the problem today. You all think you're entitled to something....just because you want it. You're special. You think your rights are more important than someone else's. How quaint.
I do my duty in buying a product in good faith. when that product does not work because they go screwing around with DRM making it so.
No, you don't. You make excuses about it not being available and pirate it anyway.
One has to ask why it really is there is near nothing worth watching anymore on TV?
According to Who?? You? Television is more popular now than ever. Shows like BSG, Babylon 5, Dr. Who, House, are getting incredibly rave reviews and drawing *huge* followings.
Where do you come up with this BS?
All I see in that post of yours there are more righteous self-indulgences, more rhetoric...more excuses.
Pirating won't solve anything. It doesn't stop them, and, in fact, only gives them more and more reason to strengthen DRM and further limit consumer options.
Score: 0
|PC is correct on this, why do we all feel entitled to everything. If YOU actually created anything, wouldn't YOU feel entitled to keep it protected? I hate DRM just like everyone else, but at least I understand why they have it. No complaints here really, I've enjoyed my life with technology, and quite happy with things the way they are. We've never had more content delivered directly to our homes in our lives, ever! A LOT for free, or a slight cost. Go live in some 3rd world country if you don't like how this is going.
Score: 0
|He doesn't have to *leave* because he doesn't like it or we disagree with him.
He is perfectly welcome to do what he wishes, as long as he also accepts the consequences, just or otherwise for those choices.
Score: 0
|Them: "Sorry. How about, the right to private exhibition? Only $5."
You: "Now you're talkin'!"
Them: "So we have a deal?"
You: "Yep." [you hand them a fiver, and they hand you a DVD.]
Them: "Have a nice day."
You: "Hey, wait, this DVD is copy-protected! I want to copy it!"
------------------------------
That is what AnyDVD and DVD Shrink (or any of the other dozen DVD copying tools) is for.
Score: 0
|Because your desires are more important that the rights of others...
Nothing new from you, we're all aware of your overblown sense of entitlement.
Score: 0
|