Vista's Built-In DRM

Okay, I have to spring another technical pick on you. But you need to see it, in case you're planning on purchasing Microsoft Vista, which is being media blasted at presstime.

It has to do with the three most dreaded letters for owners of computers and/or digital content: DRM. Vista has it built in, and you're not going to like it.

The entities that have requested this are the good old child-and-granny-suing monstrous money-making machines known as the RIAA and the MPAA.

Basically, here's how it works. DVD's have gained higher definition in recent years. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray technologies have put more pixels in DVD imagery than ever before. And while they are more expensive than standard DVD's, they aren't prohibitively so, costing about double. So the odds are good that you either own them, or will soon.

So let's say you've sprung for a nice large widescreen monitor to attach to your brand new Vista-loaded computer. You can't wait to see the X-Men in full ultra high-def glory.

Keep waiting. Your monitor will have to support the encryption standard demanded by the MPAA before it will play the movie in its full resolution.

In other words, if the MONITOR ITSELF will handle Blu-Ray definition, but doesn't support HDCP encryption (and very few monitors do), you get the movie in degraded quality.

It's your computer, your monitor, and your DVD. But Vista says you can't watch it like you would like.

Here's how today's FamilyFirst site, an article on technology site The Register, sums it up:

To recap: in order to playback HD-DVD and BluRay content, Microsoft agreed to degrade video and audio functionality in Windows. Gutman points out that when "premium" content is being played, component video - YPbPr - and S/PDIF interfaces are disabled. Third party hardware that fails to obey these orders may have its be "certified" status revoked by Microsoft - leaving the user with minimal (eg VGA) functionality.

And Microsoft is only charging you about $100 for the privilege.

Read the article, and visit the Peter Gutman site that is linked there for lots more info about how Vista is in bed with not only the MPAA, but the RIAA as well. Your digital content will have to meet with their okay, or it will be played with poorer quality than optimal. Vista is also going a long ways towards making future computers MORE expensive, not less, by strongly discouraging open-source hardware.

I'm running XP Media Edition. Unless Microsoft does several 180's with Vista policies and those of future OS's, it will be the last Microsoft operating system I'll ever run.

Click here

Digg It! It's Del.icio.us! Furl It!