Alphabet Soup

Many of you who know me are aware of my deep love for my business education. No, seriously, stop laughing. (I'm trying, honest -Ed.). Okay, so maybe I don't think so highly of it at times. After all, for the most part an MBA is just an acronym - which is exactly what the degree represents.

That's right, the greatest challenge in business school is learning how to turn everything into a bloody acronym. That way, you can talk for an hour without ever saying something that anyone understands, all whilst sounding bloody brilliant. If you can get someone to pay for it in the process, you're truly top-notch.

"You can talk for an hour without ever saying something that anyone understands..."

The guys that designed the standards for high-def content must truly be business wizards. Has anyone else noticed that HDTV can't be just HDTV? Oh, no. We have to make it more than that. After all, it's no fun if it just works. HDTV requires HDCP. This is just the tip of an acronym iceberg that includes everything from connectivity measures (DVI vs. HDMI vs. VGA vs. Component) to resolution (1080? 720? i? p?). Of course, none of it is truly standard, except maybe our favorite little acronym - DRM.

Phew. It's a good thing I went to a good business school, or I might be a little lost right now.

The mythical "key" to all of this HD nonsense is HDCP. To remove the acronym (though I understand that speaking in plain English is akin to speaking in tongues), HDCP is nothing more than (high-bandwidth digital) content protection, developed by our friends in the industry.

Now you can see why the acronym game is so important - content protection is such a nasty term. It implies that it protects the content from the user, as if the user is somehow untrustworthy. It's another kick in the teeth for honest folk who pay for everything and just want something simple to plug in and use. Apparently, you honest users are so untrustworthy (you naughty users, you) that HDCP is supposed to be a requirement on all digital HD signals according to the FCC and the European Commission.

Or is it? HD content has been around for a little while already. Yet we're not seeing HDCP appear in video cards with any regularity, despite Vista supposedly making it a "must have" for HD video playback. That means Vista is about worthless for another great acronym, the HTPC.

"Now you can see why the acronym game is so important - content protection is such a nasty term."

Count out that new 24" widescreen monitor you bought recently, too - your display also has to have HDCP. To date, I can count on two hands how many actually do, at least from the group of monitors that people would actually buy. Don't look to TVs, either. Most sets sold to date do not include HDCP functionality. So if you were an early adopter, you're probably not a happy camper.

In order to combat this, next gen titles that were supposed to require HDCP (like Blu-Ray and HD-DVD) have been told that it's okay to not use it for a while. Perhaps a long while, since people who spent thousands of quid on a new HDTV in 2005 will not be too keen on doing so again for a few more years. But if it's not really required, then what's the point? Aside from the license fees, that is...

For all this increase in resolution, high definition content should have an equally new-age connection. Component video is soooo analogue, you know. And VGA? Horribly old fashioned. So, HDCP-protected content only works on the digital connections of DVI and HDMI (High-Definition Media Interconnect for those playing along at home with the acronym game).

Though HDCP only works over those mediums, the displays that feature these inputs don't necessarily have HDCP. So even with the right connections, you may still be unable to play next-gen content. Your TV does have these connections, right? No? You bought it before mid-2005 (give or take)? Aw, shucks, sorry. Go buy a new one - a little extra money to Intel as well as the TV manufacturers.

Of course, you could just use what you already have. Just plug your HD video player into your good old HD component inputs or maybe your VGA input, and away you go...just expect to see it in good old DVD standard-def that's been around for 10 years (read: non-HD). How...generous.

Aren't you glad you just spent $2,000 to get your hands on an HD-capable plasma TV last January?
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So, if all of this is so confusing and is such utter rubbish, why do we want it? Who concocted such a brilliant scheme, and why? None other than my absolute favorite acronym, the MPAA. If you can't make new, interesting content, offer some old stuff in a new box! To be fair, it worked for George Lucas with Star Wars...and before you laugh, I bet you have the "Digitally Remastered THX Box Set" on your shelf right now, don't you? Uh-huh. Thought so.

To protect its new treasure, the agency wanted some new DRM, so both US and EU legislative bodies were happy to oblige. Of course, they can't just tell you how they're screwing you. The FCC even moved to make HDCP a standard for HDTV by using 'broadcast flag' technology. However, the US Supreme Court didn't like that, and struck it down. So now it's fallen to Congress, which is dutifully trying to make it stick again. In Europe, things are (as usual) a little different - HDCP is now a requirement for "HD Ready."

Your TV is "HD Ready," right? Because that's not quite the same thing as "HD Compliant" or "HD Capable." These marketing campaigns add a whole new layer of smoke and mirrors to your purchase decision. Though a TV is "HD Ready," it doesn't need to support full HD resolution - just the inputs and at least one HD resolution, such as 720p (nevermind that most HD content is broadcast in 1080i). A TV marketed as "HD Compliant" doesn't even need to support HDCP. Got all that? I'm sure glad we cleared that up.

"In fact, the majority of the movies out at the moment aren't even true HD..."

If it makes anyone feel better, there's not really that much content to watch on your HDTV anyhow. The MPAA might as well have let well enough alone - most movies currently released in HD resolutions are things people wouldn't want to watch in standard def, much less pay extra to see in HD. In fact, the majority of the movies out at the moment aren't even true HD, they're just scaled up. Don't worry, we all thought we saw more of Yoda's hair on our new screen...or maybe it was our pride, or maybe the $2,000.00, or just good old fashioned gullibility.

Why the deception? Frankly, it just costs more to go back to the original film and have a complete reauthor rather than rescale. And a top-notch business student knows higher costs are no good. It's true that some HD-DVDs are in the VC1 codec, which offers more data and detail per HD bitrate, but most BR-DVD disks currently out there are on MPEG2-HD. Nothing more than DVD quality, just bigger. Fortunately for everyone but the consumer, you really can't be sure what you're getting - there is no standard.

Just to add insult to injury, you can do roughly the same thing with an HTPC and a version of FFDShow (which is free, by the way). If you're willing to put the time and effort in, you could even reauthor all your DVDs using the wealth of free a/v editing tools out there, many of which are open source. Just encode using h264/x264 compression with 2+ pass and something silly like "hexagonal" pixel scaling, rather than bi-cubic. It takes about ten times as long, but your movie will probably look better than that HD hoopla, for a lot less.

That reauthoring I mentioned comes with an additional feature - suddenly, your content is not protected, and thus no longer requires HDCP to play. Alternatively, those who care too little to control the process could even just grab it via a favoriteP2P site, where some friendly cracker will have most definitely removed the protection flags. With that in mind, it's actually entertaining that the MPAA and friends concentrated on the cable between the display and playback device - 99% of piracy is done digitally from the source itself.

It's funny, of course, right up until you realize how much this whole acronym game has hurt the very people who need to embrace it for it to succeed - consumers like you and me. The one problem with big business is that its loftiest goal is to stick it most to the people that it needs most. The whole high-def revolution has so far called us untrustworthy, gullible, and worked very hard to make us feel stupid to boot. Some sales pitch.

I think I'll sit this course out, at least until this market matures. So far, all I see is protection for the MPAA, protection for the hardware industry, and bonuses all around. That may have earned someone an A+ in Operations Management, but it doesn't earn my trust or money. Perhaps some time soon, we consumers will get some of our own protection in the form of industry and content standards and marketing practices. Until then, I'll wait in this standard-def world - $2,000 is a little bit much to pay for some alphabet soup.