It seems that hollywood have plans to use features in hd dvd and bluray drives to nobble your playback quality if you havent paid for the top of the range model.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060521-6880.htmlOne of the most controversial aspects of these next-generation products is something called the Image Constraint Token (ICT), a security "feature" that allows studios to force-downgrade video quality on players that lack a special video output that was designed to thwart piracy. This "HDMI" connector standard is part of a "protected pathway" for video that was meant to combat piracy by making it impossible for pirates to tap into high-definition video output and press "Record," as it were. Many fear, however, that the only success HDMI will have is in making honest users miserable, inasmuch as consumers could be left with a product that plays at low quality or not at all if HDMI is not present on one's player or TV.
I notice that this is being keept quiet until folks buy the new drives and dump their old ones and will only find out they have been tricked when their playback tuns to mush in a few years .
I have to admit to getting annoyed with those providing technical features hidden inside products that a greedy industry can switch on as and when they like to ensure their monopoly over you, I have no wish to enslave myself with this sort of back-door technology, I urge you all to boycott these products until they drop this stupidity.
